Pochero

A beef and tomato boil with bananas in it, added late so they hold.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef, fish sauce.

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg beef shank, in large pieces
• 4 saba bananas, in thick chunks
• 200 g cooked chickpeas
• 300 g cabbage, in wedges
• 200 g green beans
• 2 potatoes, in chunks
• 400 g tinned tomatoes
• 1 onion and 6 garlic cloves
• 2 chorizo, sliced, optional
• 2.5 litres water
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons oil

Method

1. Brown the beef in the oil, add the onion and garlic, then the tomatoes and water.
2. Simmer covered for 2 to 2.5 hours, skimming, until the shank gives completely.
3. Add the chorizo and chickpeas for the last 30 minutes, and the potatoes for 20.
4. ADD THE SABA BANANAS FOR THE LAST 8 MINUTES ONLY. They are the thing that makes this pochero rather than a beef nilaga, and they are also the thing that disintegrates: in from the start they dissolve and make the whole broth sweet and cloudy.
5. Use saba, firm cooking bananas. A dessert banana will not survive even the eight minutes.
6. Add the green beans for 5 and the cabbage wedges for 3, so the cabbage still has structure.
7. Season with fish sauce at the end and serve the broth and the solids together, with a dip of fish sauce and crushed chilli.

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