HUMBA

                                            H  U  M  B  A
                                             
                                      BY : TSURTIDOGNI
                                              041908
                                              SATURDAY


It is fiesta time in our village in honor of Senor San Vicente Ferrer.  Once again
the people will gather the fiesta table and enjoy a sumptous meal.  Fiesta in our
village is not a fiesta if there is no HUMBA being served.  The Filipino authors in
this community can relate with this food that makes my mouth watered everytime
I think about it.

Here is an original Filipino recipe that satisfies the guests of my father because my
whole family always used our ancestral house as a venue for this special occasion.

This recipe is good for 4 persons. You may multiply the amount according to the number of guests.

INGREDIENTS
---------------------
1    kilo pork belly      (WE LOVE OUR HUMBA TO HAVE FATS. BUT YOU CAN
                                  USE ALL MEAT/NOFATS FOR ANOTHER VERSION.)
1    cup water

1/2 cup soy sauce
5    cloves garlic
1    sliced round onion
1/4  cup salted black beans
another 3 cups water
1    tbsp salt
1    tbsp sugar
4    pcs. sliced ripe banana (Sab-a) do not use table banana(table banana is a
                                                                        banana ready to eat) used the
                                                                        ripe banana that needs to be
                                                                        cooked.

Placed the pork in a big frying pan. Add the one cup water. Start boiling. When the
water dries, pork oil will come out. Let all the oil of the pork comes out until brown.
Stir it every now and then, so it would not stick to the pan. Once it browns you can
notice that there are so many oil in the pan. Put off the fire.

Remove the brown pork from the pan and place them in a cooking pot. Do not include the oil. You may place the oil in a container when it is not hot anymore.
You can use the oil in frying some of your future recipes.

Add the another 3 cups water. Put all the ingredients except for the banana. Let
it boil in a low fire until the pork will be tender as in very tender. Add the ripe banana.
Let it keep boiling until the banana becomes tender or cooked.

Garnish with curled onion leaves and serve with plain rice.

This food will lasts for months, as long as you always put a serving spoon in getting
some to serve. You may place them in small tupperwares like the pork adobo that
is being posted in my port.

The secret ingredient of HUMBA is the salted beans. The taste of the salted beans
complements very well with the pork and the banana.

HUMBA is always a number one give-away for the invited guests as part of their Take-Home especially for the people who loves fiesta and cannot make it for the feast, one would always say "Please send me HUMBA ! "

HUMBA TIME EVERYONE ! Happy fiesta too !