Pork Estofado with saba bananas, carrots, Chinese sausage, and a sweet and savory sauce is a hearty and flavorful dish the whole family will love. Perfect with steamed rice!
I love experimenting in the kitchen. I think it’s fascinating how a simple addition, subtraction, or substitution of one or two ingredients can completely transform one dish into another.
Take, for instance, our tomato-based meat stews. They’re similar in their mode of preparation and the use of onions, garlic, and tomatoes. Yet by changing up a few parts, such as inserting a wick of fat in mechado or adding chili peppers in calderata, green peas in afritada, or liver in menudo, we get different sets of flavor.
Now, the perennial adobo. Add brown sugar and banana blossoms to the ubiquitous soy sauce and vinegar braising mixture, and you have paksiw na pata. Replace the banana blossoms with saba bananas, throw in some carrots and Chinese sausages, and you have this delicious pork estofado.
Ingredient notes
- Pork– the recipe uses pork shoulder, but pork belly, leg, or shanks are also good options if you prefer a fattier cut
- Bananas– saba (cardaba) cultivar, which are cooking bananas
- Carrots– adds a touch of sweetness and extends the dish
- Chinese sausage– called lap cheong or lap chong
- Sugar– use brown sugar instead of white; it has a slightly less concentrated sweetness and contains molasses for extra depth of flavor
- Vinegar– use cane vinegar for best results.
- Soy sauce– adds saltiness and umami flavor
- Salt and pepper– season to taste
How to serve and store
- Serve with steamed rice for a hearty lunch or dinner.
- Estofado is a great make-ahead meal as it freezes and reheats well. To store for future use, allow to cool completely and transfer to a container with a tight-fitting lid. Refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 2 months.
- To reheat, place in a saucepan and heat until the internal temperature reads 165 F.
