We Filipinos love the sweet and sour taste of Adobo, right? And we just can't help it when it's served with hot and steamy rice. This dish is certainly a trademark of us Filipinos. But do you know that we Filipinos inherit this dish from the Spaniards? Well basically, it started when the Spaniards conquer us during the late 16th and early 17th century, they encountered an indigenous cooking process that uses stewing with vinegar. They called this process as adobo, which is the Spanish term for marinade or seasoning. Since then, we Filipinos called the dish Adobo. The original name of the dish was lost in history. But even though the term or the name Adobo came from the Spaniards, we have our own, indigenous, way of cooking adobo, apart from its Spanish counterpart. And today I learned something that I want to share with you, adobo with a twist. How? Have you ever tasted Adobo with gata or coconut milk? Now that's different! So, let's do our Filipino recipe Adobo sa gata!
This adobo sa gata or adobo in coconut milk is not that hard to do. If you know how to cook the usual adobo, you won't get lost in cooking this dish as well. So, what are the ingredients of this adobo sa gata? We should first prepare our 1 lb chicken, cut into serving pieces, 1/3 cup white vinegar, 2 to 3 tbsp. soy sauce, 2 tbsp crushed garlic, salt to taste, 1/4 tsp pepper (or 1 tsp peppercorn), water, 3/4 cup coconut milk, chili pepper, 1 tbsp oil. After you've prepared the ingredients, we can now start cooking, in a deep skillet, put oil and sear chicken until brown. Then, when the chicken is already brown (the edible "brown" color, ok?), in a separate pan, combine vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, salt, and pepper, add depending on your taste preference. Stir the mixture until they blend; now you can add the brown chicken. Bring this to a boil, and let it simmer uncovered, if the sauce is reduced add about ½ cup of water. This time cover it and still let it simmer until the chicken is tender enough. Now, our special addition to our adobo - gata! Together with the chili pepper, pour in the gata. Cook it for another few more minutes to thicken the sauce. And that's how you do your own Adobo sa gata! That's easy, isn't it?
You know adobo is not just another delicious dish for your family to share, but also, it has a lot of nutritional benefit. Aside from the fact that chicken (that's used in this dish) is rich from protein, adobo is also rich with carbohydrates, and healthy fat content. You see from this recipe, that you could invent new, tasty, and healthy dish from our traditional and ever-loved Philippine foods. It's always on us, how we like our dishes to taste like? Just remember that our love for cooking and eating will bring us new ideas.
