Adobo sa Dilaw

From Adobo sa Buko from last week, I tried another adobo recipe, still from the September 2010 issue of Yummy Magazine.

"Adobo sa Dilaw" was something I was a bit hesitant to cook, because when I was young, I could always dig up turmeric in the lot of my late maternal grandfather. I didn't like how it smelled, and I didn't like how it stained my hands and my clothes - if my cousins and I played with it. My late maternal grandmother would also use turmeric to color the leaves of dried anahaw to be used in making banig, so back then I wasn't a big fan of this.

However, as I read the "Fresh for Last" article on the Yummy Magazine focusing on turmeric, I had a switch of heart. Turmeric had so many good medicinal / health values, so I decided to cook this.




Adobo sa Dilaw
{serves 4 to 6}

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo pork belly (liempo), cut into 2x2-inch chunks
• 3 bulbs garlic (2 bulbs left whole and washed, one bulb peeled and smashed)
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 (2-inch) ginger, peeled and sliced thinly
• 1 (2-inch) turmeric, peeled and sliced thinly
• 1/2 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• salt to taste
• 1 1/2 cups water
• grilled or steamed vegetable and spicy bagoong, to serve

Directions:

• Put all ingredients in a nonreactive or stainless steel pot (do not use aluminum or copper pots). Boil for 3 minutes.
• Reduce heat to simmer until pork becomes fork-tender, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours depending on the quality of the meat. Add a bit more water as needed. Adobo must be oily-saucy (not soupy), so add water with care.
• Serve with grilled or steamed vegetables such as okra, kangkong, eggplant, kamote or sayote shoots with spicy bagoong on the side.

My brother doesn't eat liempo, so I had to cook this recipe that could only feed me. It was a bit challenging, but I was able to do it. To save gas in long simmering, I placed the dish in the pressure cooker and cooked it for 30 minutes. The result? So tender meat, and so soft garlic, it just tasted so good!

The turmeric balances off the strong flavor and aroma of the ginger. They complimented each other well, and although I could taste the turmeric more than the ginger, I was still able to taste some hint of ginger in it. Of the 5 liempo cuts, only 2 had the fat, so this dish wasn't really oily, like most adobo are. Still, with the mashed garlic I was able to achieve the thick sauce needed in this dish, and I was one happy foodie.

The only vegetable in our fridge was the okra, so I decided to steam it by placing it in the rice pot while waiting for it to cook. I prepared the bagoong using store bought shrimp paste mixed with chili-garlic sauce. I don't eat okra so I pretty much "discarded" them after the shoot, but I did eating the dish with the bagoong, and it was good as well.

I was the only one in the family who was able to enjoy this dish because I cooked it for lunch. I plan of cooking this for the family - maybe cook some the night before and reheat it for mom's packed lunch... Yummy Magazine said this dish would taste better if it was left cooked overnight and reheat before serving. However, I was still a bit hesitant how the family would react to the new taste turmeric will bring. I will never know if I won't try, and since mom just had some liempo delivered as of this writing, I guess I will try this one again tonight. :)

*** Jenn ***

ps - I have come to love turmeric based on this recipe. A proof of that was the pot in our garden with some shoots of tumeric. I placed two roots in the pot to cultivate it, and it now has some leaves.