A saucy and savory pork stew that is great for meal prep, and freezer friendly. Take advantage of the opportunity to make some ramen eggs while you’re at it.

Time: 5/5
Takes a couple hours, or even overnight if you’re making the eggs too.

Effort: 3/5
To be honest, peeling the eggs was the hardest part. Most of the recipe is passive cook time.

Happy Accidents

This recipe began as an attempt to recreate my earlier recipe for Japanese Chashu. The original recipe was meal prep friendly and had a great presentation, but I’ve recently began experimenting with how little effort I can put into my meals and still get away with it.

So I made the same recipe, except instead of trussing up a whole pork butt I just diced the pork into big pieces. A deconstructed chashu, if you will. Everything went swimmingly until I thought it would taste better with some vinegar, like how some acidity improves a Gyudon.

Unexpectedly, this took the stew in a whole other direction. Just a couple teaspoons of vinegar turned the flavour profile distinctly Filipino, like the pork adobo that was a feature of many of my childhood summers. So, a few bay leaves and a copious amount of black pepper later, I had a big pot of delicious pork adobo to serve with rice.

The vinegar was no mistake, but a happy accident which demonstrates how surprisingly close culinary traditions can be. It’s almost like people around the world are more similar than they are different, and we should all try to be nice to each other.

Reflections aside, stews like these are great for meal prep, and they also freeze very well. I had an even easier time because the vacuum pot acts like a huge thermos flask and turns most of the simmering time into a passive process (and saves a ton of energy). But this recipe will definitely work with a traditional pot-over-burner setup too. I hope you give this pork adobo a try soon!

Posts since the last recipe that was actually served with rice: 0

Dramatis Personae

Served 8.

• 2.5lb pork shoulder

Much more macro friendly than the traditional pork belly, but also less unctuous and rich. There’s a trade off to be made here, and I chose to keep the calories relatively low as I will be eating several of these meals throughout the week. I’ll save the real deal for special occasions.

• 6 tbsp vinegar
• 3 tbsp black pepper
• Several cloves of garlic
• 1 Japanese leek (or 1 onion)
• A thumb of ginger

Vinegar is what makes adobo adobo, in my opinion. Don’t be afraid to make the dish very tangy, but do make gradual adjustments and make sure the acidity is where you want it. You can always add more, but you can’t take away.

Lots of black pepper is also essential to the adobo flavour profile, as is a decent amount of garlic. The leeks were only there because I set off trying to make Chashu, so if you are starting from scratch you can just use a regular onion. The ginger is there for the same reason, and can be safely omitted.

• 6 tbsp soy sauce 
• 6 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 tbsp sugar 

Light soy for flavour, dark soy for colour. If you absolutely have to only use one, use light soy. As for the bay leaf, I’m never sure if I can actually taste it but it’s in all the recipes so I guess it would be a good idea to include some too.

Sugar is not always included in the more traditional adobo recipes, but it was there because the recipe was intended to be for Chashu. Nevertheless, sweet and savoury is a great combo and I don’t regret it.

• 8 eggs

Just like with the original Chashu recipe, whenever I am cooking something in a bunch of sauce I want to marinade some soft boiled eggs in it. I’m going through the effort anyway, so I might as well make the greatest use of it right?

Besides the beautiful yellow shade of the yolk, the eggs also give some contrasting texture to a meal that is basically just soft, tender pork on soft, fluffy rice.

• 3 heads of broccoli

Always eat your veggies! Broccoli and cauliflower are both great choices for pairing with saucy dishes like stews and curries, because the florets mop up all the extra sauce. Having said, you can of course use whatever veggies you like and/are readily available. I’m going to steam all my broccoli in the wok, just because it’s an easy way to cook a lot of veg at once.

Executive summary

1. Cut and wash aromatics. Cut pork shoulder into 2 inch chunks.
2. Brown pork shoulder on all sides, in batches if needed. Reserve in a pot.
3. In the same pan, stir fry aromatics until fragrant, and put in the pot with the pork.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients besides the eggs and vegetables into the pot. 
5. Bring pot to a simmer. Simmer until pork is tender: 3-4 hours in the vacuum pot, or around 2 hours on the stovetop.
6. In the meantime, boil the eggs for 6 and a half minutes, then shock in cold water.
7. Once the pork is tender, allow the stew to cook down. Peel the eggs, submerge in the sauce, and refrigerate overnight.
8. The next day, make rice. Reserve and bisect the eggs. Bring the stew back to a brief simmer.
9. Assemble and serve hot.

Play by Play

Always wash your veggies! Leeks are especially notorious for having dirt hidden in their nooks and crannies. I like to cut them in sections, then vertically quarter them, so I can get between all the layers.

The meat will shrink by quite a lot ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) so keep the chunks big. They’ll also shred a bit when you stir them after they’re tender.

Nonstick pan, minimal amount of oil. I was hoping the pork shoulder would render out some of its own fat, but I picked a pretty lean shoulder so it needed a bit of oil to help it along.

Follow the pork with the aromatics, they will naturally deglaze the pan with their moisture.

Throw everything else into the pot and bring to a simmer. I put my stew in the vacuum pot at this point, but you can do it all the way on the stovetop.

See ya later!

I intend to age the stew overnight in the fridge, so might as well marinade some soft boiled eggs while I’m at it. 6 and a half minutes is the sweet spot for me.

Back to the stew. This was about the 2nd hour, and the pork has passed the chopstick test. I’ll let this cool while I peel the eggs.

The eggs took ages! I was genuinely exhausted by the they were peeled and in the pot. Nighty night! Into the fridge.

Here’s the next day. The fat has solidified on top of the stew, and you have an opportunity here to skim it. But fat is flavour, so make your own choices. I started the rice cooker off camera to give it a head start, since that will take some time.

Always wash your veggies, round two. Thin layer of water at the bottom of the pan, a sprinkle of salt between each layer of broccoli, cover the entire thing and steam for a couple minutes.

I fished the eggs out before bringing the adobo back up to temperature, and they’re looking fabulous!

This is gonna be a good week.

Tender pork, flavourful sauce, steaming rice. Kain Na!

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