Pork Pata Humba Recipe

Of all the things I cook with pork hocks, Pata Humba is my favorite. It is the pork hock version of humba, the Visayan braise more commonly made with pork belly. I use the pata for the skin and the connective tissue around the bone. Both soften over a long, slow simmer, and the collagen turns to gelatin, which is what gives the sauce its body. A lean, boneless cut will not thicken the sauce the same way.

I cook Pata Humba two ways, depending on how much time I have. When I am not in a hurry, I keep the heat low and simmer it for a couple of hours. When I am rushed, I pressure cook the meat and finish the sauce on the stove. Either way, the sauce goes over warm white rice, and that is the part I look forward to. Paksiw na pata uses the same cut, and it also has to simmer long enough for the skin and connective tissue to soften.

The one thing to watch is the sugar. Pineapple juice is already sweet, and the sweetness concentrates as the sauce reduces. Add the brown sugar near the end, and taste as you go.

What is Pata Humba?

Pata Humba is the pork hock version of humba, a Visayan braise of pork in soy sauce, vinegar, and pineapple juice. Humba is often linked to hong ba, a Hokkien braised pork, although its exact history is unclear.

People often ask how it differs from pork adobo, since both use soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, and peppercorns. Adobo is sharper and more sour. Humba is sweeter and less vinegar-forward, and it uses tausi, which a standard pork adobo does not. Dried banana blossoms and star anise are also common in humba, though plenty of versions leave one or both out. Pata tim is the other Chinese-Filipino braise people compare it to, and it uses mushrooms and no tausi.

Humba turns up at fiestas and family lunches, cooked in one big pot for the table to share. In Cebu and the provinces nearby, cooks often use clear soda in place of pineapple juice, and I have a separate recipe for that one, humba Bisaya. There is also a version cooked with pork and fried tofu together, called tokwa at baboy humba.

Ingredients for Pata Humba

• Pork hocks – Ask the butcher to saw them crosswise into serving pieces, since a whole hock is hard to cut at home. Look for pieces with a good amount of meat left on the bone.
• Salted black beans – Tausi. These are fermented black soybeans, and they give the sauce a salty, fermented taste that soy sauce alone will not produce.
• Star anise – The recipe uses four pods for four and a half pounds of pork, which gives the sauce a noticeable star anise flavor. Use two pods if you want it milder.
• Pineapple juice – Use unsweetened or 100 percent juice. The syrup-packed kind, on top of the half cup of brown sugar, will make the sauce too sweet.
• Vinegar – Cane vinegar suits this dish. It is mild enough to balance the sugar without overpowering the tausi.
• Dried banana blossoms – Optional. Soak them in water for at least 5 minutes, then rinse and drain. They add a mild earthy flavor and a soft, chewy texture, and they absorb some of the sauce as they cook.
• Peanuts – Roasted and unsalted. I use roasted because the toasted flavor comes through in the sauce, and 10 minutes in the pot is short enough to keep some of their crunch.
• Brown sugar – Half a cup for this batch, stirred in at the finish rather than at the start. Add most of it, taste, and add the rest only if the sauce needs it.
• Soy sauce, garlic, onions, whole peppercorns, dried bay leaves, cooking oil, water – The braising base and the aromatics. Soy sauce brands differ in saltiness, so if you are using an unfamiliar one, taste the sauce before you season at the end.
• Maggi Magic Sarap – Up to five grams, added at the very end and adjusted to taste. The sauce gets saltier as it reduces, so the seasoning is easier to control once the reduction is done.

More about tausi. Look for it in the Asian section in jars, cans, or small packets, sometimes in brine and sometimes dry-salted. Black bean sauce is not a stand-in, since it comes already thinned and seasoned. Chinese groceries sell the same beans, often labeled fermented black beans, but brands differ in how heavily salted they are, so rinse them and taste the sauce before adding any more seasoning.

Equipment

• Large wok or heavy-bottomed pot – It should hold the hocks in one layer and still have depth for the braising liquid. A Dutch oven works just as well.
• Pressure cooker – Optional. It cuts the braise down to 35 to 40 minutes at pressure, though you still need time to build the aromatics and reduce the sauce afterward.
• Tongs – Safer than a fork for turning the hocks in hot oil.

The pork is parboiled and browned first, then the aromatics go into the same pan, and the braise runs for a couple of hours before the sauce is finished.

