Pochero

Here’s another Spanish-influenced dish that Filipinos love – pochero! This dish is perfect for when you have a lot of leftovers in your refrigerator that you want to get rid of.

Pochero or Puchero, meaning “stew pot” is a dish that came from the Spaniards that the Pinoys have adapted. It is comparable to Cocido but this dish lack color (paprika). It is often served separately with the broth on the side.

Here in the Philippines, we have added our own touch to the dish. We add in “saging na saba” to make the broth sweeter.  There are a lot of varieties for pochero and is often accompanied by a dipping sauce. For the pochero gallego, stewed tomatoes are served on the side as an accompaniment to the dish. We Filipinos made our own version where we mixed in the tomatoes in the stew as a whole.

½ kilo          Beef Cubes (Rump or Tenderloin)
¼ kilo          Chicken Pieces (Breast and Thigh parts)
¼ kilo          Pork Cubes (Kasim)
1 piece          Chorizo de Bilbao, sliced diagonally
3 cloves       Garlic, chopped
2 pieces       Celery Stalks, chopped
2 pieces       Onion, chopped
2 stalks        Leeks, chopped
1 tbsp            Black Peppercorns
2 pieces        Bay Leaf
2 pieces        Potatoes, quartered
2 pieces       Carrots, sliced into big chunks
1 cup             Cooked Garbanzos (Canned)
6 pieces       Cooking Bananas (Saba)
100 grams   Baguio Beans, trimmed
½ a head     Cabbage, sliced into 4
1 bundle       Pechay (Bok Choy)
As needed   Cooking Oil
As needed    Salt or Patis

1. In a deep pot, sauté the garlic, onion, celery, peppercorn, bay leaf and leeks. Once translucent, Add in the beef, pork and chicken and season with patis. Saute for 5 minutes. Add in enough water to cover the meat and let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes. Remove any scum in the surface from time to time.
2. Add in the vegetables and cook them according to their cooking time. Put in the potatoes and carrots first and let it simmer until tender. Followed it up with the bananas, garbanzos, baguio beans, cabbage and pechay leaves.
3. Adjust the seasoning by adding salt or patis.
4. Serve the meat and vegetables separately with the broth.[wpurp-searchable-recipe]Pochero – – – [/wpurp-searchable-recipe]

Watch the video here: