Filipino Humba Recipe
Filipino food is already making its way to be recognized around the globe. They are known to be creative in exploring new tastes. One dish that you should give a try is the Humba. Learn how to cook this delicious dish by following the Filipino Humba recipe below.
Humba is a popular Filipino dish in the Visayan and southern region as it is believed to be introduced by the Chinese in these areas. It resembles the Chinese Hong-ba, a braised pork belly with savory-sweet sauce made from soy sauce and vinegar. Humba mainly uses pork meat as its main ingredient, so it can be referred to as Pork Humba.
How to Cook a Filipino Pork Humba
If you have known or tried pork Adobo, Humba is something similar to it. But the way they are cooked is different. Though Humba uses soy sauce and vinegar as its sauce, it has a slightly sweet texture, unlike Adobo which has a salty-vinegary taste. Aside from their difference, both are delicious main course cuisine Filipino dishes.
This recipe can serve up to 4 people and may take up to 1.5 hours to cook(prep time is approximately 15 minutes and cooking time is up to 1 hour). Here are the things that you’ll need to cook a delicious Filipino Pork Humba:
- 680g or 1.5 lbs Pork Belly (cut into bit-size)
- 60 ml or ¼ cup of Soy Sauce
- 60 ml or ¼ cup of Vinegar
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 2 cups of water
- 1 medium sized red onion – chopped
- 4 cloves garlic – minced
- ½ cup pineapple tidbits/pineapple juice can be included
- ¼ cup dried banana blossoms
- ¼ cup tausi or fermented black beans
- 1 tablespoon peppercorn
- 2 or 3 pieces bay leaves
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
Optional ingredients: star anise, dried lily
Heat (medium heat) a large pot over medium fire and put the cooking oil.
Sear the pork belly until it gets slightly browned and fats exhibits or rendered. If you are using pork belly with more fats, make sure to extract as much pork fat as you can. Set aside the fried pork and remove excess oil in the pan. Just leave at least 2 tablespoons of oil in the pan.
Sauté the garlic using the same cooking pot until golden brown. Add the pork belly into the sautéed garlic and stir properly until they are mixed.
Put all other ingredients into the sautéed garlic and pork belly. Put a cover into the pot and let it simmer for 40 up to 50 minutes or until the pork is tender. Add more water if needed.
Remove the pot cover and continue to simmer until you have a thick sauce. You can now transfer the pork dish into a serving pot. Serve it with plain rice and enjoy your pork humba.
Verdict
Cooking a delicious Filipino pork humba is very easy. The ingredients are easy to find, like the fermented black beans or salted black beans, bay leaves, and banana blossoms are readily available at the market. Aside from pork belly, other recipes also use pork hocks as their main meat ingredient. Depending on how many stomachs that you need to feed, you can use up to 2 lbs pork belly if you want.
So if you are one of those who would like to try this Filipino braised pork belly dish, prepare those ingredients and simply follow the given instructions of the humba pork recipe.
