after a week of eating heated (and then, reheated) pork and chicken adobo, my mom asked what was good for the family sunday lunch. only one thing came to mind. beef pochero!
this is basically nilagang baka (and some chicken for the kids), only with tomato sauce and chorizo bilbao and garbanzos added to the pot. i guess it’s really a blend of the pinoy and the spanish influence. come to think of it, this is the “maria clara” of pinoy recipes (but that’s another story) 😀
i fried the saging saba instead of just putting them raw. frying gives them some sort of caramelization and thus sweetens the broth.
did you see we cooked it in a kawali? how rustic can you get than that (yah, i guess more if a palayok was used instead) 😛
Friendship & Fries 
Hey Greg, I grew up with pochero as the most “effective” comfort food. Our version, however, does not have tomato sauce. Instead, we add squash (lots of it) boiled along with the beef, allowing it to “dissolve” into the broth to thicken the stock.
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first time i've heard of chorizo with the pochero but i'm sure it tastes awesome. and you're totally right about frying the bananas first. that's what my mom does. the caramelization gives the dish that extra oomph, plus it stops the banana from getting too mushy. man, i want to eat pochero now … but i want bulig (is that catfish?)
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oh, and about the kawali … do you know my mom has a couple of kawalis in her kitchen? one medium-size, one fiesta-size 😉 she brought them from the philippines and she uses them all the time.
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hi dave, first time i've heard about squash mash to replace tomato sauce. sounds interesting. will try that sometime!
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GG, what are balikbayan boxes for if not for the conveyance of kawalis 😀
Yup, pocherong bulig (mudfish, hito is catfish) is really good, especially in hunting the sac of fish roe inside (puga)
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HA HA HA! i just remembered having catfish at a resto in NY offering southern cooking. it was pretty simple, but delicious, fare. the catfish fillets were fried and served with slaw and fries. i expressed my disappointment over the lack of puga and my friends (no filipinos in this bunch) looked at me a bit aghast 😛 i guess they hadn't been introduced to the scruptiousness that is fish roe.
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Greg, I somehow missed this post. Anyway, this is my speciality… I cook it every Christmas eve and my family loves it. I have modified it to include smoked ham hocks which gives a smokey flavor to the broth. As a side dish accompaniment, I broil eggplant and chop onions and garnish with vinegar and patis.
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atche, my mom does the smoked ham hocks, too. i wonder if that's something folks in the u.s. came up with? i don't recall it being part of the dish when we were in the philippines. she also serves it with little meatballs.
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wow, atsi, hope to try out your specialty sometime. 🙂
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Adding the smoked ham hocks is the Spanish influence in our cuisine. In the Philippines, my mother cooks pochero without the ham and the eggplant side dish. In my case, I cook pochero ( here in Switzerland) with an eggplant side dish (yummy!). Unlike Claire, I put garlic instead of onions in the eggplant salad. The ham hocks is optional in my recipe. If I managed to buy some, I put it. Otherwise, the pochero is still good without the ham.
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thanks C B! i'm learning a lot of new stuff about pochero 😀
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