Adobo is indeed a unique innovation of a Filipino dish. An innate sense of putting its ingredients together is needed to make hearty meal. Thinking how Filipino Adobo originated and how it got its name will surely throw you into deep confusion. So check this out:
History of Adobo
Known to originate from a Spanish recipe called adobado, this dish uniquely became a trademark in Filipino foods. Adobo is even a Spanish word which means seasoning or marinade. Filipinos finally found out that a pungent mix of soy sauce and vinegar would be the best ingredient to preserve meat.
This is usually done with one of adobo’s main ingredients, yes that’s soaking or curing the meat with vinegar. Early Filipinos may have got their word for this recipe from a derivative of the Spanish word adobar which means to marinate. To further prove the presence and popularity of food preservation in ancient Philippines, you might want to take a look at the history of Bagoong or Shrimp Paste, another popular food item in the country.
With all respects to foreign contact that early Philippine settlers had made, influence from the Chinese and Spaniards had a lasting imprint. Adobo was purely white in the ancient days but it started to innovate when Chinese introduced soy sauce.
How to Make Adobo
You might still wonder how it turned to be a familiar Filipino dish despite its foreign origin. Simple, they retained all the native ingredients but made use of foreign ones like they own it; and the grand result, one of the most unique Filipino food recipes known all over the world.
For the preparation stage, if you want the meat (chicken or pork) to retain a distinct taste, you can try marinating it in the usual vinegar, black pepper, salt and garlic for at least an hour or two but make sure it stays in the refrigerator. After this, prepare the needed amounts of chopped garlic and onion for the meat that is chopped according to how you want it consumed. Heat the pot first and then put in either the spices first or all everything including the marinated meat. Stew it for almost an hour on a medium heat with regular stirring.
Reinventing Adobo
If you couple this recipe with Filipino ingenuity, you can create various reinventions of this Filipino Adobo. Some cooking enthusiasts put in sugar, coconut milk, kangkong and some other indigenous ingredients to make it more unique.
