The Adobo of My Youth

Mostly every Filipino has a childhood food memory that has the chameleon Adobo. Whether it’s cooked with soy sauce, vinegar, atchuete, chilies, coconut of a combination of these ingredients we will always have a fondness for this flavorful dish.

I love all kinds - pork, chicken or beef. Each one has its own character. A couple of my favorites are the following: 1) My Mama’s when she does cook it, 2) Bicolano’s verison of chicken adobo cooked with coconut milk and chilies. Best with a heaping portion of freshly cooked rice, 3) Top of the Citi’s (from the Le Souffle group) boneless chicken adobo is cooked to perfection - this won an Anvil before, 4) Tita Cecilia Barcelona’s beef ribs abodo - best consumed the day after even for breakfast, 5) Adobo Flakes of Chateau 1771 - great choice for breakfast.

I’ve somewhat modified my Mama’s recipe and made it my own. I always cook pork and chicken separately since I feel that flavor-wise it’s better. People usually requests for this and I give the recipe freely. By the way, I use the same recipe when cooking thrice-cooked adobo flakes.

Mama’s Pork Adobo

• 4 kilos of Pork Spareribs with bone or get the cut for Lechon Kawali - Have them cut it into the size that you want.
• 10 bulbs of Crushed Elephant Garlic - If you want to use native garlic, cut the quantity in half since the local variety is stronger.
• 2-3 cups of Soy Sauce - Just make sure each piece is coated. Do not put more than what’s necessary.1 handful of whole Peppercorns or more depending on how much you like pepper. You can replace this with ground Pepper as well.
• 1/2-1 cup of water - Only add this in after an hour of cooking.
• 2 Whole Bayleaves
• White Vinegar to taste - Only add this an hour after you’ve added the water.
• Salt to taste

Cooking time: 3-4 hours

Instructions:
1. Mix Pork Spareribs with the Garlic, Soy Sauce, Peppercorns, Bayleaves in a big pot. Make sure you use a pot that has enough space to turn the meat around. Otherwise, the pieces will break up.
2. Let the mixed ingredients sit for 30mins-1hr.
3. Cooked over low-medium flame. If electric, put the setting at 3-4.
4. After 30-45mins, the juice and oil of the meat should be coming out so turn it around twice so that the meat from the bottom is now on top.
5. Turn it around twice every 20mins. so that the meat from the bottom is now on top.
6. After an hour, add 1/2-1 cups of water. 7. Turn it around twice every 20mins. so that the meat from the bottom is now on top. 8. After 2 hours of cooking, add White Vinegar and Salt to taste. Mix well. Turn it around twice so that the meat from the bottom is now on top.
9. Turn it around twice every 20mins. so that the meat from the bottom is now on top.
10. Cook for another 30mins-1hour until the meat is fork tender and the fat is easily cut with a fork. Best to sample a piece to determine if you’ve achieved the desired softness. Make sure to monitor it because if you don’t the meat will fall of the bone and you’ll end up with more shreds instead of cuts of meat.

For a bigger batch, just double the recipe but you can opt to use only 16-18 bulbs of Crushed Elephant Garlic. It’s a bit tedious to prepare but it’s worth it.

My Mama loves it and can’t stop eating it whenever I make it. Jose has this once a week with tomatoes and steamed talbos ng kamote and he finishes it off immediately.

The Adobo of My Youth is now the Adobo of his. Full circle.

For more Adobo recipes get a copy of The Adobo Book: Traditional & Jazzed Up Recipes by Reynaldo Alejandro and Nancy Reyes Lumen published by Anvil Publishing http://www.anvilpublishing.com. Better yet experiment and make your own signature Adobo today.

Enjoy!

LEAH - The Wondering Wonderer

Remembering LASA

Walking the streets of the The Village in the early spring of 1995 with Lola Doreen, Johnny and Ronnie Alejandro towards a new restaurant, the discussion was on when she would do an update of LASA. I agreed of course and said that I myself was looking forward to it, she looked at me and smiled then told me that I should do it. I laughed of course because I thought she was kidding then she said that I should if I wanted to and that it wouldn’t be problem. I just smiled and never brought up the subject again. That’s my most favorite memory of her - the moment when I saw in her eyes that she believed, believed in me and trusted me enough to even suggest that I continue her work. I still get a bit flushed when I remember that moment

Do I regret not taking her up on her offer? Part of me will always be. Maybe I should have because she would be there to teach me. I always wanted her to be my teacher but I decided to go to another university because of the area of studies I wanted to take. Come to think of it that’s the second food related offer I’ve declined. My Dad once offered to send me to culinary school abroad instead of finishing my studies at University. His intention was that I would cook all of his meals if I took him up on his offer. He wasn’t kidding. I cook only for the following reasons - when I’m inspired, stressed and especially when I have the urge to feed the people I love. Do I regret it? A bit because I would have loved to improve my technique. I think though that my Mom training my palate is more than enough. Skill you can teach but one’s palate is honed from childhood.

My starting this blog isn’t about continuing Lola Doreen’s work because I will never be able to match the beauty of her words. Her language is exquisite and it is meant to be savoured over and over again like a bowl of sinigang whose sour salty soup faintly sweetened by ripe tomatoes awaken ones senses and comforts the soul.

I’m prompted to write primarily as a guide for my son Jose whose palate was baptized with ginger, garlic and calamansi when he was still in the womb. They say that a fetus starts developing taste buds as early as 5 months which explains a lot since his favorite foods are arroz caldo, paksiw or sinigang na bangus and adobo. Later on, every time he reads the books of his Great Grand Aunt he will feel like he has come home.

When I was pregnant I started writing a journal I called “A Gastronomic Guide for My Unborn Child” and I was able to write a couple of entries but I failed to continue it after Popcorn (Jose’s name before we knew his gender) was born. This is a continuation of that journal now done online and it will be writings on food and everything related to it - recipes, cooking, restaurants, places, memories, movements, etc.

I’m thinking as a project it would be fun to revisit some of the restaurants featured in the last issue of LASA and see if they’ve stood the test of time. Let’s see if I can go to a couple soon.

LEAH - The Wandering Wonderer