Cook’s notes
Filipino adobo and Korean kimchi are both intense in flavor and aroma. Adobo has whole garlic cloves, whole peppercorns, bay leaves, oregano… It’s salty and sour, and the smell can be overpowering. Stinky, really (the acceptable non-culturally offensive term these days is “funky”), but for us Filipinos, it’s the smell of home.
Korean kimchi is fermented. And, as with any fermented food, the process not only turns the vegetable sour, the flavor and aroma of all the other ingredients added to it intensify as well. And the heat can make you give off an involuntary cough.
Combining adobo and kimchi might seem a bit extreme but when coconut cream joins the duo, the outcome is simply splendid. The natural sweetness of coconut cream mellows down the saltiness and acidity, and tones down the heat. In the end, the cooked adobo is spicy, sour, salty with no sharp sensation in the mouth. Rather, there is a subtly sweet creaminess courtesy of the coconut cream.
Pork adobo with kimchi and coconut cream
Ingredients
- 350 grams pork belly (0.77 pounds / 12.3 oz) cut into strips about ½ inch wide
- fish sauce
- 6 cloves garlic peeled and lightly pounded
- 2 bay leaves
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon ground oregano
- 1 cup cabbage kimchi (with the juice) roughly chopped
- 1 cup coconut cream
- ¼ cup sliced scallions
- torn cilantro (optional), to garnish
Instructions
- In a non-stick pan, spread the pork strips, set over medium heat and cook the pork, turning them around every few minutes, until fat has been rendered.
- Drizzle in a tablespoon of fish sauce and add the garlic, pepper, oregano and bay leaves. Cook, stirring, for about a minute.
- Stir in half of the kimchi and cook for about a minute.
- Pour in the coconut cream, stir, cover the pan and simmer until the pork is tender (you may need to add water, no more than a quarter cup at a time, if the liquid dries out before the pork is done).
- Stir in the remaining half of the kimchi and two tablespoons of sliced scallions. Taste and adjust the seasonings, if needed.
- Sprinkle in more sliced scallions (and cilantro, if you like) and serve immediately.
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