I was browsing through my food photos and realized I have too many adobo pics. All looks a little different from one another, the basic cooking principle tweaked depending on how my family wanted it at the time. Adobo is a stew prep applied to pork, poultry, fish, or even vegetables, cooked in vinegar, garlic, soy sauce and bay leaves. When I ran out of ideas or ingredients I cook adobo.
So how do you cook adobo? Lemme count the ways…
My 1st memory of adobo is mom’s adobong manok (chicken) ala-eh style – dry and dark with soy sauce. Yet I couldn’t stop thinking about how she did it last December -Â with more sauce and chunks of potatoes. That’s pork adobo, soupy actually but great on rice.
Here is adobong baboy na patuyo (dry pork adobo)with potatoes. Cooked 2 ways – potatoes and pork cooked together or separately. Dry adobo is when the meat is simmered until the sauce dries up then fried with oil until brownish.
Above (left) is CPA or chicken and pork adobo. This time cooked not too dry but not soupy. This is when I reserve about a cup of broth, fry the meat until brownish, and then stir in the reserved broth to make thicker sauce. The chicken adobo on the right is cooked the same way.
Of course, vegetables may be included and I love potatoes most of all. Sometimes I add carrots, cooked dry or soupy as Cean likes it. He also likes ‘em with hard-boiled eggs.
Chicken and pork liver is also great cooked this way. Above shows adobong atay ng manok (chicken liver) – saucy and dry. Fab as appetizer or pulutan!
Above (left) is adobong atay ng baboy (pork liver) sprinkled with lemon juice. How about adobo sa labanos (adobo with white radish)? It’s something I’ve learned from a colleague years ago back in Brunei – adobo sauteed in patis (fish sauce) and tomatoes.
Adobong kangkong (river spinach) and adobong sitaw (string beans) is quite good even devoid of meat. It is just that my boys are meat lovers I can’t get away without them.
Of course, there are still lots of ways other than above. Take a look at Stef’s list. When work isn’t messing around with my blogging sched, I will be writing about each of the above or even add more to the list.
More:
Adobong Pusit
Chicken & Marbleized Quail Eggs Adobo
My father, a farmer in his hometown before working his way to becoming an accountant, definitely influenced my cooking in a lot of ways than I thought. My siblings and I were raised in a backyard full of fruit trees and vegetable garden. We spent weekends and the summer breaks running around with ducks, chickens, goats and pigs. I had wonderful memories of gathering eggs, butchering chickens, selling vegetables and the sweet aroma of preserved fruits. But my love for art led me to a degree in Architecture. Just few months after getting my license, I went abroad and lived independently at age 23. Definitely no maid, no cook, and a totally different food culture. Along the way I met lots of friends and spent what seemed a lifetime learning new tricks and recipes.
Now living in Auckland, I am a work-from-home mum who juggles time between work, fun and family - in pursuit of work-life balance. No matter how busy I am, I love the idea of cooking for my family. My blog chronicles home cooking greatly influenced by life outside my home country from Southeast Asia to Beijing and Auckland. And most of the time, being busy also means easy (sometimes quick), affordable meals.
i absolutely love adobo. it’s my all time favorite food. i like any kind of adobo as long as it’s pork or chicken. and seeing your pictures of adobo makes me hungry which makes me miss my mom’s adobo. i’ll probably cook adobo tomorrow. hehe.
Adobo anything is our favorite too! We cook a version of adobo at least once a week. This week, chicken and potato adobo is in the works
Hey Iska, thanks for participating. I do have a couple of adobo recipes but on the gourmet side. Adobo is certainly one of my comfort foods.
CIAO!
Adobo how much do i love adobo? Let’s just say, the craving is certainly kicking in again! I too like JMom, have adobo simmering in the pot more than i can remember every month. Sometimes twice a week [ian loves it too! especially with potatoes.]. Chicken, beef or pork, he’ll eat adobo with me – he hasn’t dived in on the kangkong adobo though!
You have certainly acquired quite a lot of adobo variations here. Thanks for posting all of them. I’m drooling.
wow! adobo galore! parang naumay ata ako!
joke! grabe ha me too i do all variations in cooking anything adobo-ish! kids love it db? well, except for adobong kangkong or sitaw 
hubby cooks the perfect chicken pork adobo – yung tuyo siya. sarap, nagutom ata ako
sherwin, JMom, mae, dba? pag walang maisip lutuin adobo agad?
d naman nakakasawa cos there are lots of ways to do it. sherwin, thanks for visiting my site 
hi chef! i hope u will share ur gourmet adobo in ur blog
ces, kaumay ba?
yeah right.. kids are not into vegan.
jane, A also loves adobo na patuyo the 4th photo up there is actually A’s cooking while the 1st one was under his supervision hehehehe
ayayay! adobo galore! my week won’t be complete without eating my all-time favourite adobo at least twice! today, i managed to slip out of the “orfanage†to indulge on kamayan’s fatty and oily version with matching pinakbet and daing na bangus!
ang galing! many ways to cook adobo..it’s my favorite food;)
Right on!!! Adobo is the only dish I can do without looking at the recepie. I cooked it a lot for all the guys in the firehouse when I was a firefighter. They all loved it. I throw dry whole red chillis in mine for a the added kick in the ass….
wow…i love it all…its amazing…yummy…..the best lahat…ur really a great,fabulous chief….thanks really a lot…now i got another version of cooking adobo…either pork or chicken…thnks a lot…..
I love all the adobo you’ve shown but I can only cook adobo with chicken coz’s bawal and walang baboy dito sa Saudi.
Regards and thanks for the info,
Armand