The Adobo Thread
The 12 Commandments for Cooking Adobo:
1. Pork belly is best, tastiest, and is better with the skin left on. When cooked, the skin becomes sticky and soft, helping to thicken the sauce gloriously.
2. Simmer! Cook meats in a low heat from start to finish (until the meats are tender) and the sauce is reduced (Cook uncovered for the last 10 minutes of cooking). Crock pots are great for this.
3. The usual ratios are:
1 kilo meat to 1/2 cup cane vinegar
1 kilo meat to 1/2 cup vinegar to 1/4 cup water
Soy sauce can vary from nothing to 2 to 4 Tbsp per 1/2 cup vinegar
Alternatively, use 1/2 Tbsp rock salt
May add 5-10 crushed or whole peppercorns, 1 bay leaf
4. Cook chicken separate from pork. Flavors come out better. Combine them later when serving.
5. Always have some source of salt in adobo to balance the acidity.
6. Crush peppercorns at the last minute to preserve aroma.
7. One medium bay leaf can add flavor to 1/2 kilo meat. Use fresh bay leaves whenever possible.
8. Crush garlic only just before cooking. If left crushed in an overnight marinade, they lose flavor. Alternatively, add more garlic. You can never have too much garlic.
9. Braise meats first in, first out until brown, then simmer until tender. For a better finish, consider baking for the last 15 minutes of cooking.
10. Add some form of liver or liver spread. Adding broiled or roasted liver adds a nutty flavor.
11. Consider adding cream or coconut milk from time to time.
12. Follow the flowchart.
Marinate - braise - simmer - tenderize - fry - reduce - age - serve.
What! No ginger?! What would my grandmother say.
"And thus did it come to pass, as was foretold, that the picture thread became like unto the spider thread...there was much gnashing of teeth and lamentations. Dogs lay down with Cats. Bears began riding sharks and lo, there was war." -Oilypenguin
We're just getting started, Amoebic.
It's been brought to my attention that I get frequently overwrought when visiting the forum for GWJ. I've decided to post one variant recipe for adobo once a week until my recipes run out. I have a little over a hundred so it should last me quite a while!
Please feel free to post your own favorite variants.
Visayan Adobo
Jeannie Javelosa
1 kilo chicken, adobo cut
1/2 kilo spare ribs, cut into serving size
1 head of garlic, minced finely
1 cup coconut or wine vinegar
1/2 cup water
freshly ground black pepper
pinch of salt
Put everything into a pot, bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat for 2 hours.
Mix, and add salt to taste.
You need to be less non-American, so I don't have to convert the metric weights.
I admit that I rarely order adobo based dishes at restaurants and have never cooked it at home. Can most of these be done with a crockpot?
The Michigan Beer Blog
I think I love this thread. I lived in the Philippines 07-09 and never wrote down any of the recipes (sometimes...I'm an idiot), and I never know if the ones online are going to be any good...if I make yours, at least I'll have someone to blame
haha jokes.
I love you more than rainbows.
So say we all.
WOW- Hyke
Rift- Hydi, Weema, Birgitte, Rand
Steam
Yes. Boil it in a regular pot, then dump the entire thing in a crock pot for the day. Come home to adobo.
In fact, I'm going to post this as an answer, too. I won't consider it a recipe, but merely a way to cook this dish.
A-"duh"-bo
As related by Joey Reyes Herrera
"I had the dubious pleasure of sharing a two-bedroom Atlanta, Georgia apartment with four young girls. Not really chefs, they had their own way of dealing with hunger, like opening cans, or calling for delivery. But sometimes, when the moon is full, they'd cook. This recipe is based on observation. I watched the chirpiest, girliest one 'cook' this way while talking to someone on the phone, watching a television program, and surfing the internet - all while wearing her signature pink bedroom slippers."
Ingredients:
1 chicken chopped in however way your supermarket attendant usually does it
1 head of garlic peeled and roughly chopped
1 cup soy sauce
2/3 cup white vinegar (probably cane)
black pepper
bay leaf
Put all ingredients in the pot and cook on medium heat. Cover and forget.
Run back to the pot to check if the chicken has been burnt.
