Banawa Express

Banawa Express

This is a very old, traditional Filipino dish that I made up three years ago. :) It's basically a stovetop version of a recipe that was given to me by a friend many years ago, for pork chops baked in a sauce made from cream of mushroom soup straight out of the can: no water added. It gets its extra juiciness from the meat juices. Pork chops cooked in this manner come out nice and tender, and the sauce is excellent when eaten as a gravy with mashed potatoes or rice.

Since the pork chops we get in the Philippines seem to be drier and thinner than those in the US I've taken to adding water, as well as a pork bouillon cube, a large chopped onion and several cloves of garlic. If the soup is a bit soupier than thicker as it is if no water is added, the sauce goes farther when spooned over rice: we eat a lot of rice with our meals in this country.

My wife loves this recipe. Her mother and sister, not so much: they think it "tastes funny." It was my wife who insisted I add it to my food blog. I made it two nights ago as a sort of celebration of my wife's recent promotion to supervisor at her job.

About the name: there's a Filipino dish called Bicol Express that's basically meat, chicken or fish cooked in coconut milk with fresh green chili peppers, sort of like a type of curry. At the time I first cooked my pork chop dish, we were living in a place called Banawa, so named after the small hillocks that the main road of the area crossed such that if you drove fast you'd always be going "banawa banawa banawa" as you went up and down these little hills. ("Banawa" is pronounced "bah-NAH-wah", not BAN-ah-wah, by the way.. ) So when my wife asked what the dish was called, I had to think of a name and I came up with Banawa Express.

Ingredients: 

6 pork chops without the skins

3 cans cream of mushroom soup

3 tablespoons cooking oil, for frying

1 large yellow onion, peeled and coarsely chopped

6 to 8 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

1 pork bouillon cube

1 cup of water

Pepper to taste

Instructions:

Heat the water then dissolve the bouillon cube in it.

Add the oil to a large skillet and heat. Add the pork chops two or three at a time. Cook until slightly browned on both sides. Set aside.

Add the onions and garlic to the pan. Cook, stirring often, until the onions are tender but not browned. Remove onion and garlic mixture with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Drain excess oil from the pan. Return the pork chops then spread the onion and garlic mixture evenly over the top.

Spread the cream of mushroom soup over everything, then add the bouillon stock. Stir slightly. Heat until just slightly bubbly then lower heat and simmer, covered, until pork chops are tender: about 40 minutes. Be sure to stir occasionally so that the soup and stock are well-mixed and there are no lumps.

Season with ground black pepper to taste. Serve over rice. Serves three to six, depending on whether anyone wants seconds.

Note: this is even better if pork steaks are used rather than chops, as they come out even more tender and juicy than the chops do.