ASEAN Life Vol: 1 January - March 2014 | Page 45

RECIPE Over 500 Asean Food and Spices: www. BuyAseanFood. com (Photo: www.overseaspinoycooking.blogspot.com) younger generations. This is a traditional Adobong Baboy (Pork Adobo) Philippines T recipe for pork adobo. INGREDIENTS: Serves 4 to 6 1 kilo pork belly, cut into 2-inch thick pieces 6 tbsp soy sauce 6 tbsp white vinegar 1 head garlic, crushed 1/2 small onion, chopped 1/2 tbsp whole peppercorns 1-3 pieces dried bay leaves 1/2 tsp brown sugar (optional) 1 cup of water Cooking oil Salt to taste PROCEDURE: In a bowl combine the meat, garlic, he adobo is an iconic dish of by the Spanish, the adobo is truly a Filipino peppercorns and soy sauce and leave the the Philippines, whose roots can original. Furthermore, although Filipinos ingredients to marinade for at least 30 be traced back even before the have grown accustomed to chicken and minutes to an hour. Spanish colonized the country. Although the pork, or a combination of both as the recipe In a sauce pan, sauté onion, then add the term “adobo” is a Spanish term, Filipinos for making adobo, there is no limit to what bay leaves and marinated pork. Continue have been cooking this type of dish way you can use for the dish. You can use sautéing the ingredients until whatever before the country was discovered. Here seafood such as pusit (squid) or galunggong liquid is in the pan has evaporated and the is how the story goes: When the Spanish (round scad), kangkong (swamp cabbage), pork starts to render fat. Pour the marinade colonized the Philippines, they came across sitaw (long beans) and other vegetables and one cup of water into the pan and this indigenous way of preparation in which or even beef as your primary ingredient allow to boil under medium heat until pork meat was cooked in a combination of for adobo. Others add quartered potatoes, is tender, for about 40 minutes. Once the vinegar, soy sauce, peppercorns and garlic. canned pineapples or hard-boiled eggs. meat becomes tender, add the vinegar and When the Spanish colonists observed Some add pure coconut milk. There are as let simmer for another 15 minutes, without this method of cooking, they then referred to many methods of cooking adobo as there stirring. Let simmer until just a little oily it as adobo, which translates to “marinade.” are regions in the Philippines. Each family sauce remains or until the sauce thickens. So while the term may have been coined has its own version that is handed down to Season with salt if necessary. v WWW.ASEAN-LIFE.COM JAN-FEB 2014 45