Discover that chicken has been cooked, and sauce has been reduced to the desirable thick consistency.
Pardon my gringo ignorance, but I always thought Adobo was a spice blend, and/or a way of preserving peppers in a can, a la:
and
Is it more of a way of preparing food? If so, please enlighten me.
I called it, just sayin'.
Excerpt from An Adobo Chronicle
by Felice Prudente Sta. Maria
"Adobo traces its etymology to the French verb 'adobar' that originally meant 'to dress a knight in armor.' The word traveled from Sir Launcelot's realm to El Cid's. In Spanish it became adobar, where it retains its original definition plus the extended meaning - 'to dress meat.'"
Adobo as meant in this thread refers to the Spanish, Philippine, and related dishes that spanned the breadth of the now-defunct Spanish Empire. These dishes are usually characterized by their sour flavor, from pickling in vinegar.
I'm gonna try the "lazy girlie a-duh-bo" this weekend. Thanks Larry!
The Michigan Beer Blog
No prob, Seth!
I'll probably be posting super-involved foie gras containing, multi-procedural, super gourmet adobo at some point during this thread, but I thought it best to start simple. Enjoy!
Adobo's always better the day after (yay gelatin!)
"Fine. Take her out to lunch and then at an opportune lull in the conversation poke your finger directly in her anus. Chances are she'll leave you alone after that. If not, hey buttsex!" - ColdForged
========
EVE - Promethean Starter/Persephone Starter
I will do my best to pry this culinary secret from my delightfully stubborn Filipino grandmother and post it here.
"And thus did it come to pass, as was foretold, that the picture thread became like unto the spider thread...there was much gnashing of teeth and lamentations. Dogs lay down with Cats. Bears began riding sharks and lo, there was war." -Oilypenguin
Masarap!
If I could could surprise Ms. Gravey with some home-cooked adobo, I'd be in her good books for a month. I might try the Visayan recipe as it seems to fulfill my criteria for that most hated of activities, cooking: a half-dozen ingredients or less, one dish, one appliance.
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"When Gravey wins an internet argument, it's like the whole internet wins." - oilypenguin
"I love you, Gravey, you taffer." - Clock
Hehe.
The secret to fantastic adobo is that it's cooked at home with love.
The key to getting adobo to a state that you can't stop eating it is to balance salt, sour, spice, and meat broth to a point where it just becomes magic. Online recipes of adobo are more or less okay, but adobo works best with a cook who knows his ingredients.
Not all vinegar tastes the same, or has the same acidity. Not all salt is equally salty. Not all soy sauce has the same flavor or level of saltiness. Day old adobo tastes fantastic because the meat juices flow into the sauce and the sauce flavors insinuate into the meat more.
You have to balance your unique local ingredients to get the taste that's just right. I've had to balance slightly more acidic vinegar by lowering the volume a bit, or stewing more to get more broth flavor out. Or adding more salt. As a last resort, you can cook up some bullion broth and add a little at a time, or add potatoes.
Sometimes, you get chicken that's especially fat, so you'll need to skim oil off the top, or you get chicken that's not fat enough, so you need to add some EVOO for flavor. It's all about adjustment on the fly. Store cooked adobo rarely gets this right because they rarely care enough to get that touch. For that matter, I don't particularly like my mother-in-law's adobo.
Shh!
Get the base recipe, taste while its cooking, and don't be afraid to add flavors you think ought to be in there.
Garlic tip for the less-than-industrious:
The most work you can experience in cooking basement-level simplicity in adobo is mincing the garlic. You can make the job even simpler by using a food processor to mince the garlic. If you don't want to have to clean out a food processor, use a mortar and pestle on whole garlic cloves. Heck, you don't even have to peel 'em. Just crush them roughly and chuck 'em in.
This thread needs more pics.
Steam, Live, AIM: DrJonezMD | My reviews: http://emajkut.blogspot.com/ | Twitter: http://twitter.com/emajkut
Yessir!
i cannot even begin to explain what just happened in my mouth.
I love you more than rainbows.
So say we all.
WOW- Hyke
Rift- Hydi, Weema, Birgitte, Rand
Steam
My taste buds got a boner.
