Filipino Adobo

"Be bold! Worth trying is Adobo, a dish showing Spanish and Mexican influences but with regional variations. Pork, or a combination of pork and chicken, is stewed in a mixture of vinegar, bay leaf, peppercorn and garlic over a slow fire"

Even before the Spaniards came, early Filipinos cooked their food minimally by roasting, steaming or boiling. To keep it fresh longer, food was often cooked by immersion in vinegar and salt. Thus, early Filipinos could have been cooking its meat in vinegar, which is the basic process in making adobo.

From the Chinese traders came soy sauce and thus this ingredient found its way into the meat being cooked in vinegar. Salt was slowly taken out from the recipe and replaced with soy sauce. However, there are adobo purists who continue to use salt in their adobo marinade.

The old Spanish word Adobar could be where the early Filipinos got the word for their most famous dish. In Spanish cuisine, however, adobo refers to a pickling sauce made with olive oil, vinegar, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, oregano, paprika and salt. The word adobo is also used in Mexican and Caribbean cuisine. The Mexican adobo refers to a piquant red sauce made from ground chilies, herbs and vinegar sold canned or jarred. The Caribbean adobo usually refers to a dry rub of garlic, onion, oregano, salt and pepper.T he Filipino Adobo selected their favorite condiments and spices — vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, bay leaves — used them to stew chicken and/or pork, and gave it a Spanish name.....

No one could actually tell the exact recipe of adobo. Our country was under the Spanish rule for 400 years.There was a story about a Spanish governor who has several Filipino staff in his house and he taught them to cook the Spanish way.Later on these people began to introduce the dishes in their household and that started the leaked...how Spanish food was brought down to our table and down to our palate and passed from generation onwards.

My version of adobo is actually a mix of traditional way how a Spanish adobo is cooked but I cant omit soy sauce because I learned to cook adobo with soy sauce. I tried the recipe without soy sauce and I don't like it because it was so white...it looked raw to me and I cant take it. The best thing about adobo is that it could last for a week without refrigeration.Put it in a jar and let it stand in one corner and just get what you can eat and still it will not get spoiled. During camping or outing, Adobo is such a perfect food to go. The longer it last. the better it taste. Nowadays there are people who add boiled eggs in their adobo..for variety, for economic reason and somehow adapted to Chinese way of cooking their stew.

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 kg or 500 grams pork belly

1/2 kg or 500 grams chicken, a combination of wings or drumstick

1 whole head garlic crushed

1 tsp peppercorn crushed

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 cup vinegar

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 tsp rice wine

2 pcs bay leaf

1/2 cup + 1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup water

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp rice wine

1/4 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp oregano

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp dried chili flakes

Direction:

First marinate pork and chicken for 30 minutes with the combination of:crushed garlic, crushed peppercorns, ground black pepper,vinegar,soy sauce,rice wine and bay leaf.

Then put the chicken/pork with marinate to a saucepan. Let it boil over medium heat for 10 minutes. Do not stir.

Let it cool for 5 minutes and using the strainer, separate the sauce and kept aside.

After that, heat a pan or saucepan,put 1/4 cup oil and start to fry the pork/chicken meat by batches..fry them until just brown.

Then using the same sauce pan where you previously cook to boil the mixture, put back the fried chicken/pork meat, add also the used oil from frying if there's any.

Now add the ff:the sauce that you set aside(taken after you strained),1cup water, 1/2 cup olive oil, salt,sugar,thyme,oregano,paprika and chili flakes.

Heat the mixture and once it boils,turn the the heat to simmering mode and cook for 1 hour or until you reach the desired consistency..Avoid stirring, oh yes you may...I know you cant help it cause you will..just like me.. but stir it just to check once in a while.

Now here's the good old Adobo, the meat is soft and tender...the taste is kinda strong and addictive, the combination of soy sauce, vinegar, salt, rice wine and sugar has made the dish tasty, the distinct taste of chaos in your mouth but it is such a comfort to eat.The use of olive oil and herbs gives a very rich flavor and aroma. Hmmmmnn... never mind the extra weight I will gain... I will eat....! now, pronto!

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