Pork Pata Humba

Pork Pata Humba is a Filipino pork dish. made by simmering pan fried pork pata, banana blossom and black beans in a sauce made with garlic, onion, pineapple juice, soy sauce, vinegar, bay leaves, pepper and sugar. Pork Pata Humba or braised ham hock with salted black beans is a sweet and savoury dish, greatly distinguished with the presence of banana blossoms and black beans. This delightful dish is best partnered with a hot steaming rice. Yum

PORK PATA HUMBA RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo pork pata (sliced)
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium size onion
• 1 can (250 ml) pineapple juice
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 1 bunch banana blossoms
• 2 tablespoons black beans
• 3 pieces dried bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• Sugar to taste
• Water as needed
• Oil (for searing)

Directions:

1. Wash and prepare the pata. Slice them into serving pieces.
2. Heat some oil in a pan. Add the pata slices and sear them until light brown. Flip to sear the other side. Once browned, set them aside.
3. Using the same pan, add the chopped garlic and onions. Saute a bit until light brown. Add the seared pata back to the pan and saute them altogether for a whole minute.
4. Add the pineapple juice, soy sauce and then season with pepper. Pour enough water and then cover the pot to simmer for 40 to 50 minutes or until the pork is tender.
5. After 25 minutes, add the bay leaves. Sweeten using sugar to taste. Add more water to cook the pata. Continue simmering until tender.
6. Once tender, add the vinegar. Let it cook for 2 to 3 minutes without stirring to avoid the raw taste of vinegar.
7. Add the banana blossoms and black beans. Stir well to combine. Cover the pot and cook for a few minutes until the sauce is slightly reduced. Turn the heat off.
8. Transfer the pork pata humba to a serving plate. Enjoy this together with a lot of hot steaming rice. Yum!

WHAT IS PATA?

Pata is the part of the pig which can be found at the leg. This part usually extends from the pig’s thigh up to the hooves. They are usually sold as a whole or sliced in boney chunks. While “pata” is actually a pork cut, many people associate pata to crispy pata, which is one of the best dishes using this cut. Other recipes using pata includes humba, paksiw na pata  and patatim.

PORK PATA HUMBA

Humba is one of my favorite soy sauce based dishes. Sometimes, I really get confused on the soy sauce based dishes because they look and taste almost similar. What really made me love humba was the banana blossoms and the black beans in one dish. (I was really amused with the fact that banana blossoms are super baby bananas!!)

The humba is a dish which is known to be adapted from the Chinese Hong-ba or red braised pork belly. In the country, they say that the best humba can be found from the Visayan and southern regions. This dish is traditionally made with pork belly slices.

My lolo was the one to introduce humba to me way way back. We always do it the classic way, with pork belly. It suprised me the most when my lolo used pork pata for the humba. He told me that he was originally going to make some patatim but saw some banana blossoms on the way back so he shifted to preparing humba. While eating boney chunks of the pata sounds like a challenge, my lolo explained that eating pata as a humba is an experience. We may always have humba with easy to eat liempo slices, but the fun starts when you connect with your food. As I carefully get the edible portions of my humba from the pata bones, there is also an extra fun part as I also try to sip the remaining sauce in the bones.

The lesson for the day is that, whether plainly lean or boney our ulam is, we should enjoy our food.

If you wanna know how to make pork pata humba at home, read and follow the quick and easy steps below. Happy cooking!

HOW TO MAKE PORK PATA HUMBA

Preparing pork pata humba is super easy and straightforward. If you have tried cooking pork pata before, then the following steps would be familiar to you.

Start the dish with searing the pata which are already sliced into serving pieces. Add just a little oil since the fat will also render its natural oils. No need to wait for the skin to be crispy, as long as both sides are golden brown, then they are already okay.

Using the rendered oil, saute the aromatics  and then together with the pata pieces. Add the flavorings so that it can early be absorbed by the pata. I used pineapple juice in this recipe, but other versions use crushed pineapples. You can also add a little sugar if you like this to be sweet. The next part is simmering the pata pieces until tender. Since we are cooking pork, this step might take up to an hour. You may always check the tenderness of the pata using a fork. Add the rest of the ingredients and some extra sugar. Then, simmer again. Plain tender pata is not enough, we want a pata that is so soft that they almost fall off the bones.

After adding the vinegar, do not stir immediately and wait for the strong taste of the vinegar to ran off. Then, add the banana blossoms and black beans. After this, be cautious on adding salt or fish sauce since the black beans are already salty. Just wait for the sauce to be reduced and then the pork humba is ready.

I enjoy my pork pata humba together with rice. Once I had a sip of the sauce, mapapa-unli rice naman talaga!

COOKING TIPS:

• If you want to make this spicy, you can add red chilies into the sauce before waiting for it to reduce.

Paano Magluto ng Pork Pata Humba

Mga Sangkap:

• 1 kilo pata ng baboy (hiniwa)
• 5 butil ng bawang
• 1 sibuyas
• 1 lata (250 ml) pineapple juice
• 1/2 tasang toyo
• 1/4 tasang suka
• 1 bugkos ng banana blossoms
• 2 kutsarang black beans
• 3 pirasong dahon ng laurel
• 1 kutsaritang buong paminta
• asukal
• tubig
• mantika (pang prito)

Directions:

1. Hugasan at ihanda ang mga pata. Hiwain ang mga ito sa serving pieces.
2. Magpainit ng mantika sa kawali. Ilagay ang mga pata at iprito ng konti hanggang maging light brown. Baliktarin ang mga ito para maluto ang kabilang side. Kapag brown na, isantabi muna.
3. Gamit ang parehong kawali, ilagay ang mga sibuyas at bawang at igisa hanggang maging light brown. Ibalik ang mga pinritong pata at igisa ang mgfa ito ng 1 minuto.
4. Sunod na ilagay ang pineapple juice, toyo, at paminta. Maglagay ng tubig at takpan ang pot. Lutuin ito ng 40 – 50 minuto o hanggang lumambot ang baboy.
5. Pagkatapos ng 25 minuto, ilagay ang mga dahon ng laurel. Timplahan ito ng asukal at dagdagan ng tubig para mas maluto at lumambot ang mga pata.
6. Kapag malambot na, ilagay ang suka. Hayaan itong kumulo ng 2 – 3 minuto na hindi hinahalo para maiwasan ang mapaklang lasa ng hilaw na suka.
7. Ilagay ang banana blossoms at black beans. Haluin ng konti. Takpan ang kawali at lutuin ng ilang minuto hanggang halos maiga ang sabaw. Patayin ang apoy.
8. 8.      Ilipat ang pork pata humba sa serving plate. Enjoyin ito kasama ng mainit na kanin. Yum!