Leftover pork adobo is shredded, mixed with chopped onion and fried with potatoes until lightly crisp. It’s a whole new way to appreciate the versatility of Filipino adobo.
But why call it hash? According to Merriam-Webster, hash is a dish of chopped food; specifically: chopped meat mixed with potatoes and browned. My Mac’s dictionary defines hash as “a dish of cooked meat cut into small pieces and cooked again, usually with potatoes.” So, there really isn’t a better name for this dish and recipe.
So, we start with cooked adobo. Chopped or pulled, and mixed with finely chopped onion. Does it have to be pork? It can be chicken, it can be lamb, it can be any meat. But it has to be meat. Otherwise, it’s not hash.
It’s rare for us to have leftover adobo but it happens. While simply reheating detracts nothing from adobo — in fact, reheated adobo is even tastier than newly cooked adobo — there are times when I yearn to learn different ways to let adobo meat and fat roll inside my mouth.
It’s not my first time to cook pork adobo hash. I posted a recipe a decade ago but the photos were so bad it was hard to see the textures and the colors.
Now, the potato. Peeled or unpeeled? Totally up to you. Waxy or floury? I prefer floury — the kind that’s perfect for cooking fries. How large or small should the cubes be? I like them to be about half an inch but you can definitely cut them smaller or a bit larger.
When frying the potato cubes, you’re really just creating a crust on their surface. You don’t need to wait until they are cooked through and crisp before adding the pork adobo. The potatoes and adobo will need to fry together. If the potatoes are already done, they will be mushy by the end of cooking time.
Now, I’m sure that some of you will say the potatoes in a hash should naturally be mushy. If the hash came out a can, that’s always the case. But this isn’t canned food, we’re aiming for something better, so the potatoes are not allowed to reach mushiness.
Once the potatoes and adobo are both in the pan, you probably won’t see any frying happening immediately because whatever meagre sauce coats the meat strands will have to evaporate first. Once the liquid is gone, that’s when you have to watch the meat and potatoes closely. It’s easy to burn them. Stir and toss often.
When the potatoes and meat have acquired the texture of fried food, the pork adobo hash is ready to be served.
Pork adobo hash
Ingredients
- 2 to 3 cups pork adobo shredded or chopped
- ¼ cup onion finely chopped
- ¼ cup cooking oil
- 1 to 2 cups potato cut into half-inch cubes
- sliced scallions to garnish
- rice or bread to serve
Instructions
- Stir the pork adobo and onion together and set aside.
- Heat the cooking oil in a frying pan.
- Spread the potato cubes in the hot oil and cook just until a light crust forms on the surface.
- Stir in the pork adobo and cook until any liquid has evaporated.
- Fry the pork and potatoes, stirring often, until the meat is lightly crisp and the potato cubes are cooked through.
- Serve over rice or with bread on the side garnished with sliced scallions.
