Pata Tim

I have been itching to post this but never got the time to do it. I have been on the road for a few days now. The trip is not really that far. It’s a 30-minute drive from where I live but I’ve never really been used to getting off our locality to get to a client’s. I walk to work everyday and so driving on the freeway during rush hours is really stressful. I hate the fact that I have to wake up half an hour earlier and get home half an hour later and I have to cart my working paper files, (basically my office) with me. Fortunately, I go there a few days once a year. Not bad. This year, it seemed that it took me forever to have my part done that I had to go back more than once. I felt like I was there the whole week.

I cooked this Pata Tim a few days ago but never really had the chance to post it until now. What I love about this is I basically leave it in the slow cooker for a few hours without any hassle and when dinner is ready, all I need is to add the vegetables. I am used to having this with “Mustasa” but for some reason I couldn’t find any in my favorite stores. I substituted the mustasa with Rappini because of the bitter taste of Rappini but it did not turn out to be a popular one for my family so I had to redo it the next day with baby bok choy. It was redone one more time the day after the next day with potatoes. My family seem to be getting used to non fatty meats these days and they didn’t quite enjoy this like they used to.

About 3 lbs or more of pork hocks
1 tsp of star anise
1 tbsp of finely chopped ginger
1 tbsp of finely chopped garlic
½ tsp of peppercorns
¼ cup of soy sauce
¼ cup of brown sugar
1 ½ cups of water
5 tbsp of kecap manis
1 bundle (about 1 or more lbs of baby bok choy), washed

Put everything in slow cooker for about 5 hours

Just before dinner, heat the pan and put the washed bok choy in and cover pan. Usually the bok choy leaves get cooked with their own juice extracted from their stalks. If they turn dry which is unlikely before they get cooked, add sauce from the pork hocks. Add the cooked hocks including sauce and let boil. Serve in a serving platter. It’s as simple as that.

I cooked it first this way. My kids thought the hocks locked scary and the Rappini too bittery.

The only thing different from the way I used to make it in the Philippines is I had kecap manis from Indonesia that my sister in law brought as pasalubong to us when she came to visit. It had the flavor of star anise and I really do not have any idea of any recipe I could cook to make this useful. It turned out fine.