Pork Binagoongan is a Filipino pork dish, made by simmering chopped pork liempo and eggplant in a sauce made by bagoong alamang, garlic, onion, tomatoes, sugar, pepper and chilies. Pork Binagoongan is a classic Filipino dish highly savoured by the sautéed bagoong alamang and boldly flavoured, and delicious with steamed rice. The natural salty ocean taste of the shrimp paste is enough to unleash the natural flavours of the the thin slices of pork. This pork binagoongan recipe is surely a jaw-dropping and mouth watering and with a very few ingredients, you can whip up a delicious meal for the whole family! Yum!

Pork Binagoongan Recipe

Ingredients:

1 kilo pork liempo (or kasim)
3 tablespoons bagoong alamang
3 pieces eggplant (cut in serving pieces)
4 cloves garlic (minced)
1 large onion (chopped)
3 pieces tomatoes (chopped)
Pepper to taste
1 to 2 cups water
Sugar to taste
Chilies (for spice)

Directions:

Wash and prepare the pork liempo. Cut them into serving pieces and then transfer to a heated pan. Sear them until they start to render some oil. Stir occassionally to prevent the bottom from burning. Continue cooking until the pork slices are brown and crispy and a lot of oil has been rendered. Then, remove them from the pan.
Using the rendered oil from the pork, fry the eggplants for a few minutes. Flip to cook the other side. Do not overcook. Set aside in a strainer or paper towel to drain excess oil.
Add the onions and garlic and saute for a few minutes until aromatic. Add the chopped tomatoes. Gently crush the tomatoes while sauteing. Add the sauteed bagoong alamang and saute for 3 minutes.
Add the fried liempo and toss gently until fully coated with the sauce. Let this cook for a few minutes. Season with ground pepper then add some water to help cook the pork. Stir a bit. Cover the pan and let this cook for 30 to 45 minutes using low heat until the meat becomes tender. Add more water if needed.
Check if the meat is fork tender. Add some sugar to balance the taste. Mix well. Add the fried eggplant and red and green chilies (if you like it spicy). Gently toss to prevent mashing the eggplant. Turn the heat off.
Transfer the pork binagoongan to a serving plate. Enjoy this on top of a big bowl of hot steaming rice. Yum!

WHAT IS BAGOONG ALAMANG?

If you haven’t heard about the bagoong alamang, then you are truly missing out a lot in life. Bagoong alamang, or shrimp paste, is a condiment made from small crushed shrimps which are fermented and preserved with the use of salt. Bagoong alamang can be called in different names: uyap or alamang in the southern Philippines, aramang in Ilocos and parts of Northern Luzon, and ginamos or dayok in western Visayas. Do not confuse this with the fish bagoong, which is made from fermented fish instead.

The bagoong alamang is offered in the market either as fresh or sauteed one. You can easily spot a fresh one since it is pink in color. The sauteed one is brown. Usually, bagoong alamang is used as a condiment for unripe mangoes. (I drooled a bit while writing this down!). It’s quite a unique combination of the fresh sour taste of the mangoes and the salty ocean taste of the sea.

You can also use the bagoong alamang in other foods or dishes like ensaladang manga, ensaladang talong, and as a topper to our favorite oxtail kare kare. When I’m lazy to the max, I simply mix some sauteed alamang to hot rice and it became an instant meal.

BEST PORK CUTS TO USE IN PORK BINAGOONGAN

The bagoong alamang is the defining ingredient for binagoongan dishes. Pork binagoongan is one of the best variations of this dish. We love it so much because the fatty pork renders some meaty oil which makes the whole dish extra elegant.

Since we aim for that meaty oil, the best pork cuts to use in pork binagoongan dish is the fatty ones. For this recipe, I used the liempo cut which I sliced to smaller pieces. Other portions of the pork which you would want to try would be the adobo and sinigang cut, where the meat is near the skin. Avoid too much lean cuts like the porkchop cut.

For more convenience, you can try using ground pork instead of pork slices. (Haven’t tried yet but sounds like a great idea!) Pork binagoongan with gata or coconut milk is another go-to option to make it even more delish!

Vegetables like eggplant or beans can be a great extenders or additional ingredients to pork binagoongan. It will not just make your dish taste savory, it can also help balance the saltiness of the dish.

Here’s our recipe for Pork Binagoongan with eggplant.

Bagoong alamang is one of the underrated condiments for me. Unlike the soy sauce, vinegar, pepper and kalamansi, you won’t usually see the alamang as condiment in the karinderyas. I don’t always have it in my pantry, but when I have one, I made sure to enjoy every gram of it.

After enjoying the alamang with mangoes, my next go-to dish is the pork binagoongan. What I love about this dish is that you can make it effortlessly. Your usual simple sauteed pork is made into a level up dish by simply adding some shrimp paste. Pork and shrimp in one dish? It is indeed where the land meets the sea.

You can enjoy your pork binagoongan as is, or add a lot of chilies for some karate kick! Aside from being a viand, you can also enjoy this as a pulutan with some ice cold beer! If you are on the creamy side, you can add some coconut cream to this for a richer flavor.

If you wanna know how to cook pork binagoongan, simply follow the recipe below. Happy cooking!

How to Cook Pork Binagoongan

Cooking some pork in sauteed shrimp paste sounds easy, right? With the right fattiness of the liempo, this pork binagoongan will surely be the best one.

Since we will be using a fatty portion of the pork, we will not be using any other oil. Start by rendering the oil from the slices of liempo. This is hitting two birds in one stone since the pork will also be fried. The oil from the pork has hit of meaty flavor so it is better to fry your eggplant in these. Make sure not to overcook the eggplants as they become too mushy.

Saute your aromatics including the sauteed shrimp paste. You can also use the fresh shrimp paste, but remember to rinse them off a bit to remove excess salt. In my experience, using the sauteed one is much more convenient and tastier since it is like “double sauteed” (Haha).

Saute the pork again together with the aromatics and shrimp paste. The last part is making the pork tender by adding water and waiting for it to absorb it. If you skip this step, your pork will more likely be super chewy and dry. You’ll know that the pork had absorb all the water when it starts to sizzle again.

Add both red and green chilies for a different layer of spice. Other people do not add chilies but that is boring (Haha, sorry). Add the fried eggplant and toss them well until all the ingredients come together.

A super spicy version of this works well as a pulutan. But in general, pork binagoongan is one of the best toppings for rice. Yum!

COOKING TIPS

To make this dish a healthier one, you can air fry the eggplants instead of frying them in the rendered oil.
Beware of adding sodium sources (salt, msg, soy sauce, oyster sauce) since the sauteed alamang is already salty. Always do a taste test before adding so.