Adobo

My husband served a 2 year mission for our church in the Philippinnes, and while there developed a love for their food, especially  their sour fruits. My husband misses all the wonderful sour fruit that he cannot get here in America, especially sour mangoes. He could eat them more sour than the natives could and would shock them when he would eat them right in-front of them and not even flinch. At one point he had a companion who liked to cook and eat as much as he did and he has recounted the story numerous times about when them purchasing kilos of meat, potatoes, and rice, make a big pot of Adobo (Uh-dough-bow) and eat it all up, practically in one sitting. Adobo is a meal that he has made for me since the beginning of our courtship, but he only recently perfected the recipe. He never used to marinate the meat, and the amounts of soy sauce, vinegar and water were eyeballed, resulting in different flavors every time. It was a happy night when it turned out well, and a disappointing one when it just tasted wrong. So, he recently began more serious research on Filipino recipes for Adobo, combined the best ideas, and came up with a winner. This Adobo is consistently delicious, filling, and difficult to stop eating. Now I just need to learn to speak Tagalog so I can understand him when he started speaking it to me.

Adobo

1 lb. pork loin, cut into 2″ pieces

2/3 C. soy sauce

1 Tbs. minced garlic (we usually used bottled)

1/4-1/3 C. Canola Oil

1 medium white onion, chopped

4 large white potatoes, cut into larger bite-size pieces

2 1/2 C. water (divided)

2/3 C. (or slightly under) white distilled vinegar

freshly ground pepper

 Serve over 1 C. white rice, cooked

• In a plastic zip-loc bag combine pork, soy sauce, garlic, and freshly ground pepper. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. 
• Saute the onion in a good amount of canola oil, covering the bottom of a large pot, about 3 minutes.
• Add pork only to the sauteed onions. Reserve the marinade liquid! 
• Over Medium-High heat stir until the liquid is almost gone.
• Add the marinade liquid and 2 C. water to the pot.
• Cover the pot and lower to Medium heat. Let stew for 20-25 minutes.
• After about 10-15 minutes add the vinegar. Then add the 1/2 C. water a few minutes later.
• Once the water is boiling again add the potatoes. Cook until the potatoes are fork-tender.
• Can add freshly ground pepper throughout.
• Serve over white rice.

Sinigang na baboy

My husband served a 2-year mission for our church in the Philippines. He brought back 2 recipes in particularly that our family has enjoyed eating- Adobe (ah-dough-bow), a pork and potatoes meal served over rice, and Sinigang na baboy, a sour based soup, served over rice. Most meals from the Philippines are eaten over rice. When cooking a lot of rice it is very nice to have a rice cooker. We love ours and have been going crazy without it. Cooking rice on the stovetop leaves much more to chance. When we lived in Indiana we had a fantastic asian market right up the street from us where we could get the Tamarind soup base packets, which are hard to find even in asian markets, and some of the produce, though even our regular grocery store carried in it all of the seemingly odd ingredients that we need to make this meal. The Northeast has been much more difficult to cook this meal in because we had to have friends mail us the Tamarind packets from IN, since we could not find them here, and we had to eat it without the Taro root, one of our favorite parts of the meal. We were very fortunate that we could still get the okra, since the season for okra is almost over. I gained a deeper love for okra from my husband making me this meal. Okra is not slimy, it’s delicious. Fried okra is also exceedingly yummy, and also non-slimy. Someday I am going to try pickled okra. I am a true Southerner at heart, even though I grew up in the Northeast. Besides a really good hoagie I have no real affinity for the food from this area. 

Sinigang na baboy

1 lb. Pork Loin, cut into small pieces and boiled 

1 Knorr’s Tamarind soup base packet

10 C. water

3 Roma tomatoes, quartered length-wise

3-4 small Taro root, peeled, cut into bite size pieces

1 white onion, cut in half and then sliced

2 C. aprox. green beans, fresh and cut into 1″ pieces

2 finger length chilies, either left whole (for less heat) or sliced open for more heat

1 C. fresh or frozen okra, cut into bite size pieces

1 large Diakon radish, sliced very thinly

1 head baby bok choy

1 C. white rice, cooked to serve over

• Put the large pot on med-high heat, dissolving the packet into the 10 C. of water.
• Pork Loin, cut into small pieces and boiled for a couple of minutes, scraping off the top layer of film that comes off of the pork. Add just the boiled pork to the Tamarind water, reserving none of the water pork cooked in.
• Then add tomatoes, onion slices, and taro root pieces. Put the lid on and boil 10-15 minutes.
• Add the green beans and chili, boil for another 5 minutes. The green beans take the longest to cook, and should be nice and tender when the soup is done.
• Then add the okra and diakon radish and cook for another 20 minutes, or until green beans are tender.
• Turn the heat off the pot, add the baby bok choy, once the soup is completely cooked, put the lid on and let finish cooking for a few minutes.

It’s not an exact science. Mostly this dish needs to cook until the green beans are tender. When it is all done put it over rice in bowls and enjoy the delicious sour soup!