We did our New Year's Eve tradition of cooking a homemade ham. Me and my daughter is with my aunt in her house since we were booted in our house just before Christmas. We are optimistic and happy despite the problems. 2020 has got us ready for all the tough things ahead and we are just left with not much but resilience and high hopes for the new year 2021.
Hamonado, is a Filipino staple dish for the New Year along with many other things like a basket of round fruits, a round ball of cheese called queso de bola, biko or sweetened sticky rice and so many more. Hamonado is a pig's thigh that's been cooked by steaming or baking or merely simmering with a number of ingredients like pineapple chunks and seasonings. My aunt made it, I just watched. She simmered it for 4 long hours on a pan. She did it outside the house in her dirty kitchen wheren she can use firewood. The smoke and all that adds flavor to the dish and it just tastes so amazing.
The long time simmering made it too tender, gosh, I love every bit of it. It is sweet and sour in taste and it just melts in your mouth. I want to hide it, I do not want visitors to have it because I do not want it for myself so bad. This has always been how I felt every new year, I would want to hide the hamonado so I can have it longer because we rarely make it.
Anyway, let me show you the pictures of it. This is a Filipino family tradition, ladies and gentlemen, the Filipino hamonado!
The last picture is the fat that we removed from the pork thigh. The fat just melts in your mouth, even that was really really good. Just imagine I am sharing this meal with you guys! Cheers to a better year, 2021! Keep blogging! See you around the hive!