Non-Traditional Humba Recipe

It's another porky Friday! That was my status the other day as I thought of a way to prepare the the pork I had taken out of the freezer. Ooops! Sorry, I didn't mean to be smug, but we have been having our porky Friday's for the last 3 weeks now and looks like it'll take a few more weeks to finish our supply :). Ok, we've had a very close friend and lets see... 6 family members who came in from the Philippines in the last couple of months, and with 40kg baggage allowance, just think how much pork we could take in with that! hahaha!


To those of you who have just visited (specially those who are in Qatar) please, this is our tiny little secret! :) You can do it too, as long as it is just for your own consumption, and you don't travel during the Ramadan period, the security officers at the airport are not too strict with it anymore (or we are just lucky?! hehe!). Well, since the time I had relocated to Qatar, we had always been lucky to go unnoticed having pork in our luggage.. Ok, so now I've been incriminating myself too much.. let's just leave it at that shall we? :)

So last Friday, I thought of making humba again, but this time, acquiring some techniques from the recently concluded reality show Kitchen Superstar of GMA-7, I tried making my own non-traditional version of the dish. In the show, the traditional Visayan version was prepared by no less than Ms. Glenda Barretto of the famous Via Mare chain of restaurants. See I am not a trained cook, I really just love cooking so when I come to learn of some cooking techniques, I make sure to note them.
One is the process of parbroiling the meat. To be honest that was the first time I've learned how to do that. I mean I've heard of it but don't know how to do it, it is the process of partially cooking the meat in boiling water but without fully cooking it. It is done to cut the cooking time and to easily get rid of the scum layer and blood. So that I did, and the other thing I found is that when the meat is parbroiled, you are able to keep the meat firm as it softens.
I was so pleased with the results, the dish was able to keep the distinct Humba taste and feel while at the same time acquire the Chinese flavor from the hoisin sauce.
Ingredients:
1kg pork belly
5 pcs white button mushrooms, sliced
pechay leaves
peppercorns
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 big onion, minced
4 laurel (bay) leaves
2 tbs tahure (fermented tofu)
1/4 cup light soy sauce
2 tbs brown sugar
1 tsp cane vinegar
4 tbs cooking oil
2 cups water
more water for parbroiling
Method:
To parbroil the pork, put skin side down in a pot with just enough boiling water to submerge the meat. Leave for 2-3 minutes then take out from the pan. Let cool then slice to about 6-8 cubes (about 3sq.in. each).
In another saucepan, saute garlic in hot oil. Once lightly browned and soft, add onions and cook until translucent.
Add the pork pieces, light soy sauce, tahure, peppercorns and bay leaves. Stir well to blend flavors evenly to the meat. Cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Add the vinegar, do not stir. Adjust the heat to very low, cover and leave to cook for another 10 minutes then add 1 cup of water set the heat back to medium and cover. Once boiling, adjust the heat back to low and simmer for 45 minutes, checking from time to time and adding water if the sauce starts drying up. 
Put the brown sugar and simmer for another 15 minutes, check the taste and add salt if necessary. Add the mushrooms and pechay 5 minutes before turning off the heat.
Transfer meat to a serving plate, slice and pour over the sauce and vegetables. Serve with hot rice. Enjoy!





Update (Sep 2011): Two more Humba recipes have been posted, the Batangas Humba and the Humbang Pula, which you may also want to try :)