certified #hellapilipino embutido sliders

 "Faithful friends, who are dear to us, gather near to us once more" Just like the song says, the holiday season never fails to bring people together, and these holidays have been no different. This past Sunday, former members of Filipino Choir from St. Peter St. Paul got together for our annual Christmas potluck and white elephant. I used this as an excuse to cook embutido, a Pilipino meatloaf that is traditionally made around the holidays.

For those who are unfamilar, embutido is one of those "throw everything into one bowl and mix it" type dishes,  with about a dozen ingredients all held together in a loaf of ground pork. The loaf is steamed, then sliced and can then be eaten either hot or cold, as finger food or, as I served it, in pan de sal sliders.

My embutido included the following: ground pork, chinese sausage, vienna sausage, hardboiled egg, carrot, raisins, red and green bell peppers, green onions, garlic. I used panko breadcrumbs and eggs as binding agents, and seasoned with salt and pepper. In lieu of having an actual steamer, I half-filled a baking pan with hot water, placed the embutido (rolled in foil) in the water, and let it steam for an hour in a 350 degree oven. 

To get saucy and dress the sliders, I made some atchara (pickled green papaya) and a banana ketchup/sriracha mayo. Damn, atchara and a sauce with banana ketchup? Das #hellapilipino!

The end product was pretty dang good and got eaten up. Before the potluck, I let my mom try some. While she had a few critiques, she commended me for even trying, and said that most kids wouldn't even bother to learn a recipe like that. That felt good-- mostly because I could tell that there was truth in that. Embutido isn't exactly the most popular or sexy well-known Pilipino recipe, but I hope to refine how I cook and package it to help keep it relevant for folks.