1. Boil the pork hocks for 10 minutes, then discard the water.
2. Rinse the hocks under running water and pat them dry with paper towels. Boiling brings the scum to the surface, and discarding that water takes most of it away, so there is far less to skim once the braise starts.
3. Heat the cooking oil in a wok and fry the hocks for 2 minutes per side until golden brown.
4. Remove them from the wok and set aside.

The oil will splatter even when the hocks look dry, because the skin holds moisture. Use a splatter screen and stand back from the pan.

1. Sauté the garlic in the remaining oil over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes, until it starts to brown and becomes fragrant. Lower the heat if the oil is still very hot from frying the pork.
2. Add the onions and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until soft and translucent.
3. Add the salted black beans and mash them with your spoon. Mashing distributes the beans evenly before the liquids go in.
4. Add the star anise, dried bay leaves, and whole peppercorns, and sauté for 30 seconds, until you can smell them. Keep the heat moderate here so the spices do not scorch.

1. Pour in the soy sauce, vinegar, pineapple juice, and water, then stir to combine.
2. Return the pork hocks to the wok, cover, and simmer on low heat for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the meat is fork-tender and pulling away from the bone. Add water whenever the level drops, both to keep the pot from scorching and to keep the skin under the liquid.

Resist turning up the flame. A low simmer over an hour and a half or two is what softens the skin, and Filipino-Chinese braised pork belly is cooked the same slow way. Take out the star anise pods once the pork is tender.

1. Add most of the brown sugar, the soaked and drained banana blossoms (if using), and the roasted peanuts.
2. Cook for 10 minutes, until the sauce thickens enough to coat the pork. The gelatin from the hocks gives it body as it reduces.
3. Taste the reduced sauce. Add the reserved brown sugar if it needs it, then season with Maggi Magic Sarap, using less than the full five grams if the sauce is already salty.
4. Transfer to a serving plate and serve hot with steamed rice.

What to Serve with Pata Humba

• Steamed white rice – Serve it hot and plain, with enough on the plate to soak up the sauce.
• Atchara – Pickled green papaya. The sourness balances the fat.
• Ensaladang mangga – Green mango, tomato, and onion with a little bagoong. The sour mango cuts the sweetness of the sauce.
• Blanched pechay or kangkong – A green vegetable, lightly salted, for something fresh alongside the pork.
• Sinangag – Garlic fried rice, which turns leftover humba into breakfast the next day.
• Cold soda or beer – A cold drink is welcome with a dish this fatty, and it is what usually gets served with humba anyway.

Storage

Pata Humba keeps well, which makes it worth cooking the full four and a half pounds even for a small household.

• Refrigerator: Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. The gelatin from the hocks sets the sauce when it chills, and it loosens again on reheating.
• Freezer: Portion the pork with its sauce into freezer-safe containers and freeze for up to 3 months. Freezing it in the sauce keeps the meat from drying out.
• Reheating: Warm it in a pan over low heat with a splash of water. Low heat warms the meat through without reducing the sauce any further.

More Pork Recipes

• Pata Hamonado – Pork hock in a pineapple and soy braise, with no tausi and no banana blossoms. Sweeter and simpler than humba.
• Pork Estofado – Pork stewed in soy sauce and vinegar with brown sugar, then finished with fried saba bananas and carrots.
• Pork Asado – The pork is marinated in soy sauce and five spice powder before it simmers, and the spice blend takes it somewhere quite different from humba.
• Crispy Pata – Pork hock boiled until tender, then deep fried so the skin turns crisp.
• Pineapple Chicken – Chicken marinated in pineapple juice, then stewed with pineapple chunks, carrots, bell pepper, and milk.

• Dried banana blossoms – There is no direct substitute. If you cannot find them, leave them out.
• Salted black beans – Tausi has no direct substitute here. The dish still tastes good without it, but the fermented, salty note will be missing.
• Pineapple juice – Some Visayan versions use clear lemon-lime soda instead. Cut back on the brown sugar if you do, since the soda is already sweet.
• Pork hocks – Pork belly is the more common cut for humba and it cooks faster. Boneless, skinless pork shoulder is an option too, but it is a different dish: leaner, quicker to cook, and with less gelatin, so the sauce will not thicken the same way.
• Brown sugar – Muscovado or palm sugar can be used in the same amount. Muscovado has more molasses in it, so the sauce comes out darker. Palm sugar varies by source and type, so start with less and adjust once it has dissolved.
• Hard-boiled eggs – Not a substitute, but a common addition. Put them in during the last 15 minutes so they take on some of the flavor.

Enjoy cooking this dish and let me know how you liked it.