Embutido Sandwich

Everybody loves delicious, hot, fast, and cheap eats, who doesn't? That's the reason food trucks are becoming more and more the favored lunch providers of office workers and students. Food trucks have been around here in the US since the 50s but only became extremely popular in recent years, even the superstar Spanish chef José Andrés who owns several high end restaurants in the Washington D.C. area and in Los Angeles has joined the food truck mania with his own Pepe Truck. Yeah, that's how hot food trucks are nowadays.

photo R. Lopez

The smaller food carts (kariton) are nothing new in the Philippines and other countries in Asia. I grew up buying food from them usually parked outside the school. Some of my favorite snacks were green mangoes and bagoong, ice cold jicama slices on a stick, cheese ice cream sandwich in a monay bun, and salted still hot fried Spanish peanuts eaten with a box of raisins and a small chocolate bar.

There are several food trucks in California selling Filipino food but I have yet to see one here in the East coast. If I had a food truck I'd be serving only Filipino food as there are hundreds of food trucks selling other cuisines already. For my virtual FT, I baked crusty pandesal and filled them with embutido, a savory and sometimes sweetish Filipino sausage. The sandwich is delicious topped with shaved cucumbers and butter lettuce and paired with slushy green mango shake.

Embutido
2 pounds lean ground pork, or combination pork and chicken
1 Spanish chorizo, finely minced
1 cup Vienna sausage, finely minced
2 slices white bread, finely cubed and mixed with 1 cup milk
½ cup sweet pickle relish
½ cup finely minced raisins
1 cup grated aged edam or aged cheddar cheese
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons sea salt or to taste

• Mix all ingredients gently in a large bowl. Fry a small portion, taste, and adjust salt seasoning.
• Divide meat mixture into 3 portions. Spoon each portion onto a piece of lightly oiled or non-stick aluminum foil and form into a 2½-inch thick log. Close the foil tightly making sure there is enough foil all around. Twist ends.
• Bake in a 350° F oven or steam for 1 hour.
• Let cool completely, cut into ½ inch thick slices, fry in lightly oiled non-stick skillet until golden brown.

Embutido Sandwich

1 tablespoon coconut vinegar

1 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoons sugar

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

a pinch of freshly ground black pepper

shaved cucumber
pandesal, toasted and split
hot banana ketchup
mayonnaise
fried sliced embutido
butter or Boston lettuce

• In a small bowl, whisk together first 5 ingredients; marinate cucumber for 2 minutes. Drain well and set aside.
• Pipe ketchup and mayo on the bottom pandesal slice, top with embutido, marinated cucumber and lettuce. Wrap sandwich in wax paper. Serve immediately.

Green Mango Shake
2 cups diced very green mango
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup whole powdered milk 

2 cups ice cubes
½ cup water

• Place all ingredients in a blender and blend on high until slushy.

Crusty pandesal recipe in case you want to bake some, is here.

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Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipino foodies living in Sydney, who are passionate about the Filipino culture & its colourful cuisine. 

Each month we will showcase a new dish along with their family recipes. By sharing these recipes, we hope you find the same passion and love for Filipino Food as we do.

Many thanks to Louie for hosting this month's challenge. Check out KCC members' food truck entries.