Oven-Baked Filipino Embutido

Among the fave foods plated on the table during the past Christmas noche buena meal was the Embutido.  Although this is commonly found at Filipino gatherings, embutido is not native to Philippine cuisine.

Embutido, which similar term is enchido, is of Hispanic-origin, brought particularly by colonizers of Spanish, Portuguese, and Brazilian descent to our Land of the Morning Calm.  

No hassle oven-baked Embutido;
Usually served chilled, but I love it pan-fried, a bit browny on both sides

Original version of this is a mixture of hashed meat combined with different spices, and wrapped in a pig's dried intestines; hence the coined words embutido or enchido that means "filled" or "embedded", simply describing how the meat should be fully incorporated among all other ingredients and stuffed into the intestinal skin to produce this type of sausage.

My variant of embutido is not at all perfectly faithful to what the Europeans taught us.  In this country, the ways of the embutido have revolved into something simple while creating a taste that is distinct to be called Filipino Embutido. And while most embutido I have eaten are steamed, and starter cooks often have issues about "crumbled" finished product, this recipe may stand helpful in your next cooking quest.

Ingredients:

1 kilo lean ground pork                               raisins

1 kilo lean ground beef                               boiled eggs, cut up

8 eggs for the mixture                               cheese, cut into sticks

4 boiled for eggs, sliced like crescent            Purefoods TJ hotdogs
2 packs Crispy Fry all-purpose bread mix       1 pack of Lady's Choice, 220 ml.

1 tsp. salt                                                bell pepper, chopped

2 tbsp. brown sugar                                   green onions, chopped

4 tbsp. banana catsup                                red onions, chopped

2 tbsp. cornstarch                                     carrots, chopped 

garlic, chopped                                                                          

Here are some of the ingredients needed

Directions:

You will be using aluminum foil for wrapping.  Except for the hotdogs, cheese, and sliced boiled eggs, mix all ingredients in a bowl using your clean hands.  Once all ingredients are fairly mixed, wrestle the mixture by throwing it lump by lump on the sides of your bowl.  You will know that your mixture will firmly hold if it has become smoother than the first time you combined everything.  The more you wrestle the firmer it will come out when cooked. 

Flatten a mound on the foil wrapper.  Arrange the hotdogs, eggs, and cheese, then roll and seal each end. The number and the size of the rolls/logs you will be making depend on the amount of meat you will foil-wrapped.  Bake in 375 degrees Fahrenheit for two hours or one hour for each kilo of meat. 

Eggs into the Meat

Wrestling all ingredients together

Arrange, align cheese, hotdogs ...
Ooops, we missed the boiled eggs! Where's that other picture?!

Roll it, Roll it, Roll it back and forth to get
the desired form before finally sealing it

Into the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for two hours

Yield: 10 logs of Embutido

//rmis//

  

  

Milk Fish Hot Sardines

This is an inherited recipe from my godmother, which she learned from working with a canning company back in the 1980s in Negros Occidental, a province known as the Philippine's sugar bowl, located in Western Visayas.  

From its main business district in Bacolod City, you have to take a one-hour bus ride, passing acres of rolling sugarcane plantations as far as the eyes can see, before you reach Victorias Milling Company (VMC), a century-old sugar mill known for its world-class refined sugar and the maker of VMC "Hot" Bangus and "Hot" Sardines, among other processed food.

A landmark locomotive replica found inside the VMC compound,
telling tourists how sugarcanes were transported from
the haciendas to the "central" or mill site 

Albeit the ownership of the cannery has shifted hands, the products are still there. I also remember that these canned foods are not available nationwide. You can even barely see these in supermarkets in the province's cities since they are primarily for exports.

Chef at the cannery office with tourist-kids

If this country is ever to change its choice for a national fish or authorities would dare to drop the humble "Bangus" from the roster of the nation's symbols, I would strongly object.  Chanos Chanos as it is scientifically called, or Milkfish in English, the humble bangus lives up to its name and the very reason why it was picked to carry the Philippine flag under the sea.  

It is very tasty like milk, and you can cook it in many ways: fried, stewed, soup, broiled, stuffed, the list can go a long way. Although it is very bony, they also come already deboned, hence the double "B" for Boneless Bangus.   

And do you know what are the best parts of this fish? For me, the belly, the eyes, and the brain!  I hope you will all agree with me because here's a remake recipe of the VMC "Hot" Bangus as told by my godmother, of course with a twist, like I own it.

Ingredients:

1 kilo                               bangus                       1 tbsp.          salt

1 cup                              corn oil                       1/2 tsp          Ajinomoto

1 1/2 cups                       water                                             chili flakes

laurel leaf and seeds                                                               finger chili pepper

atsuete (for coloring)                                                              carrots (round cut)

Directions (super simple):

You need a pressure cooker to accomplish this.  Cover the inner bottom of the pot with aluminum foil to prevent the fish from sticking on the surface of the cooker.  Arrange the fish inside (maybe cut or whole) then put all ingredients.  Pressure cook for one hour.

Ingredients, All In!

