ADOBO – Although it has a name taken from Spanish (adobar), the cooking method is indigenous to the Philippines. Early Filipinos cooked their food normally by roasting, steaming or boiling methods. To keep it fresh longer, food was often cooked by immersion in vinegar and salt. Thus, it is very likely that Filipinos could have been cooking meat in vinegar as a means of preservation. This process dates back to the classical period and was used for pork and chicken.
Most Filipinos never fail to serve this dish to their dining table (specially during occasion). Foreigners who visited or stayed in the Philippines love the taste and they usually recommend this dish when they have friends or family coming to the country (Few already had ask – how to cook it along with it’s ingredients).
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 kilo of pork (cut pork into 1 ½ inch cubes)
- 1 ½ tablespoon finely minced garlic
- ½ – ¾ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 pc. knorr pork cube
- ¼ cup of vinegar (datu puti)
- ½ cup of soy sauce (datu puti)
- 3 pcs. Laurel (bay leaf)
HOW TO COOK:
- Using a big pot, add pork
- Pour ½ cup of vinegar – Important: (Do not stir yet after adding vinegar, let it simmer for a few minutes before stirring or your adobo will taste sour)
- Pour ¼ cup of soy sauce
- Add ground black pepper
- Wait for 5 mins to marinade the pork
- Add knorr pork cube
- Add 20 ounces or 2 ½ glass of water and mix together
- Cover the pot, turn the stove ON and adjust the fire level to medium
- Wait until pork is simmering and it become tender – Approximately 20 minutes
- Remove or set aside sauce from the pot
- Fry pork until it turns brown (If you’re using lean pork, add a little amount of cooking oil)
- Add 3 pcs. Laurel (bay leaf)
- When pork becomes brown, remove pork from the pot (You may place it directly into a bowl together with the sauce)
- Add 1 ½ tablespoon finely minced garlic into the pot and saute it until it become fragrant (Adding sauteed garlic towards the end of cooking, enhances the garlic flavor of the
adobo) - After sauteing the garlic, return Adobo and sauce into the pot (You may want to add boiled egg while cooking)
- Cover the pot, simmer until pork becomes tender enough. (Reduce sauce according to your own liking but few Filipino’s likes dry Adobo)
- Put small amount of pork and sauce into bowl and taste it. (If it’s lack of vinegar, soy sauce or ground black pepper – you may add some for better taste)
- Serve and enjoy!
