About this recipe
Pork simmered in coconut milk with a great many long green chillies and a spoonful of fermented shrimp paste, cooked until the sauce splits and the fat runs orange. The Bicol region is known for cooking in coconut milk and for using chilli heavily, and this dish does both at once. The chillies here are the long, pale green siling haba, used in quantity for flavour as much as heat; the small siling labuyo can be added for anyone who wants it fiercer. The name's origin is widely told in more than one version and is logged for verification.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 6 servings with rice
- Prep
- 20 minutes
- Cook
- 45 minutes
- Total
- 65 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy–Moderate
- Spice
- Hot
Allergens Contains shellfish (bagoong alamang). Contains coconut.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The dish
- 2 lb (900 g) pork belly, cut into 1 in (2.5 cm) cubes
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) neutral oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 8 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 in (5 cm) fresh ginger, cut into fine matchsticks
- 3 tbsp (45 g) bagoong alamang (fermented shrimp paste)
- 3 cups (700 ml) coconut milk
- 1 cup (240 ml) coconut cream — the thick fraction, for finishing
- 12 long green chillies (siling haba), sliced 1/2 in (1 cm) thick on the diagonal
- 4-6 red bird's eye chillies (siling labuyo), sliced (optional, for more heat)
- 1 tsp (2 g) ground black pepper
To serve
- Steamed rice
Equipment
- Heavy pan or wide pot, at least 4 qt (3.8 L)
- Wooden spoon
Method
- Heat the oil in the heavy pan over medium-high. Fry the pork belly in two batches, 6-8 minutes per batch, until the pieces are browned and some fat has rendered. Return all the pork to the pan.
- Lower the heat to medium. Add the onion and cook 3 minutes, then the garlic and ginger and cook 2 minutes more, until fragrant and softened.
- Add the bagoong alamang and fry it 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly, until it darkens and smells toasted rather than raw. This step removes the sharp fermented edge.
- Pour in the coconut milk and add the black pepper. Bring to a gentle simmer — do not boil hard, or the coconut milk will curdle unpleasantly rather than splitting cleanly.
- Simmer uncovered 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the pork is tender and the sauce has reduced by about a third.
- Add the sliced siling haba, and the labuyo if you want more heat. Simmer 6-8 minutes, until the chillies are soft and olive-green but still holding their shape.
- Stir in the coconut cream and simmer 5 minutes more, uncovered, until the sauce thickens and clear orange oil begins to separate at the edges. That separation is wanted here.
- Taste. It should be salty from the bagoong alone; add more only if yours was mild.
- Serve hot with plenty of steamed rice.
The Complete Edition
Bicol Express sits in the Philippines chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Philippines chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.