Adobo sa Puti recipe

Adobo is by far one of the more popular Filipino dishes out there. It is such a staple that almost every Filipino household has its own version where household members swear by it. It is also considered as the ultimate comfort food, just like how our mothers or grandmothers made it.

Adobo is synonymous to home cooking, a warm bowl of rice and rich, jiggly chunks of meat lovingly cooked and stewed for hours.

We may be familiar with the classic adobo cooked in soy sauce, but there are many other versions out there. There is adobo sa gata where the dish uses coconut milk, also adobong dilaw, which uses turmeric instead of soy sauce, among others.

For this week's recipe I am sharing Adobo sa Puti inspired from the 1970 book of Maria Orosa entitled The Recipes of Maria Y. Orosa with Essays on Her Life and Work.

Adobo sa Put is an easy to cook dish and makes for a hearty meal anytime of the day, be it breakfast, lunch or dinner, served weekdays or weekends. This is very good especially if you have on hand your favorite vinegar (paumbong, pinakurat, etc). It is called Adobo sa Puti because it does not use soy sauce and uses vinegar (hence the word puti or white) as the main stewing/braising liquid.

Ingredients:

• 1.5kg of your choice of meat – chicken or pork
• About 3 cups of your choice of vinegar
• Salt and pepper for seasoning
• 5 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
• 2 to 3 bay leaves or dahoon ng laurel

Procedure:

1. In a casserole heat some oil and sear the meat until brown. Don't overcrowd, work in batches if need be. Set aside.
2. In a separate pot or pressure cooker place the seared meat, vinegar, salt, garlic, pepper and bay leaves.
3. Pressure cook for about 30 minutes, otherwise cook for 60 to 90 minutes (depending on the meat used) until fork tender.
4. For a dry version reduce the sauce and/or fry the meat after.
5. Garnish with fried garlic when serving.

Yield: Serves 4 to 6 people

Notes:

- If making this using chicken and pork meat, you may remove the chicken from the pot once tender. Chicken gets tender quicker than pork.

- You may serve with hard boiled eggs, optional.

- You may also serve this on a bed of blue rice for some edible eye candy. To make blue rice just add a handful of butterfly pea flowers (locally known as ternate flowers) when you cook your rice. The more flowers you use the bluer the rice will be

Happy cooking!

* * *

The author may be reached at kaycalpolugtu@gmail.com or follow her at Instagram @kaycalpolugtu and @aplateofbahaykubo.