Philippine asado

Pork braised whole in soy, star anise and calamansi, then sliced and returned to its sauce.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg pork shoulder, in one piece
• 100 ml soy sauce
• 60 ml calamansi juice
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3 star anise
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 onion, sliced
• 400 ml water
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 bay leaves

Method

1. BRAISED WHOLE, SLICED AFTER. Cut into cubes first and you get a stew -- the sauce gets into everything and the meat dries at the edges. In one piece it stays moist, and slicing it across the grain at the end is what makes it worth putting in a siopao or a bread roll.
2. Marinate the pork in the soy, calamansi, garlic and pepper for 2 hours at room temperature, turning it twice. Keep the marinade.
3. Lift it out and pat it dry. Wet meat will not brown, and the browning is where the colour of the finished sauce comes from.
4. Sear it in the oil on every face, 3 minutes a side, until properly dark. The sugar in the soy on its surface catches quickly, so keep it moving.
5. Onion into the pan, 3 minutes. Marinade, water, sugar, star anise and bay in.
6. Cover and simmer very gently 1 hour 45 minutes, turning the meat every half hour so it cooks evenly in a liquid that does not cover it.
7. Lift the pork out and rest it 20 minutes. Sliced hot it shreds; rested, it holds a clean slice.
8. Fish out the star anise and bay, then boil the liquid down hard, 10 to 12 minutes, until it is syrupy and coats a spoon.
9. Slice the pork 1 cm thick across the grain and return the slices to the sauce off the heat, turning them over once to glaze.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes