SAWCLicious: Embutido

It's Christmas time! One of the dishes normally served in a Filipino family during Noche Buena (pre-Christmas dinner) is Embutido. Embutido is a meatloaf, often available commercially in the market/grocery. At least, this was the case when I was in Philippines. So, now that I'm in Brussels, I have to rely on my own to make one of this. I am quite surprised because I never thought it was so easy.

I was not convinced it was that good until yesterday night when my friend/colleague had dinner at my place and her son insisted that his mom should take the recipe because he definitely wants to eat it at home. So here is the recipe.

Embutido - The Filipino Meatloaf

Ingredients

Note: Ingredients below, normally makes 8 meatloaf. 

• 1 kilo Ground Pork (Pork Hache)
• 1/2 cup minced red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup minced green bell pepper
• 1 cup minced carrots
• 4 slices of white bread (without crust and torn apart)
• 2 raw eggs
• 3 sliced hard boiled eggs
• 12 pcs vienna sausage or 4 pcs. hotdog cut lengthwise
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 8 pcs small pickles (cornichons) minced
• 1 cup minced white onion (around 1.5 to 2 pcs. onion)
• 3 tbsps. sugar
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 2 cups shredded cheese (emmental/cheddar)
• salt & pepper
• Aluminum foil

Tip: It's so difficult to mince carrots! What I do is to use a peeler and peel the carrots which makes it really thin and easy to slice. It turned out so well. 

Procedure

1. In a big bowl, place the ground pork, bell pepper, carrots, pickles, onion, and raw eggs together. Mix together, better to use your hands.
2. Then add in the bread, tomato sauce, cheese, raisins, sugar, salt, and pepper. Make sure you mix together thoroughly.
3. take a handful of meat and flatten it in a square shape in the aluminum foil. (I personally hate to use my hands, so I would take a handful of spatula and use a spatula to flatten it.)
4. Lay the vienna sausage/hotdog and eggs on the middle of the meat.
5. Roll the foil to make the meatloaf. Make sure that you have the sausage and egg in the middle of the meat mixture. (Tip: Check out how to roll a sushi, it's almost the same thing) Close the edges of the foil.
6. Place in steamer for 1 hour. Be sure to place the meatloaf when the water is boiling already. Set aside for 2 hours at room temperature before placing in your fridge. You can opt to either place it in the refrigerator if storing for a couple of days or in the freezer if you want to store it for weeks.

You can serve the sausage hot or cold (I prefer hot embutido). To reheat, you can steam or place in the oven for 25 minutes at 200 degree centigrade. Best accompanied with ketchup (banana or tomato).