''Pork guisantes'' (also spelled as ''gisantes'') or ''pork and peas'' is a Hawaiian pork stew of Filipino origin. Pork is stewed in a

tomato sauce Tomato sauce (; ; ) can refer to many different sauces made primarily from tomatoes. In some countries the term refers to a sauce to be served as part of a dish, in others it is a condiment. Tomatoes have a rich flavor, high water content, s ...

base with peas. It is likely an adaptation of the Filipino dishes and introduced by the Ilocanos from their arrival in the early 1900s who came to work in the fruit and

sugar plantations Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tobac ...

. ''Pork guisantes'' remains a popular Filipino-inspired dish catered to the Hawaiian palate. It is featured in ready-to-go

bento A is a Japanese-style single-portion take-out or home-packed meal, often for lunch, typically including rice and packaged in a box with a lid (often a segmented box with different parts of the meal placed in different sections). Outside Japa ...

s at convenience stores, served at local dine-in restaurants, offered as a

plate lunch The plate lunch () is a Hawaiian meal, roughly analogous to the Southern U.S. meat-and-three or Japanese bento box. The combination of Polynesian, North American and East Asian cuisine arose naturally in Hawaii, and has spread beyond it. Sta ...

dish, or an in-flight meal option, and as an ''

okazu ''Okazu'' ( or ; ; ) is a Japanese word meaning a side dish to accompany rice; subsidiary articles of diet.''Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary'', They are cooked and seasoned in such a way as to match well when eaten with rice, and a ...

'' item at a few

okazuya Okazuya ( or ) or okazu-ya are a Japanese-style delicatessen common in Hawaii. Unlike western delicatessens found in North America or Europe, an is an establishment that sells readymade Japanese-styled food. "''Okazu''" refers to a side dish to ...

Ingredients

Meat

Unlike and , ''pork guisantes'' does not contain

liver The liver is a major metabolic organ (anatomy), organ exclusively found in vertebrates, which performs many essential biological Function (biology), functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the Protein biosynthesis, synthesis of var ...

. Rather, it is more partial to meat such as

pork tenderloin Pork tenderloin, also called pork fillet, pork steak or Gentleman's Cut, is a long, thin cut of pork. As with all (mammalian) quadrupeds, the tenderloin refers to the psoas major muscle along the central spine portion, ventral to the lumbar v ...

or butt to cater to a wider population not accustomed to liver or other

offal Offal (), also called variety meats, pluck or organ meats, is the internal organ (anatomy), organs of a butchered animal. Offal may also refer to the by-products of Milling (grinding), milled grains, such as corn or wheat. Some cultures strong ...

. A common option or substitution for pork is

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

, particularly skinless thigh meat.

Vegetables

, or , is the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

loanword for "

peas Pea (''pisum'' in Latin) is a pulse or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Peas are eaten as a vegetable. Carl Linnaeus gave the species the scientific name ''Pisum sativum ...

". Original recipes from the plantation era used canned peas which still can be used today. However,

frozen peas ''Frozen Peas'' is the colloquial term for a blooper audio clip in which American actor and filmmaker Orson Welles performs narration for a series of British television advertisements for Findus. The clip is also known informally as ''In July ...

are more common in contemporary recipes along with aromatic vegetables such as onions and garlic.

Chickpeas The chickpea or chick pea (''Cicer arietinum'') is an annual legume of the family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae, cultivated for its edible seeds. Its different types are variously known as gram," Bengal gram, garbanzo, garbanzo bean, or Egypt ...

can also be added or substituted for peas. Optionally, jar

pimento A pimiento or pimento or cherry pepper is a variety of large, red, heart-shaped chili pepper (''Capsicum annuum'') that measures long and wide (medium, elongate). Description and habitat Pimientos can have various colors including yellow ...

s (or freshly sliced

bell peppers The bell pepper (also known as sweet pepper, paprika, pepper, capsicum or, in some parts of the US midwest, mango) is the fruit of plants in the Grossum Group of the species ''Capsicum annuum''. Cultivars of the plant produce fruits in diff ...

) can be added. Another key ingredient is

paste Paste is a term for any very thick viscous fluid. It may refer to: Science and technology * Adhesive or paste ** Wallpaper paste ** Wheatpaste, a liquid adhesive made from vegetable starch and water * Paste (rheology), a substance that behaves as ...

, which is very apparent in ''pork guisantes'' but optional in . It recalls other Filipino dishes such as and . Like , other vegetables such as potatoes and carrots can be added but are not typical to Hawaiian ''pork guisantes''. Lastly, the American dish

pork and beans Pork and beans is a culinary dish that uses pork and beans as its main ingredients. Numerous variations exist, usually with more specific names, such as '' fabada asturiana'', '' olla podrida'', or American canned pork and beans. American can ...

which is a

canned food Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container ( jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although unde ...

of beans packed in tomato sauce shares some semblance.

Seasoning

''Pork guisantes'' is characterized as a savory dish that pairs well with rice. It is typically seasoned with salt and ''shōyu'' (

soy sauce Soy sauce (sometimes called soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of China, Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermentation (food), fermented paste of soybeans, roasted cereal, grain, brine, and ''Aspergillus oryzae'' or ''A ...

) in place of, or along with, (

fish sauce Fish sauce is a liquid condiment made from fish or krill that have been coated in salt and fermented for up to two years. It is used as a staple seasoning in East Asian cuisine and Southeast Asian cuisine, particularly Myanmar, Cambodia, L ...

) and spiced with ground pepper. Adding

bay leaves The bay leaf is an aromatic leaf commonly used as a herb in cooking. It can be used whole, either dried or fresh, in which case it is removed from the dish before consumption, or less commonly used in ground form. The flavour that a bay leaf ...

is common, while

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

sticks are optional.

Preparation

The preparation of ''pork guisantes'' is rather straightforward in contemporary recipes since a few of the ingredients are canned, prepackaged, or readily found. Pork is sliced into 1 x 1.5 inch slices and are sautéed in a little oil with the aromatic vegetables. Tomato sauce, water, and seasonings are added along with the spices, and simmered until the pork is tender. The peas are then added and finally garnished with pimentos.

References

Notes

Citations

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