If you're not familiar with chicken or pork adobo, you are missing out. It's a zing of soy sauce and vinegar with earthy undercurrents of bay leaves and pepper. Since I first tried adobo at Bilao, a Filipino restaurant about a mile and a half from me, I've been testing and searching for recipes. I've tried several, making them with chicken thighs, but it was my friend Scott who found this one.
I'll get right to the ingredients, but do read the whole story at the link.
Serves 4 to 6
- .25 c. neutral oil
- 2 lbs. pork belly, skin removed, cut into 2-inch cubes
- 3 tbsp. minced garlic (about 10 cloves) (I think I used 12 or 13)
- .25 c. shoyu (soy sauce) (I bought a dark, Filipino soy sauce brand called Da Puti from Amazon)
- 2 tbsp. oyster sauce
- .25 c. cane vinegar (This was the Da Puti again. This has a softer taste to it and I really like it)
- .25 c. apple cider vinegar (Extra zing!)
- 3 bay leaves
- .25 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
- 3 c. halved cherry tomatoes (about 1 pound), for serving (This is the first time I've seen tomatoes added to the serving of adobo even after looking at multiple recipes. More on that later)
- Cooked rice, for serving
In a large, deep skillet, wok, or Dutch oven, heat the oil over high heat until shimmering-hot. Pat the pork dry with paper towels. Sear it in the hot oil, turning, until evenly browned on all sides, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Stir in the shoyu, oyster sauce, both vinegars, the bay leaves, and pepper and toss to coat the pork belly. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the pork has started to soften and most the fat has rendered, 40 to 50 minutes. What you’re going for is not a melt-in-your-mouth bite, but rendered fat and meat with some texture to it, like spareribs almost.
Once the pork is cooked, remove it with a slotted spoon and set aside. If desired, skim off some of the rendered fat and discard (I usually keep it) (I did too). Increase the heat to medium and reduce the sauce, stirring constantly, until a sticky glaze starts to form. Return the pork belly to the sauce and toss to coat.
Serve with tomatoes and cooked rice.
While there are many YouTube videos and plenty of advice of how to take the thick, tough, skin off pork belly, don't let anyone tell you it isn't hard work. It does not easily peel away from the fat. Also, sharpen your knives first. I don't know what happened to my sharpening steel, but I realized after the first five minutes that I should have either bought a new one or a stone or some kind of sharpener and done that first.
Unlike the silverskin on a leg of lamb, this doesn't come away easy, you need to commit to it. If you buy your pork belly in a slab, cut it into strips about 2 inches (5 cm) wide. Get the blade of your knife under the corner, do your best to peel the top away with your other hand while you cut with the other. Don't count on gravity to help you too much here.
In retrospect, I'm not sure I needed as much oil as was listed. I followed the recipe exactly, but Scott mentioned that I could have just put the meat in fat side down. Also, I should accounted for the difference between the weight with skin on and weight with skin off better than I did.
It took closer to an hour for the pork to get to the right consistency, and then quite a while for the sauce to reduce, but everything was totally worth the wait. The fat was a melt-in-the-mouth delight, and the pork allowed for the bite to indulge anyone's carnivorous side.
I served with a bit of the cane vinegar on the table because I always seem to want more. The tomatoes were an interesting add, but I'm not sure what they added. Vinegar adds plenty of acid and brightness.
Regardless, I will definitely be doing this again. After I get the knives sharpened.
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