Evaluating Sam Sifton’s NYT chicken adobo recipe
MANY years ago, The New York Times’ Sam Sifton featured a chicken adobo recipe that he obtained from Amy and Romy Dorotan of Purple Yam in New York City. Essentially, the recipe called for coconut milk, three fiery chilies, more vinegar (than soy sauce), and no sugar.
In a home kitchen experiment (that was featured on www.joyposadaswrites. blogspot.com), I surmised that The New York Times’ unique version of adobo was not the most typical version to be found in Philippine households. I had an inkling that the Filipino palate was generally averse to spicy food and tended toward sweet flavors.
In order to prove this theory, I decided to look into the numerous versions of adobo recipes in the country, with the hope of coming up with a common thread. Fortunately, there is one book titled “The Adobo Book” by Reynaldo Gamboa Alejandro and Nancy Reyes-Lumen (calls herself the adobo queen) that already compiled all these versions.
Lumen says, “But, since it is a national endeavor, expect a nation to come up with at least 500 ‘official’ versions of the adobo recipe ... If we could come up with a universally accepted adobo recipe then we can entice other cuisines to try it and by that, look us up in the atlas ... Till we achieve this, our adobo will remain ‘almost famous.’”
Methodology
Although it may not be possible to come up with a universal recipe, it is probably achievable to get an idea of what is the more commonly used recipe in the Philippines. This will provide future researchers with a clearer starting point.
Thus, in order to evaluate the recipe provided by Sam Sifton and Amy Besa, I counted all the recipes in the book that were cooked 1) with or without coconut milk and 2) with or without chilies, 3) with or without sugar.
Findings
Out of 155 contributed recipes in “The Adobo Book,” only around 11 recipes asked for coconut milk and only about six recipes included chilies. On the other hand, about 33 recipes suggested the use of sugar.
Conclusion
Given the above findings, the recipe provided by Sifton shouldn’t be considered the most common or traditional recipe to be found in the homes of Filipinos living in the Philippines. Amy Besa’s recipe represents one version but is not the most typical recipe available.
Of course, this report does not include an evaluation of the taste value of Besa’s recipe. It is an aspect that is subjective.
“The Adobo Book” featured a recipe from Enriqueta David-Perez’s “Recipes of the Philippines” cookbook first published in 1953 and went on to its 19th printing by 1973. The recipe called for vinegar (no soy sauce) garlic, pepper, bay leaf. It did not ask for coconut milk or chilies.
It is worth noting, however, that many current versions of adobo already include soy sauce in the mix. Sugar is debatable but appears to be a fairly common ingredient.
After the initial results, a valid question was raised. How many of the adobo recipes in the book contained the five ingredients that I mentioned (to define adobo), namely: soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, pepper and bay leaf?
I found around 34 recipes that included these five ingredients. However, when I removed the bay leaf component, I was able to find approximately 70 recipes with four basic ingredients of soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and pepper.
As said earlier, there were other recipes that excluded the use of soy sauce.
Amy Besa’s chicken adobo recipe included the five ingredients mentioned. However, the addition of coconut milk and chilies may not be commonly used in Philippine homes, as shown by earlier statistics.
The above number tells me that many Filipino homes use the four basic ingredients, at the very least. Other ingredients are added to these four elements, tailored to individual tastes.
Given the above findings, there appears a need to find a basic definition of adobo that can be presented to the world and at the same time, accepted by most Filipinos. For example, the French mirepoix is defined by MerriamWebster as “a sautéed mixture of diced vegetables (as carrots, celery and onions), herbs and sometimes ham or bacon used especially as a basis for soups, stews and sauces” and is a clear definition. The Philippines’ local dish also calls for such clarity.
Adobo, that is considered a national dish, must define itself in a way that can be recognized by the majority of Filipinos. The recipe should also represent the taste preferences of Filipinos, in general.
Before we can even promote the cuisine to other countries, Filipinos must first be able to find a collective identity through this versatile and sometimes controversial dish.
( The author started a blog www.joy posadaswrites.blogspot.com in 2015. The adobo kitchen experiment was one of the popular topics.)