Chicken Liver Adobo Pâté

I don't know why but I've been into liver pâté the past few months. Growing up I never liked liver of any kind but now I'm really loving it specially in pate. And being a Filipino whose favorite food is anything edible cooked adobo-style, I prepared the pâté with chicken liver adobo; yummy on crusty pandesal. I covered the jar of pâté with rendered pork fat instead of the usual melted butter.

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Carne de Ternera en Adobo

One of the recipes in the Filipino cookbook THE ADOBO BOOK is written in Spanish, there is no English nor Tagalog translation. The recipe was shared by the late Señor Adi Got who said "This is a Basque recipe from the land of San Sebastian, where the males double as cooks and pelotaris."  From the author's notes:

This family was one of several prestigious families who were members of the Tabacalera estate that established a Spanish community in chosen regions in the Philippines. 

This was a personal recipe of the late foodie Señor Adi Got. He refused to translate it from Spanish insisting that part of the flavor of the dish was in the language. In some way, it connected the Filipino adobo to the Spanish counterpart...interfaced culinary origins...sort of...

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Frog Legs Adobo

I watched yet again Andrew Zimmerman's Bizarre Foods Philippine edition currently streaming through Netflix and thought the bloated stuffed frog legs looked funny and weird. When I was a kid we used to have them adobo style with achuete (annatto). They were tiny though and not as meaty as the ones I found recently at the Asian market.  

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Yardlong Beans in Adobo Sauce

Here's a dish that has a dual personality, a bit healthy and a little bit un due to the fatty but yummy pork belly. The only vegetable I know that is cooked adobo style is the leafy green kangkong or water spinach but apparently among Filipinos, sitaw or yardlong beans is also cooked adobo style but flavored with pork belly.

I recently cooked adobo pork belly and there was one strip and lots of garlicky sauce left. I boiled the cut yardlong beans in salted water and finished cooking them with the sliced pork belly adobo and its sauce. The dish is so very yummy. I would like to think the unhealthy fatty pork is canceled out by the vegetable but I have my doubts.:p

Sitaw in Adobo Sauce
a 4-ounce piece of skin-on pork belly
½ cup coconut or cider vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
½ teaspoon sea salt
6 cloves skin-on garlic
1/8 teaspoon whole black pepper
1 small bay leaf
1 cup water
2 cups yardlong beans, cut into 2-inch pieces
water
1 teaspoon sea salt

• Put all the ingredients except the last 3 in a small saucepan. Turn heat to high and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer on medium-low heat for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until pork is tender. Add water if sauce is drying out. Taste and adjust seasoning.
• Remove the pork, transfer onto a cutting board and let cool. When cool enough to handle, cut into thin slices. Transfer the sauce along with the pork in a bigger saucepan or wok. Turn heat to medium-low.
• In another saucepan, place the cut beans, add enough water to cover and the salt. Boil until crisp tender. The beans should have bright green color. Drain and transfer into the saucepan. Turn up the heat to medium and simmer uncovered for 2 minutes, stirring to coat the beans with the sauce. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: Left-over

leftover shredded chicken adobo sandwich

It's left-over this week at Lasang Pinoy, Sundays hosted by SPICES. There's plenty of tiny containers in my refrigerator to choose from but nothing beats "aged" adobo which tastes better after a few weeks in the refrigerator. I toasted the chicken flakes on a hot skillet until crispy and crusty and layered them with cream cheese, sliced tomatoes, and an egg omelet on dark rye bread. Weird combination, I know, but the sandwich is yummy. I washed it down with iced banaba tea.

Chicken Adobo Tostado

After reading about THE ADOBO BOOK over at Marvin's, I was convinced and finally got my copy. I was hesitant in buying this book when I first read it in Market Manila's blog a few years back because of its author. I purchased two of Reynaldo Alejandro's cookbooks, I kept one (taking up much needed space in my cookbook cabinet) and the better of the two I gave to a friend who does not cook very often. I checked amazon.com and some insane person is selling it for a ridiculous price of $324.95, and another for the more reasonable but still waaay too expensive $34.95. This book costs $5.00 in the Philippines and if you have relatives or friends coming to visit, you can ask them to buy it for you. It is thin and small and won't occupy much space in their luggage. The recipes are from some well-known Filipinos (at least to me they are), a few from the author himself, and some from the relatives of the other author who belongs to a family of restaurant owners in the Philippines. After reading and cooking a few recipes, I can say it is very good because it has some recipes that my own mother had prepared which rarely get mentioned in any other Filipino cookbooks. I give this cookbook a two-thumbs up regardless of the absence of photographs.

One of the recipes that I cooked is Maverick's Adobo Tostado because it is very similar to one of the adobo recipes I make, with wine vinegar or sherry and then deep fried. The recipe is from Marivic Rufino Buenaventura whom I met and worked with briefly at the Philippine Airlines ticketing office over 30 years ago. I was in that office for only two weeks when she was hired answering telephone inquiries. I did not know who she was until she approached me and asked if I have heard rumors about her (I had not at the time). She confided in me that she felt the women in the office were gossiping about her, talking amongst themselves in front of her in their dialect (Cebuano) followed by giggling. I later learned what the rumors were about which followed her wherever she was assigned that went round and round the 2 years she worked at the airline. I did not know her that well because she left after 2 weeks but I do believe that she was and still is a very nice soft-spoken gracious person, and her adobo recipe is delicious. I'm not sure how she got the nickname maverick, though.

