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Lechon con kangkong (roast pork with water spinach)

The day I cooked the lechon kawali with Pad Thai sauce, I cooked a second dish — lechon con kangkong. Although the literal translation in English is roast pork with water/swamp spinach, the translation does little justice to capture the essence of the dish. Lechon con kangkong is made with lechon kawali — pork belly that had been boiled in salted water then deep fried until the rind is crisp and puffed. But because I really hate frying, I cook my lechon kawali in the convection oven (see lechon sa hurno recipe) with pretty much the same result but minus the cooking oil, the mess and the pork fat. On a rack inside the oven, the pork fat drips off and that makes the roast pork less greasy.

Anyway, it was a rather large slab of pork belly that I roasted in the oven a few days ago and I had two bunches of kangkong so a second dish seemed like a great idea. I wasn’t planning on posting this recipe because I always thought I had a lechon con kangkong entry deep in the archive. Seems not. What I have in the archive is pork and kangkong in black bean sauce which does not make use of lechon kawali. Lucky me, I managed to cook two dishes that day that are both worth posting.

Ingredients :

about 250 grams of cooked lechon kawali
2 bunches of kangkong
1 large onion
freshly ground pepper
light soy sauce (like Kikkoman)
a tablespoonful of toasted garlic
2-3 tbps. of cooking oil

Cooking procedure :

Chop the lechon kawali into small pieces, about 1-inch cubes.

Wash and trim the kangkong, discard the tough ends and cut the tender portion of the stalks with the leaves into 2-inch lengths.

Peel the onion, halve and slice as finely as you can.

Heat the cooking oil in a frying pan. Add the onion and the lower (thicker) portion of the kangkong. Stir fry (high heat!) for about 30 seconds then add the rest of the kangkong. Stir fry for another 30 seconds then transfer the kangkong to a bowl and keep warm.

In the hot frying pan, add the lechon kawali to reheat. Return the kangkong to the pan, season with freshly ground pepper and soy sauce. The amount of soy sauce you need to pour depends how well seasoned your lechon kawali is. If the pork has been sufficiently seasoned, then you only need enough soy sauce to flavor the kangkong. Stir fry for another 15 seconds, transfer to a serving plate or bowl and sprinkle with toasted garlic bits. Best enjoyed with hot rice.

In the mood for more food?

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• Nilagang Baka 3
• Lasang Pinoy 9: offal in Filipino dishes
• Chicken a la king
• Fresh tropical fruits salad