Skype Date, the Third: The Filipino Main Dish Experiment

So, last week (was it just last week? So much to do in December!), Pamela and I had some free time together and decided that we should plan a third Skype date. But, we had a hard time finding one that really spoke to us. Okay, *I* had a hard time finding a dish that really spoke to *me* (<<<pain in the butt). It might be because we had made a couple of dessert dishes already and my soul was hungry (literally?) for more. After some brainstorming that didn't yield strong results, we decided on graduating into the main dish realm.

Now, this isn't as easy as it may seem. The time difference between Australia and the United States is at *14 hours* now, meaning when one's ready for dinner, the other is probably ready for breakfast (or still sleeping). So, it was important to find a dish that can be eaten as a breakfast dish *and* a dinner dish. And the first thing that came to my mind:

Longanisa! (from an April meal. Yum!)

However, I soon found out that longanisa (or longganisa, or commonly misspelled as "longhanisa", "loganisa", "loghanisa", etc), in its Philippine sausage form, is not readily available in Australia. Heck, I'd have to go to a speciality market in Philly to see if it's available.

Go see how Pam and I overcame this hurdle (and others, as well), after the jump!

But, longanisa was the perfect solution: a dish versatile enough to play as breakfast or dinner. For breakfast, you can have it with fried eggs and rice, a traditional Filipino breakfast. For dinner, you can have it by itself with some rice and "gulay" (veggies for you non-Filipino folk). Essentially, it is a Philippine sausage that is very sticky due to its sweet juices. It even messes up you pan nicely as the sugars are burnt in the frying process. But, it results in a very sweet and tasty sausage that goes well with rice, due to the fact the sweetness rubs off on the rice, giving it a strong, delicious flavor. Furthermore, it offered me the opportunity to share a little of my culture with Pamela.

So, I did some searching and found this page: "My Version of Longanisa". In the page, a Filipino-Australian (wow, there are a lot of those connections, aren't they? ;-)) confirmed that longanisa was hard to find, but also revealed that there was a way to make longanisa from scratch. Further, for those who were intimidated by making their own sausage with casings (i.e., the blog author, myself, probably Pamma...), the author found recipes where you make it out of minced pork (or, for me, ground pork). 

Check it:

Longanisang hubad.

(From the "My Version of Longanisa" page)

Armed with all this cultural knowledge and motivation, we moved forward with...

SKYPE DATE, THE THIRD: LONGANISANG HUBAD

(^Totally unnecessary, but stretching for a transition...)

The ingredients:

So, actually, this is a two-part process: marinade and cooking. First, the marinade ingredients:

The ingredients. (That's modest garlic for Filipinos.)

So, minced pork: "That's easy!", you say? Yes, I said that, too. But, surprisingly for the American, who thinks that everything is readily available at your local Acme, minced pork, or ground pork, was pretty much *non-existent*. 

I was shocked! They had ground beef, ground turkey, ground *bison*, for crying out loud! Ground *bison*! But, no signs of ground pork. Some cursory google searching revealed that ground pork was hard to find in several geographical markets. I was puzzled, caught off guard, etc., etc. Apparently, grinding your own pork is made difficult by federal regulations and not many companies who ship their fresh meat do ground pork (apparently, at least).

So, after a long time mulling over the decision (and getting over the fact I can't use the exact ingriedient... :-(), I finally chose a meatball/meatloaf mix that included ground pork, veal and beef. The other ingredients rounded itself off pretty nicely: garlic, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, rice wine (or "aji-mirin", a rice seasoning I used instead), rice vinegar (in substitute of rice wine vinegar), and soy sauce (a Filipino staple, I say!). Just measure appropriate ratios of seasoning into the meats, mix it up with your hands (That's right! That's something I learned from my momma!), and set it in the fridge overnight. Both Pam and I did this part together (Pam has a nice shot of my "good" side as I prepared the dish).

Raw meat looks so appealing...

The ingredients, part 2:

The ingredients for the "bed": tofu, eggs (not pictured) and seasonings.

I usually would go for rice, but I wanted to find something with less carbs for this meal. Thus, I thought Tofu might be a good option, as, like rice, it can mimic the flavor of the dish it was served with. Pamma confirmed it. The eggs goes without question. The smoked paprika (sneaking in at the corner there) was a last minute inspiration. It was sprinkled over the tofu, as well as the eggs. Also, take note: Extra-firm Tofu is what you want for sautéing.

The cooking process:

Well, Pamma came up with a brilliant idea of cooking multiple things at once. Me, being stubborn, initially vetoed it and attempted to do it one-at-a-time. Unfair, since only *my* stove was the dysfunctional one. :-\ But, after making the tofu, which took *forever* due to the juices that had to evaporate, I caved and did the two-range method. I think I should learn to be more flexible and open to my Pamma's suggestions:

Brilliant! (Men, take heed...)

The finished dish:

Fried egg, on top of gently-fried tofu, with longanisang hubad sprinkled on top.

Verdict:

Pamma enjoyed it, despite her reservations on the amount of garlic included (I did play Dracula once. Ironic.).

I will say that the meat was a little dry and I think it was because the meatball/meatloaf mix was low on the fatty side. The recipe did call for "fatty pork mince", but I focused on the "pork mince" part of that one. Also, we fried the meat until it was browned, but, by that time, all the juices were gone. But, the flavors were still there, albeit subtly. A hint of the sweetness that made me love longanisa in the first place, and the garlic was definitely palpable.

But, in the end, I thought this dish was just awesome. I enjoyed eating it with my lovely and I can't wait for our next inspired dish. Note: it may be a while due to Karaoke Secret Santa and Christmas coming around the corner, but I'm still looking forward to it! :-)

Peace and love,

Joe R.

P.S. I leave you with this lovely image. <3

***See more from this Skype Date at the Photobucket Album, located here!