I made chicken adobo adapted from her recipe adding ¼ cup of cider vinegar because her recipe has only a cup of wine vinegar and I prefer my adobo a little bit more sour. It also does not specify the cooking time, you have to eyeball and cook it by instinct, how much sauce you want, taste it and adjust accordingly.

Maverick's Adobo Tostado
1 cup olive oil
3 heads garlic, crushed and finely minced
1 kilo pork belly, cubed
1 kilo chicken parts
1 cup wine vinegar or leftover white wine
¼ cup Kikkoman soy sauce
1 - 2 bay leaves
rock salt, to taste
1 tablespoon freshly ground peppercorn
corn oil for deep frying
a bit of Tabasco

• Fry 2 heads of garlic in olive oil until brown. Set aside garlic.
• Sauté pork, add chicken. Continue to cook till brown.
• Add wine vinegar, soy sauce, bay leaves, wine, salt, peppercorn, and the fried garlic. Simmer for hours on low fire. When cooked, drain chicken and pork. Keep sauce separate.
• Heat oil, add the remaining garlic and deep fry chicken and pork cubes until crispy. Drain and serve in a large platter. Serve sauce in a separate bowl.

Note: the Tabasco does not appear in the recipe. I guess you can sprinkle the cooked adobo before or after frying or maybe add a few drops to the sauce.

Mark Bittman's Chicken Adobo

I love lots of adobo sauce on my rice

A reader emailed me last week asking for Mark Bittman's Chicken Adobo recipe. I didn't know he has one and thought it might be the Mexican adobo version. I got curious and borrowed from the library his 1998 cookbook HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING and there it is on page 377: Filipino Chicken Adobo. He writes: "The Philippine classic has been called the best chicken dish in the world by a number of friends of mine." He uses the basic Filipino adobo ingredients and finishes the dish in the grill (or broiler) after boiling in the vinegar mixture for 30 minutes. The grilled flavor and the crispy skin and meat make the chicken adobo really special. I altered his recipe a little bit by using only half a cup of soy sauce and adding 1½ tsp of sea salt and half a cup more of water. I also used the dark (cane sugar) vinegar from the Philippine Ilocos province which gives the dish a hint of sweetness and a fruity flavor. I will definitely add this recipe to my growing Adobo recipe collection for my ADOBO COOKBOOK. The dish also gave me an idea to adobo-marinate other meats such as baby back ribs or thin sliced pork belly, then grill directly without boiling them first.

Mark Bittman's Chicken Adobo
1 cup soy sauce
½ cup white or rice vinegar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 bay leaves
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 whole (3 - 4 pounds) chicken, cut up, trimmed of excess fat, then rinsed and patted dry with paper towels, or use 2 pounds bone-in thighs

1. Combine the first six ingredients in a covered pot large enough to hold the chicken in one layer. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add the chicken pieces, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, covered, for about 30 minutes, turning once or twice. (You may prepare the chicken in advance up to this point; refrigerate the chicken, in the liquid, for up to a day before proceeding.)
2. Start a charcoal or wood fire or preheat a gas grill or broiler. The fire need not be too hot, but place the rack just 3 or 4 inches from the heat source.
3. Remove the chicken and dry it gently with paper towels. (My note: Remove excess fat before boiling sauce.) Boil the sauce over high heat until it is reduced to about 1 cup; discard bay leaves and keep the sauce warm. Meanwhile, grill or broil the chicken until brown and crisp, about 5 minutes per side. Serve the chicken with the sauce and white rice.

The aroma of very hot rice and chicken on the banana leaf I lined the serving platter and my plate with evoked memories of my elementary and high school days. The very few times I bought baon (packed lunch) were on school field trips. My mom used to put hot rice in the middle of several layers of large banana leaves then place the hot meat, usually chicken and pork adobo with plenty of sauce, on top of the rice soaking the rice with the sauce, then fold the corners together, tuck them in to make a neat leak-proof bundle. Believe me when you open the package and get a whiff of the fragrant banana leaves, rice, and adobo combination you'll want to dig right in even if you're not very hungry. Banana leaves as a food wrapper or container is way better than plastic boxes or aluminum foil, good for the environment too.:-)

I Want Me Some Shots of Yakult

tangy and sweet yogurt and lychee smoothie

Yakult is one of the drinks that we sorely miss. We couldn't find them in any of the Asian groceries in my area. What we have here are the Korean brand that look exactly like Yakult but taste so bland, not tangy, and overly sweet. I just learned that Yakult have been in Los Angeles since 1999 and YakultUSA will make them available in other states in the coming months. Woohoo! I can't wait to have a few 'shots' of this yogurt drink. Well, actually I can, and while waiting I mixed some yogurt with low-fat milk, sugar, and flavorings. I made two kinds: vanilla and lychee. I blended some ice cubes and the lychee yogurt in the blender and had the most refreshing yogurt drink that's sweet and tangy with just a hint of lychee. Yummy!
Other fruit suggestions: strawberry, mango, and peaches.

