Homemade Tocino

There are days that I crave for rice breakfast and that is normal for Filipino, don't you think? Among the famous staple rice-meat combos in the Philippines are tosilog, tapsilog, longsilog and so on and so forth. But living abroad gives Filipino limited access to these foods. And if there's a chance to buy one, the price seems not fair. The 1/2 kilogram of the cured meats such as tocino and longganisa in Pinoy store cost €5.50 (that is about ₱290.00). I find this expensive, to think that I have all the ingredients in my cupboard to make one.

So one day, I bought a kilo of boneless pork shoulder and make my own tocino. Here it is.

Homemade Tocino

Ingredients: 

1 kg pork shoulder (preferably boneless and cut into thin strips)

1 cup sprite / 7-up

1 cup pineapple juice

2 cups brown sugar

6 tablespoonsketchup (banana/tomato)

4 tablespoons soy sauce (preferably light, if not available put 3 tbsp of water to produce lighter output)

2 cloves garlic (minced) or 1 tbsp garlic powder

5 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Procedures:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl with cover. Make sure that all the meat are covered with the marinade. 
2. Store it in the fridge (preferably the chiller) for at least 2 days to cure the meat properly. 
3. Cooking the meat should be easy, just put it in the pan, pour some of the marinade and few tablespoons of water. 
4. Let it simmer until all the liquid evaporates.
5. Put some cooking oil and fry it. 
6. Serve with fried rice or boiled rice, tomatoes and egg. 

You are free to adjust the amount of the ingredients depending on your taste.