The Michigan Beer Blog
Yoink!
I like the cut of your jib, Minarchist. -- Podunk
What Minarchist said. -- Paleocon
Listen to Minarchist, for he is wise. -- Jonman
This thread makes me sad I gave up meat for Lent.
Xbox Live - SallyNasty
Certis wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
Why? You can adobo prawns, crab, fish, and even veggies. Adobo prawns and adobo swamp cabbage are some of the classic dishes cooked adobo-style, and absolutely tasty.
I've never really understood Lent's prohibition on meat dishes. As far as I can tell, it's simply an excuse to pig out on delectable veggies and fish. I'll post a prawn adobo recipe on Monday.
Interrobang! Adobo burger!
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"When Gravey wins an internet argument, it's like the whole internet wins." - oilypenguin
"I love you, Gravey, you taffer." - Clock
For the benefit of Catholics this Lent:
I kept seeing this title show up on the Popular Forum Threads , and wondered why people were so interested in these guys:
PSN: Grakarg
XBLA: Grakarg
Steam: tyrian[GWJ]
Adobo Prawns with Ginger
by Cely Kalaw
3 medium sized prawns unpeeled
6 strips of ginger, shredded
1/2 tsp garlic, crushed or minced finely
1/2 tsp peppercorns, finely crushed
4 Tbsp vinegar
rock salt
pepper to taste
Mix all ingredients except the prawns and boil until ginger is cooked (raw ginger smell disappears). Add prawns and simmer until cooked.
Serve hot.
That looks really good. Would you put that over rice?
Xbox Live - SallyNasty
Certis wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
Served beside rice, natch. Not all adobo is good over rice, and of course, whichever kind of rice style depends on the kind of adobo you prefer. Seafood adobo like this has a milder, less-saucy flavor with subtle undertones. Putting it over rice would dilute the taste experience. Served beside rice, you eat them intermittently, with rice serving as a palette cleanser between bites.
Alternatively, you can cook a saucier adobo base by using shrimp broth and marinade and cooking the sauce to the desired taste and consistency before simmering the prawns in it. That would work, too.
Warning: prawn and seafood adobo generally can't be "fixed." Simmering prawns over the optimum time frame only makes them tougher and less palatable; whereas pork and chicken adobo can be simmered until the meat disintegrates into the vinegar. Some people actually prefer adobo like that.
Creamy Blue Shell Crab Adobo
Cely Kalaw
1 kilo or 4 pc blue shell crabs
1 Tbsp shredded ginger
1 Tbsp pounded garlic
1 tsp peppercorn, pounded
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup vinegar
2 pc long green chili peppers
2 coconuts pressed for coconut cream
Alternatively, canned coconut cream to taste
Mix all ingredients except for coconut cream and put to boil until the smell and taste of raw ginger disappears. Continue to simmer until crabs are cooked. Once done, pour coconut cream into the mix and gently stir to mix and thicken the sauce. Simmer for 2 minutes.
Serve hot.
Chicken and Liempo (pork belly) Adobo
by Cecille Aurelio
Ingredients:
1 kg chicken, cut into 12 pieces
1 kg liempo (pork belly), skin on, sliced 1/2" thick (about 16 pieces)
1 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 head of garlic, pounded, skin on
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
3 pieces bay leaves
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Select a nice piece of liempo (pork belly) with ribs and slice 1/2-inch thick and 3 inches in length.
Cut chicken up into 12 pieces (or have your butcher do it for you).
Arrange liempo slices at the bottom of a casserole. Put in half of the black peppercorn and pounded garlic. Arrange the chicken pieces on top of the liempo and add the rest of the black peppercorn and garlic.
Pour in the white vinegar and soy sauce, add in the bay leaves.
Bring to a boil and then let simmer for 20 minutes. Remove chicken pieces and set aside as these will cook first. Continue cooking pork belly pieces for another 20 to 30 minutes until the meat is tender but not falling apart.
Drain the sauce from the meat and set it aside.
Pan fry the liempo in the vegetable oil on medium heat until you obtain a nice brown color on the skin. Do the same for the chicken afterwards.
Put the fried liempo and chicken pieces back into the sauce and simmer for 5 minutes.