Humba Recipe – The first thing to understand about this recipe is that it is for a pork dish. When you talk about humba in Filipino cuisine, it usually refers to braised pork. Traditionally the dish is made with pork belly. What makes it so tender is that it’s been slow cooked in a combination of aromatics. The combination consists of soy sauce, vinegar, black peppercorns, garlic, bay leaves, and fermented black beans (tausi). To balance out the savory taste, muscovado sugar is added to sweeten the dish and create the perfect balance of flavors.
When making humba, you’ll find that it has a similar process to making adobo. Unlike adobo, however, humba has a mildly sweet take from the addition of brown or muscovado sugar and/or pineapple. It also doesn’t go through a marinating process.
Another thing that makes this dish different is that it has fermented black beans (tausi) in the mix. Tausi is a type of fermented and salted black soybean. It has a sharp, pungent, and spicy while it tastes salty, somewhat bitter and sweet. Without this ingredient, you just get a sweeter version of adobo. And while there are variations of adobo like beef adobo and eggplant adobo, sweet adobo is not the norm.
What to Know About Humba
Historically, the dish is a derivative of the Chinese Hong-ba (also Hong-Shao-Rou or Red Braised Pork Belly). It is believed that it was introduced by Chinese immigrants and was adapted by our Visaya folks. They replaced some of the ingredients like Shaoxing wine and five-spices with what is more easily found locally.
Another thing to know about humba is that it can have banana blossom in the sauce mixture. It can also be served with hard boiled egg alongside rice. There are many different ways to make humba, but if you want to go the classic route, this is one humba recipe to try:
Humba
Ingredients
- 2 tablspoons oil
- 1.5 pounds pork belly (cut into 1×2-inch sizes
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 medium red onion chopped
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup vinegar
- 2 cups water add more if needed
- 1 tablespoon peppercorn
- 2 pieces bay leaves
- ¼ cup dried banana blossoms optional
- ¼ cup fermented black beans tausi
- ½ cup pineapple tidbits – liquids included optional
- 3 tablespoon brown sugar
Instructions
- First, heat up some oil in a large pot over medium heat. Once it’s hot, add in the pork belly and let it sizzle away until it’s lightly browned and the fats are rendered. Once it’s cooked to perfection, set it aside on a plate.
- Next, remove any excess oil from the pot and leave about 2 tablespoons behind. Saute some garlic until it’s golden and aromatic, then add the pork belly back in and give it a good stir.
- Now it’s time to add the rest of the ingredients and let all those flavors meld together. Cover the pot and let it simmer away for 40-50 minutes until the pork is tender. If needed, add more water until the meat is fork-tender.
- Once the pork is cooked to perfection, it’s time to reduce the liquid to a thick, delicious sauce. Remove the cover and let it simmer away until the sauce has reached the perfect consistency.
- Now, it’s time to plate up and enjoy! Transfer the pork belly and sauce to a serving dish and pair it with some plain rice.
Notes
Other Options to a Humba Recipe
Like many other Filipino dishes, there are variations to Humba. A common variation of the Humba recipe is using chicken as the protein. A similar dish that has this variation is Chicken Sisig. You can also try something different with the sauce and use pineapples as the sweetener. If you want to explore similar or other pork stew dishes in Filipino cuisine, check out “Pata Tim” and “Pochero.” For other pork dishes, there are “Pork Giniling” and “Crispy Pata.” These are just a few of the many delicious pork dishes you can try in Filipino cuisine.
