Pochero

Pochero, also called puchero, is a Filipino stew with several meat versions. Vanjo Merano’s selected pork-belly recipe combines the meat with ripe plantain, chickpeas, potato, cabbage, long green beans and bok choy.

Garlic, diced onion and tomatoes sauté in cooking oil. Chopped pork belly cooks until lightly browned before fish sauce, whole peppercorns and tomato sauce are stirred into the pot.

Water is added and the stew simmers until the pork is tender. Cubed potato, chopped ripe plantain and chickpeas then cook together in the tomato-seasoned liquid.

Cabbage and long green beans follow. Bok choy is stirred in last, after which the pot is covered and the heat turned off so residual heat cooks the greens before serving.

The author values the tender texture of pork belly and the sweet flavour brought by ripe plantain. Unlike the earlier pochero versions he describes, this recipe stews the plantain directly without frying it first.