Sweet soy pork with black beans

Serves 4 The marinade is the key to this delicious pork recipe. This Visayan dish uses marinated pork belly, which has great flavour and texture, but ham hocks or pork neck will also work.

The marinated meat is simmered for nearly an hour until all the liquid is gone, making the meat melt-in-the-mouth tender. This dish is also called adobong visaya or humba, derived from the Chinese word meaning “red braised meat”.

Adding the fermented black beans to the sauce brings an additional pungency to the pork.

Preparation time: 15 minutes plus overnight marinating time

Cooking time: 1 hour For The Marinade: 3 cloves garlic, crushed with the side of knife 125ml Filipino cane vinegar (or white vinegar or cider vinegar diluted with water) 3 Tbs soy sauce 1 tsp salt 1 tsp whole black peppercorns 500ml water 1 bay leaf 100g brown sugar 1kg pork belly (also called “side pork”) or shoulder, cut into serving pieces 3 Tbs bottled or canned fermented black beans or black bean sauce marinade Combine the marinade ingredients in a mixing bowl.

Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Pour the marinade over the meat. Cover and keep overnight in the fridge.

Transfer the meat and marinade to a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat.

Reduce the heat to mediumlow and simmer until the meat is tender, for about 50 minutes.

Add the black beans and simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated, approximately 10 minutes.

Serve hot with steamed rice.