Another first: Annalena's first adobo

You folks have read here before, of my fascination with "national" dishes, and how they haven't really been codified. You know the story: what is "barbecue?" what is chili? what is red sauce? I have written about my adventures with cassoulet, and paella, and other assorted dishes where everyone knows the "one, true recipe." And now, I have another one: adobo.
I will confess that I suffered from the confusion which, I understand, many people do. I had grown up knowing adobo as a Latino spice. My favorite chipotles in adobo sauce are a real source of grown up HEAT in cooking. So, when I was told that the Phillipines (which I have probably misspelled), had an adobo, I was expecting a thick, brownish red, pasty sauce that you would smear on things and then grill.

I hope my gaysian friends are now laughing. I know Vince is. I saw a recipe for an adobo, and I was taken with it because, as I learned, key to adobo is one of Annalena's favorite ingredients: vinegar. Indeed, as I quizzed or, depending on your point of view, cross examined my friends, and did my research, there were two constants to the recipes: vinegar, and chicken. One person would tell me "you MUST use coconut milk." Another would say "whatever you do, stay away from coconut milk." Someone else told me, "it's not adobo without soy sauce," while yet another friend told me "if my mother heard you were using soy, she'd kill you."

Yes, it was THAT passionate. And when we got to the chicken... Oi. "Use whole legs." "don't use the legs." "It had to be boneless," or "make sure it's on the bone."

And as for cooking styles...

I must say, it was a fun exercise, before I sat down and did one. It is based on a recipe called "the cheat adobo," but I'm not sure it's cheating. There were so many variants out there, that I didn't quite know what to do beyond the vinegar and the chicken (and, incidentally, there was much dispute over what KIND of vinegar to use). So, here's mine. It was SO GOOD, I want to make this again. In fact, there are leftovers in my fridge, and I want to eat them... NOW.

I used chicken thighs, with the skin on, and on the bone. I prefer using chicken with the bones still in, and since I was also going to grill this meat, I wanted the skin. You may choose to do it another way, and as I am not Filippino (spelling?), who am I to give you orders? One thing I got right away was that this is a generous dish, so I started with four pounds of chicken thighs, which is really only about 12 of them. Now, for the rest of the stuff. After reading so many sources, my mix was 3/4 cup of coconut milk, 1.5 cups of vinegar (I'll come back to this...), 1/4 cup of soy sauce, 12 (that's not a misprint) peeled, whole cloves of garlic, a couple of whole, dried, hot peppers and a few bayleaves.

One item that was mentioned in the recipes, that I had never seen, was coconut vinegar. Now, Annalena has about six different kinds of vinegar in her cabinet. She gave up, long ago, on things like strawberry and raspberry vinegar, and fig vinegar, all of which were disappointments. But those were INFUSED vinegars, where a flavor was used to add to a vinegar that already existed. There is a whole family of vinegars that are made FROM something, like the pineapple vinegar that I keep on meaning to make, which I saw Daisy Martinez make on her tv show (Daisy peaks in from time to time. Hope you see the shout out, Senora). Not knowing where to find coconut sap vinegar, I went to the internet.

As Emeril would say, BAM. Within a week, a bottle of it was in my hands. It's interesting. Much softer than wine vinegar. Rice wine vinegar should make a good substitute. Anyway, mix all of that stuff together, and toss the chicken into it. Mix it all around, and then cover it, or bag it, and let it marinate overnight.

The day you're making the dinner, set your oven to the broil setting, and then, dump everything into a big pot. Bring it to a boil, and when it reaches that point, lower the heat to a simmer, and cook the chicken for half an hour. I turned it every ten minutes or so, to make sure everything cooked.

After that half hour, pull the chicken out, hopefully with some tongs, and lay it, skin side up, on a baking sheet that can handle the heat of the broiler. Put the stuff under the broiler for 7 minutes or until you see some really wicked browning happening.

While that broiling goes on, heat the remaining sauce until it begins to thicken. It will take about ten minutes, and there is a real possibility you will see chicken fast separate from the rest of the liquid. I just stirred it back in, but you can always do a separation if you like.

After 7 minutes, protect your hands, and turn the chicken, and broil the other side, for about five minutes.

You're done. Plate it, and pour a little of the sauce over it.

It's a remarkably complex sauce that defies you to say "what's in it." I honestly did not taste the vinegar, or the soy sauce, or the garlic, or even the coconut milk. What I tasted was a level of complexity that is up there, in my opinion , with some of the best restaurant sauces I've eaten.

With it? Is there anything other than white rice? Well, I added saffron to mine, and it may very well have been one of the best meals I've had in a long, LONG time.

I'm coming back to this one. It's a keeper.