Prep: 15

Cook: 4 30

Total: 4 45

Servings: 4 people

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Fusion

Label: Pork stew

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Connie’s notes

What is sancocho? It’s a meat and vegetable stew in Caribbean and Latin American cuisines. The meats and vegetables vary; the Colombian sancocho often includes plantain while the sancocho de siete carnes of the Dominican Republic occassionally includes sausage. Or so, I’ve read.

In this recipe, saba banana (native to the Philippines) is substituted for plantain. Spanish-style chorizo is the sausage of choice.

Is this adaptation a soup or a stew? Treat it as both. Enjoy the delightful broth as a soup; serve the meat and vegetables as a main course that you can enjoy with bread or rice.

You might think it’s just boiled meat and vegetables but wait until to experience broth so rich that it feels sticky in the mouth. And then, there’s the lovely flavor and color imparted by the tomatoes and sausages. To squeeze out all those flavors, long and slow cooking is required.

Slow cooking pork hock with tomatoes, onion, sausages, garlic and bay leaves

It takes about three-and-a-half to four hours for the meat to reach the ideal stage of tenderness. By that time, the rind and tendons have turned gelatinous — so soft that they get squished when pressed between your tongue and the roof of your mouth. Only when the pork has reached that point that the vegetables are added.

Cabbage wedges, corn and caba bananas in slow cooker

And then you need a total of about 30 to 40 minutes to cook them all so that their texture complements the pork. In that time, they soak up the salty savory broth while expelling their own sweetness. And you get a lovely mix that will make you wonder why you never considered boiling meat and vegetables with a few extras like tomatoes, sausages and bay leaves.

Ingredients

1 kilogram sliced pork hock (2.2 pounds)
200 grams Spanish-style chorizo (about half a pound) sliced
3 to 4 plump tomatoes diced
1 to 2 yellow onion peeled and sliced
6 to 8 cloves garlic peeled and pounded
2 to 3 bay leaves
2 pinches ground oregano
salt
pepper

Vegetables

1 small cabbage cut into quarters
1 to 2 sweet yellow corn peeled and cut into quarters
3 to 4 saba bananas peeled and halved
cilantro to garnish

Instructions

Parboil the pork hock

Boil about eight cups of water in a pot and slide in the pork hock.
Cook over high heat, uncovered, for about ten minutes or until scum has risen to the surface.
Strain the pork and rinse well to remove all impurities.

Slow cook the pork and sausages

Transfer the parboiled pork hock slices the the slow cooker and add the sausage slices, onion, garlic, tomatoes, bay leaves and oregano. Season with a teaspoon of salt and a quarter teaspoon of pepper.
Pour in enough boiling water (not the water in which the pork was parboiled) to cover everything by about two inches.
Set the cooker on HIGH and cook until the water is boiling (it takes about an hour). Switch to LOW and continue cooking until the pork is very tender.

Add the vegetables and bananas

Taste the broth, and add more salt and pepper, if needed.
Press the cabbage wedges and corn into the broth, and turn up the heat to HIGH. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes or until the cabbage leaves are softened and the corn kernels are cooked through.
Taste the broth again, and adjust the seasonings, if required.
Take the halved saba bananas, push into the broth and cook everything together for another 10 to 15 minutes.
Taste the broth one last time, and add salt and pepper if it tastes bland (the vegetables do soak up the saltiness during cooking and even afterwards).
Top with torn cilantro and serve.

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