Hello Foodies!
Shei here and I'm going to share one of my mama's special recipe for pork humba. Before that, let's talk about what pork humba is.

The Philippines is very well known for its adobo dish, however, in Central and Southern Philippines, we have our own version of Pork Adobo and we call it Pork Humba. Actually, we also have the Visayan version of pork adobo which we also call adobo, but it's just fried pork and garlic without any sauce.

It's often confusing since adobo dish differs according to where you are in the country. I remember one time, I met up with my Japanese friend, Jintan. We had dinner together with one Japanese friend and another Filipino friend. Jintan went to Tarlac (a place in Northern Philippines) before. When he visited Cebu, he told me and my Filipino friend that he wanted to eat adobo again. When we went to the restaurant and ordered adobo, he was confused because the adobo he ate in Tarlac was entirely different from the adobo served in Cebu.

When he described it to us, my friend and I finally realized that he's actually talking about Pork Humba.

A couple years later, Jintan visited Cebu again and he visited our house. Mama prepared Pork Humba and when he tasted it, he was so overwhelmed and said that it was so good... the best he has tasted so far. For some, it might be lip service, but I don't think so. My mama's Pork Humba is really one of the best I've tasted as well. My friends, relatives and students who have tasted it says the same thing. Some of them even asked her for the recipe. hahaha

Enough with the chitchat and let's start making my Mama's Pork Humba!!!

My Mama's PORK HUMBA

What do we need?

Of course, we need some pork. This one above is around 2.5 kilograms. It's papa's birthday tomorrow, so we have to prepare more than usual.

We also need to prepare some onions (in our case, we use a white one), garlic and bell pepper.

Salted black beans, dried banana blossom (these two are usual), Taosio (this isn't very common, but mama adds this to her humba to make it more delish... it's soybean with salt and water)

Some seasoning and Sprite (used as meat tenderizer)

We also have pineapple juice and soy sauce

Dried bay leaf

More seasoning like Tabasco (since I like it to be a bit spicy), black pepper and garlic bread seasoning :) These are actually optional as well... mama just like to put in spices in her dishes

Boiled eggs... (this is optional, but I love eating humba with boiled eggs)

In addition to the ingredients above, we also used some sugar and water. The ingredients used in making humba varies from family to family. In my family's case, these are the usual ingredients we use to create my mama's delicious pork humba.

Let's Start COOKING~!!!!

First off, we add our soy sauce and mix thoroughly. Note that we're still mixing the ingredients without turning on the stove... yep.. not yet!

Next, we add the pineapple juice... just enough to mix everything it. The amount depends on how much meat you want to cook as well.

Let's add the onion... you can cut it according to your preference. ^^

Then, we add the garlic. :)

Here's our salted black beans...

Taosio... as I've mentioned earlier, this is optional. Mostly, they just use salted black beans and the dried banana blossom. :)

Here's how it looks like... let's add the other ingredients!

Here comes the dried banana blossom!!! ^^

Then, we have Sprite... The amount of sprite depends on the amount of meat you used. In our case, we we used up almost half of a liter of sprite for 2.5kg of meat.

MIX... MIX... MIX... until it looks like this one below...

Mama's style is easy, isn't it? Basically, the first step is just mixing most of the ingredients in. And since we're done with that, let's heat it up!

We wait until it boils and the meat becomes brownish in color before we start adding the other ingredients. :) It takes a while, but you can do other stuff while waiting. ^^

Once we achieve the color we want, we added the dried bay leaf. :)

Add one and a half mug of water. :)

Sugar... in our case, we used brown sugar... but you can also use white sugar if you want. :)

Next three are optional... but mama placed in some black pepper, tabasco sauce and ginger bread seasoning to taste. :D

We then added some sliced bell pepper into the mix. ^^ We placed this later than the garlic and onion so it won't become too soft

You can also choose whether to put Magic Sarap seasoning in your dish. I think this seasoning mix is common in Asian countries, so I'm not sure if it's available in the other side of the world. :)

Also optional... haha But trust me, boiled eggs in Pork Humba is the bomb!!! :P

Then, we just wait until it's fully cooked. We have to check if the meat is tender enough to eat and if the color of the ingredients changed. Just leave it as it is and don't mix a lot because it might ruin the ingredients.

After several more minutes, the dish is complete!!! Isn't it beautiful? It's now ready for plating.

ITADAKIMASU~!!!!
Let's all dig in! :)


You might be wondering why we prepared a lot. It's because, my Papa will celebrate his birthday tomorrow! Did you know? Pork Humba is like wine... the older the better. Well, not until it's no longer edible though... but really! It's tasted good today, but it will definitely taste better the next day. (^_)

If not consumed, mama's humba usually reaches until the fourth day and the taste is just enhanced. I guess it can reach longer than that, but by then, everything is already consumed. haha

And there you have it, friends! My Mama's Pork Humba!

What do you think about it? I hope you get to try it out, too!

See you next time! (^^,)/