I am also liking the sparkling yogurt-based drink that is salty and minty which is the perfect beverage while munching on adobo beef brisket shawarma.

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homemade adobo beef brisket shawarma

Pork And Chicken Adobo

I have been blogging for almost two years now and just realized I have written about adobo only two times, both with Cornish game hens. Considering adobo is our (unofficial) national dish, I should probably feature it more often. I make this dish once a month, a different version (and meat) each time. In the Philippines, the different regions have their own versions, some have onions and chicken livers, others add coconut milk with pieces of green papaya, and some in the Northern provinces don't use soy sauce and the result is a white sauce-less adobo which is really yummy. Another way to prepare adobo is marinating the meat and then browned in oil before stewing in the marinade. I also remember my mother used to cook frog legs adobo with annatto seed oil.

I don't have a recipe that I follow and I don't measure the ingredients. And just like my mother, I taste it after stewing for 15 minutes and adjust the seasonings right then, taste and adjust some more if necessary after the dish is done.

Chicken And Pork Adobo
2 pounds chicken, cut into pieces
1 pound pork shoulder, cut into 2 inch cubes
½ cup cider vinegar (I use the Filipino cane vinegar called sukang Iloko)
½ cup dry sherry
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorn
1 head garlic, peeled and pounded
2 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 bay leaf
½ cup water
pitted Spanish olives, optional

• Place the meats in a saucepan and add vinegar, sherry, black pepper, salt, garlic, soy sauce, bay leaf, and 2 T olive oil. Let stand for 1 hour.
• Turn the heat on high and let come to a boil. Turn heat to low and simmer, covered, for 25 minutes or until the sauce is almost dry. Add the water and simmer, covered, for 25 minutes until the meats are tender and sauce has thickened. There should be plenty of sauce but not too soupy.
• Add the olives, if using, and simmer for 5 minutes more. Remove the bay leaf and discard, drizzle the remaining olive oil and transfer into a serving dish. Serve with steamed rice.

I also love this Portuguese Turkey Adobado which is from my cookbook THE FOOD OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL by Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz.

Pavo Adobado (marinated Turkey)
one 5 - 9 pound turkey, cut into serving pieces
For the marinade
4 bay leaves
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon black peppercorns, chopped
1 medium onion, sliced
1 teaspoon salt
3 - 6 cups dry white wine, or enough to cover

• In a bowl large enough to hold the turkey pieces, combine the turkey with all the marinade ingredients. Refrigerate overnight, turning the pieces once or twice. Lift out and pat dry the turkey pieces with paper towels, set aside. Strain and reserve marinade, discarding the solids.

For the turkey
4 - 6 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1-inch piece cinnamon stick
2 whole cloves
salt and freshly ground pepper

• Heat oil in a large, heavy skillet and saute turkey until lightly browned. Do this in batches, if necessary, adding oil as needed. Lift out the turkey into a casserole. In the oil remaining in the pan saute the the onion and garlic until the onion is soft. Add the tomatoes and cook until the mixture is thick and well blended. Add to the casserole together with the cinnamon stick and cloves, and salt and pepper to taste. Pour in the reserved marinade, cover and cook in a preheated 350 degree oven for 2 - 3 hours. Serve with rice and a light dry red wine.

I have come across numerous adobo recipes using various meats and seafood and I'm thinking of putting together an 'adobo cookbook' and will print it in my home. If you want to contribute your family's recipe please post it in the comments section or email it to me at oggi.icandothat(AT)gmail(DOT)com. I will try to cook the different recipes as much as I can and hope to hear from you soon. ^_^

Cornish Game Hens Adobo

I couldn't decide what to prepare for Christmas. Turkey is for Turkey Day so that's out, I was considering roast duck or goose but then I have to either roast a small chicken or cornish game hens for people who don't like duck. I decided on a large chicken to add to the usual ham, queso de bola, etc. Since I already have these very tiny (less than a pound each) Cornish game hens taking up space in my freezer (nope, I did not hunt these myself) I cooked them adobo style using fruity pineapple vinegar and sherry instead of the usual Filipino coconut vinegar, and with just a tablespoon of soy sauce. The result is a sweetish adobo with deep dark brown sauce and is utterly delicious. It reminds me of the quail adobado that we used to order at Mingoy's restaurant in Magallanes. I was really thinking of quail to make into adobado but then the ones I saw in the grocery all look anorexic, literally skin and bones. The cornish game hens are healthier looking and meatier and cute...

Boiled mung beans with garlic chunks, sliced onions, a bay leaf, some sea salt and lots of Spanish extra virgin olive oil is the perfect vegetable soup to serve with the flavorful hens. I don't saute the garlic and onions, I just boil them together and there are no added flavorings.

LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS WISH: Aimee Mann Christmas CD
This seems out of the ordinary. The queen of angsty music and perpetually dour Aimee Mann singing Christmas songs! I can't wait to hear them, one song was co-written by her husband Michael Penn and Jon Brion, woohoo.