Braised Pork Leg

Patatim

Slow cooked pork leg in soy, vinegar and sugar that melts in your mouth with sweet & savoury sauce.

What is Patatim?

One of many Filipino-Chinese dishes in the Philippines. As well as inheriting many influences from Spain, Filipinos also inherited many Chinese dishes through Chinese business men settling in the Philippines. They replicated Chinese recipes using ingredients that are available to them in the region they are staying in the Philippines. Then…BOOM Filipino-Chinese dishes were born!

Patatim has many different variations just like Adobo (trust me!) After researching online, asking friends and family. I found out that Patatim or Pata Tim, Pata Estofado and Pata Hamonado are essentially the same dish but varies from region in the Philippines. They all share the same trio ingredients: soy sauce, vinegar or something sour and sugar. These ingredients are vital to this dish, as the dish simmer on low heat for a long time, these ingredients merge and create a flavour profile that you will find in many Filipino dishes. The key to Filipino food is ‘balance’ when you create that balance it’s like magic. The word ‘Pata’ means pork knuckles/ankles/feet this part is attached to the bottom part of the pork leg which is traditionally used.

Let’s talk about ingredients

Unlike other cuisines, Filipino food uses easy to find ingredients. I used to struggle 15 years ago finding ingredients in London but now I can find many Filipino products in the UK. I used the leg part of the pork because it has more meat and it has a fatty bits too that I love! You can get pork knuckles too if you prefer. 

While Shaoxing wine was used traditionally, it evolved to using either vinegar or pineapple juice, probably because not many Filipinos can afford the wine back in the days. In this recipe I used vinegar because it’s what I have in my cupboard but you can use any of those. I honestly haven’t tried cooking it with Shaoxing wine yet so I can’t tell you the measurements. 

Some use bay leaves, I opted out on this one as I feel that it will be closer to Adobo if I did add it but that’s just my preference. 

For soy sauce I used the Datu Puti brand as always. This really makes a difference guys!! My mama sometimes used Kikoman for adobo sometimes and as much as it tasted good it wasn’t Adobo..do you know what I mean?

In this recipe I used brown sugar hence why the dish was very dark, you don’t have to use brown sugar you can use granulated white sugar if you like. 

How long should I cook it for?

It would depend on how big your pork leg is? Mine was 2.5kg and I braised it for 2 hours on low heat. I could probably let it keep going for another 30 minutes but it was soft enough and already falling off the bone. 

Slow cooked pork leg in soy, vinegar and sugar as the trio component to this dish. A Filipino-Chinese dish, as well as inheriting many influences from Spain. Filipinos also inherited many Chinese dishes through Chinese business men settling in the Philippines. They replicated Chinese recipes using ingredients that are available to them in the region they are staying in the Philippines. 

Hump day with this lil clip from my cooking video this Friday. Learn how to make Patatim or Braised Pork Leg with me! 

Patatim also known as Pata Estofado or Pata Hamonado is slow cooked with soy, vingear (sometimes pineapple juice) and sugar is one of many Filipino-Chinese dishes. There are many variations to this dish and closely resembles to Humba and Adobo.

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