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Of anisado and estofado

Anisado wine or anisette (as I found out in Google) is an essential ingredient whenever we make Pork Estofado at home.



Out of curiosity, I tasted it and find it bittersweet like gin or vodka but with tons of sugar in it. It also had a vanilla essence that made it pleasing to the nose.


Searching for more in Google, I found out that it is also used mainly in processed meat making like tocinolongganisa, etc.


I assume it has this preservative effect on the food and mostly likely indeed the estofado we cook at home are made in big batches that it often last for days. As what they say the older it gets the more delicious and flavourful it becomes.


And speaking of estofado, though I didn't cook this one, I have a recipe that stemmed out from my experimentation at work before.


I just cooked it using the taste memories I had at home and with some additional ingredients. But everybody loved my estofado that time that even I made a big batch it didn't last as long as I wanted it to be.


If my memory serves me right, first I fried pork cubes (the big cuts) until "more than" golden brown and also fried saging na saba and pineapple slices too.


Then I made the sauce from pineapple juice, anisado wine, onions, garlic, soy sauce, bay leaves, salt, seasoning, and lots of sugar.

Click for PORK ESTOFADO RECIPE

The estofado I grew up with calls for a very sweet sauce so that explains the last ingredient and just pineapple juice won't do as good.





Plus the meat (whether pork or chicken or both) had to be fried until almost "burnt" looking so as not to have an anemic looking estofado.

After which I just simmer all the fried ingredients in the concoction until they soften enough to melt in one's mouth.

And yes, estofado that is a day or two old tastes much better as the sauce seeped in for more flavour. Extra rice please!


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