BOPIS

BOPIS

Dear Santa,

This end of the year I wish you make all poor people rich, all unhappy people joyful and give all lonely persons lots of good friends. Also I have some other requests but I don't want to go all political. I'll just mention that this world deserves more good and if Santa delivers more than just physical gifts, well, that would make a big difference. But we are all stuck in our own problems, with our own small or big issues and we often forget that each of us could be better. No worries though, let's just all hope that Santa is the man and he'll solve all global problems. I mean he has an army of elves and he can move at light speed with an all you can carry wagon thingy, that should be enough to solve some issues I think. Specially considering he's directly affected by the global warming .That, of course, unless he probably plans to have his house on a beach soon instead of  the Pole. But what does he care, he just goes around giving lumps of coal to bad people as punishment and what do they do? they have their coal burned in factories and contribute to green gas emissions: good job Santa!good job! I bet the bad guys are really unhappy.

Anyway, I'm going off track here, I was supposed to cook something Christmasy and after getting some ideas from people ( all using super weird ingredients of course), I have settled on something that would resemble a bit to a recipe from Eastern Europe, heaving as the only common ground the fact that they both use pork, everything else is different. But who cares about details?! Let's get cooking. So we will make Bopis today, which is a nice stew thingy made from pork lungs and/or hearts. Yuuuuuuuk! Well, don't worry , we shall work with local ingredients and/or replacements.

That being said, a quick run to the market meat section has really made me regret this choice of cooking but now it's too late: lungs? no problem, how about some liver instead? Hearts? well, there's some chicken for you. Oh, it needs to be pork? no problem, we pick up some pork steak for taste.
Quickly head home and mince and mix everything together while promising you'll switch to vegetarian diet from here on. Cry a little about your life choice also and promise to be better next year while chopping an onion and some garlic.Now marinate the mix in some wine vinegar and salt (and drink some as punishment ) and soften gently the onions and garlic in some coconut oil.

And now for the cool part: we shall prepare a mix of all asian ingredients we find in the fridge: fish sauce? yes! soy sauce? yes! Well, that's it, those are all i could find in my fridge unfortunately, but if you are lucky and find more just throw it all in! there's no losers, everyone is a winner! And you ! And you too!
Now while the minced meat is cooking asian style, we check the recipe and see it calls for carrots and bell peppers. Pfff, bell peppers are for weak people: we shall instead use Hungarian Hot Peppers! They look like bell but with a hot twist! And hey, why not spice it up one level more with a can of cream hot chilly peppers ! woohoo, this will be hot! Enough to compensate the snow outside: Nothing is as good as a bunch of chilly peppers to make you forget 6 months of winter I always say! Well, I mean Santa should know! Him and his army of unpaid slaving elves! Did you think about that Santa? Did you?

 Right, so dump the whole thing in the pot and mix with a big can of cubist vegetables from the cover of which looks like carrots are the dominant ingredient. That will save you from peeling and cubing more cause we are hungry already. Good, now gather around the fire with your imaginary friends and happily tell christmas stories for 45 minutes until the thing is cooked and a cloud of hot chilly flavors rise in the air. You can tell it's ready if your bamboo spoon comes out half burned from the pot.

 Alright, now serve with the last week rice and hope for the best . Don't forget to sign your will beforehand. Sarap!

 Edit: still can feel the hands burning from the hungarian chilly peppers! advice for future cooks: don't use your good hands while chopping peppers, or even better make your elves do it!