The Happy Home Cook: Instant Pot Pork Pata Tim

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Instant Pot Pork Pata Tim (Photo by Constante G. Quirino)

Filipinos are familiar with pork pata (pig’s trotters, knuckles or hocks) which are used in a crispy pata dish. But I remember clearly back in the Philippines, how my mother often cooked Pork Pata Tim for a weekend family meal or if friends came to visit. I also recall how it took hours for mom to cook this stew stove-top till the meat was tender. These days, in my American kitchen, I have very little time to put together a home-cooked Pinoy dish. But with the current favorite appliance, the Instant Pot, these chunks of meat cooked in less than an hour. The pork pieces were fall-off-the-bone tender and the sweet-salty, fragrant sauce swirling around was as marvelous as mom’s cooking used to be.

Servings: 4
Pressure: 45 minutes
Pressure Level: High.
Category: Easy

Ingredients:

4 pounds pork pata or hocks, bone-in, cut into serving pieces
¼ cup soy sauce
1 Tablespoon calamansi (or lemon) juice
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled, mashed
1 white or yellow onion, chopped
3 star anise points (broken from 1 whole pod piece)
1 (4 ounce) disc panocha or substitute ½ cup dark brown sugar
2 bay leaves
½ teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon salt
6 cups organic beef or chicken broth 

Procedure:

·       In a large bowl, marinate the pork pata in soy sauce and calamansi juice. Cover and set aside in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

·       Cover the bottom of the inside pot of the multicooker with vegetable oil.

·       Add the pata, garlic, onions, star anise, panocha (or brown sugar), bay leaves, black peppercorns and salt. Pour the broth. Do not stir.

·       Secure the lid. Check that the cooking pressure is on High and the release valve is set to Sealing.

·       Select Manual High Pressure for 45 minutes.

·       When cooking is complete, use a quick release. Open the lid carefully. Stir ingredients.

·       Serve warm with steamed rice. 

Note: It takes about 17 to 20 minutes for the Instant Pot to pre-heat before the High-Pressure cooking time begins. For other multicookers, please check the product manual. For safety, use accessories recommended only for the Instant Pot or most multicookers like silicone or metal. Do not use glassware. Read the manual for complete safety instructions.

Cook’s comments: Panocha is a raw sugarcane cake in the Philippines and some Asian countries. Reddish-brown in color, it is made from boiled molasses and molded into a round disc resembling a coconut shell. In America, they are sold in Asian markets or online sources.

Disclosure: Instant Pot is the brand name of a multicooker that cooks in high and low pressure. I was not paid by the Instant Pot company to mention the brand nor endorse it. My opinions are my own.

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From Instant Filipino Recipes: My Mother’s Traditional Philippine Food In a Multicooker Po by Elizabeth Ann Besa-Quirino

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Elizabeth Ann Quirino

Elizabeth Ann Quirino, based in New Jersey is a journalist and author of the “Instant Filipino Recipes: My Mother’s Philippine Food In a Multicooker Pot” Cookbook. She is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and blogs about Filipino home cooking on her site AsianInAmericaMag.com.

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