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Pork Estofado

Pork Estofado always makes our fiesta food fare. Just like adobo, the older it gets the tastier it becomes.



While there are many recipes and tweaks in making estofado, I just stick to a simpler recipe with ingredients that are just readily available in your cupboard. While it may seem very hard to cook, its actually a very simple dish - just fry and stew!
 Here's the recipe for Pork Estofado




Ingredients
  • 1.5 kilo pork belly (big slices around 2x2x2 inches)
  • 8 pcs. canned pineapples slices
  • 6 pcs. saba or plantains, halved
  • Oil for frying


Sauce
  • 5 cups pineapple juice (or just one big can)
  • 1 cup brown sugar, adjustable
  • 2 Tbsp soy sauce
  • 3 pcs bay leaves
  • 6 gloves garlic, pressed 
  • 2 medium size onions, quartered
  • 1/2 cup anisado wine, optional
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
Procedure
  1. Fry pork (until brown), bananas and pineapple separately then set aside. This portion is optional. You may also turbo broil the pork.
  2. In a pot, mix all the "Sauce" ingredients and let the mixture boil. 
  3. Layer the fried pork (bottomest), pineapples and bananas (you may also just use the bananas as garnish) in the pot. Make sure they sauce covers the pork, so need to mix.
  4. Stew until the pork softens and the sauce thickens
  5. Season to taste with salt and pepper as you make final taste adjustments



The measurements of the "Sauce" ingredients are just guides, you can adjust it to fit your taste as you continue cooking. For this recipe, I did not make measurements - I just followed my taste instincts. Also I experimented on by blending (using a blender) some bananas, pineapple and the sauce then adding them to the mix for a thicker sauce. And it worked!

As I always say, you can always tweak the recipe above by adding or deleting ingredients as well as increasing or decreasing the amounts specified. Taste what you are cooking from time to time and make adjustments as you go along before you serve it. Enjoy!

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