Bacon Wrapped Embutido

We haven't had embutido for a long time, no? FF,blurted one afternoon. Hey, it's December and I always consider embutido,  a Noche Buena dish but why wait for Christmas  when I could have it now? So,  off we went to my favourite supermarket to get all the things I need then.  I made Embutido before and even posted the recipe here . This time, I tweaked the recipe a bit for a more festive looking and tasty Sunday lunch. It certainly looked grand and deserves a  place in the Christmas spread or  in a birthday buffet or on the breakfast table, filled with sunny side up eggs and sinangag!

Ingredients:

1.5  kgs ground meat ( preferably pork)

1 large onion, finely diced

5-6 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 cup pickle relish

1 large sized carrots, shredded

150 g cheddar cheese, diced

1 small red bell pepper, diced

1 small green bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup pineapple, finely diced

1  cup raisins

3 raw eggs

3 boiled eggs( optional)

a pack of Vienna sausage

1/2 cup bread crumbs

200 g of flour 

1/2 cup banana ketchup

 3 tbsp each of soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

1 pack of smoked bacon

Cooking instructions :

1 . In a clean bowl, mix together ground pork, onion, garlic,pickle relish, carrots, bell peppers, pineapple, raisins and cheese.  

2. Once meat and diced vegetable are well combined, add in raw eggs, bread crumbs , ketchup and  flour . Season with soy and Worcestershire sauce, salt and ground pepper. Mix! Mix! Mix! Cover with plastic foil and refrigerate for about 30 minutes to 1 hour so the flavours set it.

3. Take bowl out of the fridge. Peel cooked eggs and slice it into wedges, if using.  Prepare sausages , you could cut sausage into half( lengthwise ) but i prefer to keep it whole.

4. Lay an aluminium foil on your working area. Brush with softened butter. Spread embutido mixture in the middle, leaving an ample space on  the border. Put sausage and cooked egg ( optional)  at  the centre.

5. Carefully roll meat/vegetable mixture over sausage   forming it into a log.

6. Tightly roll aluminium foil and seal both ends like a candy. Put a baking pan at the centre of  a preheated oven ( 200° C).  . Fill baking pan with hot water . Place the embutido on the wire rack and put it over the baking pan, make sure the water does not touch the wire rack. Bake embutido bain- marie style, for 45 mins.

7. Take Embutido out from the open. Set aside to cool. Embutido could be eaten at this point.It could be served cold or pan fried. That, or you can take a step further. Lay a cling foil on your working area. Place bacon strips side by side until it can cover the entire length of one embutido log. 

 7. With the cling foil as your guide, carefully roll bacon around the embutido log. Place bacon wrapped embutido into a greased baking pan and pop in the oven ( 185°c) for about 15 mins or until bacon is evenly browned.

FF liked it so much, he requested another batch for a potluck lunch at his office. Well what do you know? All his German colleagues loved the embutido as much as every Filipino! 

Coconut waffle stuffed with Ube

Waffle dog is one of my favourite childhood snacks back in the Philippines. For some reasons, I end up looking at a picture of a such waffle maker while searching for Christmas  presents online  . Oh bless  Amazon, it certainly makes  shopping so practical  and accessible  . It also makes your wallet looks like a bottomless pit,  which is NOT a good thing (^_^) . With everything and anything   just a click away,  I  kind of got carried away and clicked... clicked and clicked faster than John Wayne could whip his   gun. Gulp!

I baked and made waffles for days after receiving a heavy parcel , just to prove to FF and his raising  right eyebrow that paying 20 bucks for another kitchen gadget that will end up stashed away at the back of the pantry forgotten,  is worth it.  So far, this sweet, Ube filled version was one of my favourite.

Ingredients:

165 ml coconut milk

150 milk

80 g butter,

3 eggs

100 g sugar

265 flour

1 tbsp. Baking powder 

1 tsp. Salt

50 g desiccated coconut

Ube Halaya , available in many Asian store, or in  Amazon !

 1. Make batter by mixing together coconut milk, milk, melted butter, eggs and sugar.

2. Sieve  flour and salt over the batter. Dump desiccated coconut. Mix ! Mix! Mix!

 3. Grease waffle maker well .  Pour enough batter into each mold to fill it 3/4 of the way up. Carefully spoon ube halaya on each waffle.  Spoon batter over the halaya to cover it all up.Close the lid of your waffle maker and secure the latch. Let it cook for about 8 minutes or until it turns golden brown.

4. Eat pipping hot and dusted with powder sugar. Serve with ice cream and a swirl of chocolate sauce for special occasions!