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Recipes with cane vinegar

5 recipes that use cane vinegar, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Adobong kangkong, takes 18 minutes. It is most often cooked with garlic, bay leaves and brown sugar.

Run out of cane vinegar? Lemon juice, same amount.

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Adobong kangkong

In Manila and across Luzon, adobong kangkong is the cheap green that sits in a tray at the carinderia, the roadside canteen where office workers and jeepney drivers point at two or three dishes to go with their rice. It is not a stir-fry in the Chinese or Malay sense: the water spinach is cooked briefly in an adobo base of cane vinegar, soy sauce, bay and cracked pepper, so the stems stay crunchy while the leaves soak up a sharp, salty, garlicky sauce that runs into the rice. It costs very little, takes ten minutes and is often the only vegetable on a weekday plate. Chef's tip: let the vinegar boil for a full minute before you stir anything, the way Filipino cooks do; the raw, harsh edge cooks off and the sauce turns mellow.

18 minSidesVegan
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Tofu adobo

Adobo is the dish Filipinos call national, cooked in some form in nearly every home from Ilocos down to Mindanao, and the meat versions are what most people know. In Catholic households, though, Holy Week and the Fridays of Lent call for a meatless table, and adobong tokwa (tofu adobo) is the answer many families reach for. Firm tofu is fried until it has a golden skin, then simmered in a reduced sauce of cane vinegar, soy sauce, a whole head of garlic, bay leaves and whole peppercorns until the sauce clings, sour and salty with a little sweetness. It tastes even better the next day and is eaten with mounds of plain rice. Chef's tip: press the tofu well and fry it properly; a dry, golden crust is what soaks up the adobo sauce instead of turning it watery.

35 minVegetarianVegan
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pork tocino

In Pampanga, tocino is breakfast: thin slices of pork shoulder in a sweet, garlicky marinade, fried until the sugar caramelises at the edges, then served with garlic fried rice and a fried egg as 'tosilog'. Shop tocino is often bright pink from curing salts; this home version leaves those out, so it is a sweet marinated pork rather than a true cure, gets its warm red colour from annatto and paprika, and must be kept in the fridge and cooked within 3 days (or frozen). Look for pork with a little fat running through it so it stays juicy. Chef's tip: start it in a splash of water; the pork simmers through first, then the sugar glazes once the water is gone, so it doesn't burn before it's cooked.

35 minMeatGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Cebu-style lechon belly

Cebu claims the best lechon in the Philippines, and its whole roast pigs are stuffed with lemongrass, garlic and spring onion so the meat needs no sauce. Lechon belly (lechon belyo) brings that flavour to a home oven: a slab of pork belly is rolled around the same herbs, tied, and roasted slowly, then blasted with heat until the rind turns to crackling. It is the centrepiece for Cebuano fiestas, Christmas and big birthdays, carved at the table and eaten with rice and a little spiced vinegar. Chef's tip: score only the meat side, never the skin, and dry the rind in the fridge overnight; an unbroken, dry skin crackles evenly.

250 minMeatGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Satti

Satti is how Zamboanga City starts the day: small skewers of grilled chicken or beef, smoky from charcoal, drowned in a thin, spicy, slightly sweet red sauce and eaten with ta'mu, little rice cakes cooked in woven palm-leaf pouches. Satti houses near the port open before sunrise and are busiest on weekend mornings. It is a cousin of Malaysian and Indonesian satay, but the sauce is runnier and spiced with chilli and a little peanut. Pressed rice cubes or plain rice stand in well for ta'mu at home. Chef's tip: thread the chicken in small, flat pieces and close together; they cook fast and stay juicy before the outside dries.

60 minChickenSpicy
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with cane vinegar