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
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