Pasta for Family Day

My kids' school celebrated 'Family Day' recently at the Family Park in Talamban, Cebu City.  It is an annual event wherein students of all year levels from the school's two campuses get to dance on the wide field, and families play bingo and have picnic. Traditionally, every family contributes one viand for lunch, and this time, I was tasked to bring pasta.  Here's my own version of baked spaghetti using a microwave oven:

Microwave-baked Spaghetti: Yummy with a Guilt

Ingredients:

spaghetti noodle               ground pork                                           

cream, 2 packs                 bell pepper, chopped      

milk, 1 cup                       butter, 75 g.                                 

spaghetti sauce                sausage, sliced 

garlic, chopped                 onion, chopped

chicken cubes                  cornstarch, 2 tbsp.

Basic Spaghetti

1. Cook the spaghetti noodle according to package direction. (Ratio: one-fourth of noodle to one kilo of spaghetti sauce.)


2. Heat a wok or a frying pan, saute ground meat until golden brown.  Add garlic, onion and bell pepper.  Once the onion is translucent, pour the spaghetti sauce and drop one chicken cube, 1 teaspoon of salt, and milled pepper.


3. Once the sauce begins to boil, add the sausage.  When it boils again, lower the heat and transfer half of the sauce in a container to set aside.


4. Mix the cooked noodles with half of the sauce remaining in the pan/wok.  Heat up a bit before adding one packet of all-purpose cream. Mix again until the sauce blends well with the noodles.


5. The spaghetti is all done at this point. It's time to place the mixed noodles on a microwave-safe baking dish, then pour on top the other half of the sauce set aside earlier.

My Bechamel Sauce

1. On the same pan/wok, heat up 1/3 butter until melted, then add cornstarch, stirring and mixing to incorporate well and cook.  (Do not go away while doing this as the butter gets easily burned and the milk curdles very fast.)


2. Add 1 cup of milk stirring constantly the mixture until it thickens, then pour the cream.


3. Put one-fourth chicken cubes to taste. Continue stirring until a bit golden and thick. Pour the mixture to your prepared spaghetti noodle on the baking dish.


4. Microwave for 10-15 minutes or until the topside turns golden brown.  

MARKET TOUR: Dried Fish a.k.a. "Bulad" or "Buwad"

If you crave for something salty and appetizing, check out these dried fish all the way from Bantayan Island, Cebu.  With $20.00, the Chef was able to get a kilo each of squid and "danggit" (Cebuano's best-loved dried fish -- usually $6/kl in the market), and half a kilo each of fish tocino and "tarorot", another squid species (also at $6/kl market price) .  This is a great buy, I may say, minus the fare to get to the edge of Cebu province and hop to the island itself.

"flat" squid, tarorot, danggit, d. fish tocino

These dried fish are best when crispy-fried! So, if you happen to be sightseeing in Bantayan, make sure not to head back home without these delicacies.

MARKET TOUR: Apples, Chorizos and Feeds

First Buy: A bunch of Apples

Who says you can only find apples in cold countries?  Well, you can also get them here in tropical Philippines.  The Chef says apples are non-seasonal, since he can grab them all year round. Moreso, apples are becoming abundant at this time, because it's almost Christmas.  The apples bought by the Chef, in particular, are the cheapest ones you can find in the market and are worth  $0.23 each.  In big groceries, the price of these is already double.

Next Buy: Poultry Feeds

The Chef's chicken had eggs that hatched about two weeks ago.  Out of 8, only five of them were able to get out successfully from their shells. Now, these chicks are starting to grow.  To get enough nutrition, Chef Andrey gives them booster feeds.  A one-kilo pack of WarHawk baby stag booster from the poultry store is now at $0.81. The Chef also bought Sagupaan ready-mix maintenance feed for the rooster ($0.69) and a tie-rope ($0.34) in case the Chef wants to take out the rooster from its cage for some fresh air.

Next Buy: Chorizos

Chorizos are a home-made type of sausage made by mixing ground pork, sugar, and spices.  A red food color is often used. Although there are already the "skinless" types,  these are usually wrapped in a special casing (cleaned and dried pig intestines).  

During cooking, they give out a distinct yummy, sweet smell, and once cooked, they turned reddish brown.  Watch them while you're cooking because they easily burn over high heat.  

Chorizos are very common to Filipino breakfast tables. Filipinos abroad cannot even resist its nostalgic taste and smell that they would usually request relatives to ship dozens of them, or if they happen to be in the country, they would never miss to put them in their list of things to bring back overseas.  

Cooking Chorizos the Chef A-way!

Basic ingredients that you cannot do away with

Since the chorizos are here, the Chef decided to cook them for some taste test.  Here's how:

1. Poke with fork or knife the chorizo for several times.  The holes will help vent  out air during cooking and prevent them from bursting (and hit your eye).

Chorizo Transformation

2. In a frying pan,  place the chorizos, water and Datu Puti vinegar.  The water and vinegar combo must be just enough to dip the chorizos halfway.   Cover the pan until the liquid disappears and the oily chorizo juice would start to render.  (The vinegar will make the chorizos tastier and even out the "processed meat" scent and flavor.)

3. Once the pan has dried up, put some oil to fry the sausage until reddish brown. (The Chef would normally flatten the chorizo for even browning).

The finished product is great with chili vinegar sauce, fried rice and coffee. Bon Appetit!