Longa-Burger

Longa as in longaniza, the Filipino sausage that's garlicky and sweetish. Yesterday I made 2 styles of Philippine longanizas after reading so much about them in several food blogs, Vigan from the north and from Lucban, just south of Manila. Both are very very garlicky and are not sweet. I've never had them before so I can't really tell if the recipes I found online are authentic. The Vigan style have very little vinegar and the Lucban style are closer in texture and flavor to the Spanish chorizo. They are both so delicious. I added a little sugar into half of the Vigan style and formed them into small patties which is the perfect size for the small hamburger buns I baked almost 2 months ago. These longa-burgers are very yummy with tomato slices and shaved mini cucumbers. For breakfast tomorrow I'll fry an egg to top the patty, my version of sausage McMuffin with egg. Yum yum.

Vigan Style Longaniza
2 pounds chilled pork shoulder, ground using medium die
½ chilled pound pork fat, coarsely chopped by hand
¼ cup finely minced garlic
1 teaspoon finely minced onions
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup soy sauce
2¼ tablespoon vinegar
sausage casings, soaked in warm water for 1 hour, then rinsed and flushed

• In a bowl, mix all the ingredients except casings until well blended. Stuff the mixture into casings and tie every 2 inches long with a string. Prick all over with sausage pricker or sterilized needle. Hang to dry for about 4 hours.
• To cook: Put ¼ cup water and 1 tablespoon oil in a skillet and turn the heat to medium-high. Add longanizas, cover, turn heat to low and cook until all of the water evaporates.
• Uncover and pan fry sausages until nicely browned. Serve hot with fried rice and tomatoes.

Lucban Style Longaniza
2 pounds chilled pork belly, medium ground
½ pound chilled pork fat, cut into small cubes
1 tablespoon sea salt
2½ tablespoons paprika
1½ tablespoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon sugar
4 tablespoons dark cane sugar vinegar or cider vinegar
sausage casings, soaked in warm water for 1 hour, then rinsed and flushed

• In a bowl mix salt and pork belly. Roast the paprika, garlic powder, and oregano in a hot pan until smoky. Add to the mixture together with the sugar and vinegar. Mix to combine. Add pork fat and mix thoroughly. Let the mixture sit for about 30 minutes.
• Stuff the casings with the meat mixture and form into 5-inch links. Place in refrigerator, covered for at least 8 hours. To cook, shallow fry in hot oil.

Lucban and Vigan longaniza

Longaniza And Sardines Sandwich

pandesal filled with longaniza, brisling sardines, shallot, red chile, and oregano

My lunch today was inspired by the movie and novel by Laura Esquivel, Like Water For Chocolate. It is a quirky strange dramedy that was released in 1992 but I never was interested to watch it until Raissa recommended it a few weeks ago. I watch a ton of foreign language movies but I usually ignore Spanish and Italian movies because I find them too melodramatic. I finally watched the movie and I enjoyed it a lot. I also borrowed the book from the library and will read it this weekend. The first chapter has the recipe for the Christmas buns which has the most unusual combination of chorizo and canned sardines mixed with oregano, canned serrano chiles, and chopped onion. I made my own sandwich version using Filipino Vigan-style longaniza, brisling sardines in olive oil, shallots, and fresh red chiles. I had the sandwiches, yes I ate two, with pickled green mangoes and tomatoes sprinkled with sea salt. The sandwiches are very good, strange but good. BTW, the book also has a recipe for making matches just in case anybody wants to make and eat them.:-)

Longaniza And Sardines Sandwich
½ pound longaniza, Vigan-style
1 can brisling sardines or Spanish sardines, drained, deboned and cut into chunks
1 small shallot, finely chopped
1 hot red pepper, finely chopped
1/8 teaspoon dried oregano
10 pieces pandesal

• In a medium pan over medium heat, boil longaniza and 3 T water, covered, until all the water has evaporated. Remove casings, lower heat and let sausages fry in its own fat. Do not let longaniza get brown.
• While longaniza is frying combine sardines, chopped chiles, onion, and oregano. Coarsely chop the cooked longaniza and add to the sardine mixture, mixing gently. Leave for 30 minutes.
• Slice pandesal and fill with longaniza and sardine mixture. Heat in a 300 degree oven for 12 minutes or until top of pandesal is golden brown. Serve with pickled green mangoes and tomatoes, or salad greens.

Next food inspired by a movie: Adam's Apple Pie from the Danish film Adam's Apples.

Longaniza

I wrote about longaniza last year but haven't made them since, until today. I was going to serve them as longaniza burgers but everybody prefers garlic fried rice with vinegar chili dip, Pinoy kasi. I made some thick patties and the rest I stuffed in hog casings. I love longaniza with everything: rice, pandesal, pancakes, waffles, I should try them next with thick fries.

Longaniza

2½ pounds very cold fatty pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch pieces
1½ tablespoons kosher salt
½ cup sugar
1 head garlic, finely minced
½ - 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup annatto powder
½ cup very cold coconut or cane vinegar
hog casings, softened in warm water and rinsed

• Mix pork with salt and sugar. Grind using large die. Transfer into a standing mixer bowl with paddle attached. Add the rest of the ingredients except casing. Mix on low speed for 2 minutes. Form into patties or stuff into hog casings. Refrigerate for 5 days before storing in the freezer.

longaniza breakfast with garlic fried rice and vinegar chili dip

Longsilog for Dinner

2 days ago I was looking for something online (I can't remember what it was) when I clicked on a blog about a Filipino restaurant specializing in tapsilog, that's short for tapa, sinangag, itlog, which means seasoned thin sliced beef, garlic fried rice, fried egg. If I translate tapsilog in English it would be beefricegg, nah, it doesn't sound right, it only works with Tagalog, haha. Anyways, the blogger goes to ethnic restaurants around San Diego, eats and writes about the resto and the food. He has written about Vietnamese, Malaysian, Slovakian, Russian, etc. The menu on the wall reminded me of the regular girls-only outings I had with friends when I was working in Manila at ADB. We usually went out on a Friday afternoon after work. Before going to the theater we stopped by the open eateries at Greenbelt (this was in 1985-87) where they served all the silogs: tapa, longaniza (sausages), tocino (Filipino bacon), fried bangus (milkfish), etc. We shared a very large table with strangers, sitting in very long and very narrow bangko (banquette/bench) that seats 12 people. Today I made pork longaniza, origin is Spanish but have a very distinct Filipino taste: sweet, slightly sour, garlicky, yummy. These are usually eaten with salted native vinegar, a salad of diced green mangoes and tomatoes with a little fermented micro-shrimp paste. I didn't realize I ran out of sausage casings but was not willing to postpone making them so I made them hubad (naked). They are delicious, just not so good to look at. Silogs used to be breakfast fare but carinderias (small scale eateries) in Manila started serving them anytime of the day and why not, when it's so Sarap!