Longsilog Torta

Pinoy Longsilog Torta
Pinoy Longsilog Torta

I was at the local Asian market on afternoon to pick up some “special” mushrooms and decided to wander the isles for a bit. While carefully giving the fish section a little extra nasal space, I stumbled across some Filipino breakfast sausage called Longanisa, and since I didn’t have my wife with me at the time, I had no idea what this was except it was made from meat and came in a wide variety of meats and spices. The most appealing one at the time was the hot pork version, so I picked some up to experiment with. And after consulting the internet and a few of my Filipy friends I concocted this Longsilog Torta which is a lot like a frittata.  WARNING – there is enough garlic in this to scare away vampires, thus it’s nickname or Vampire Repellant Torta.

Serves 16 – 22

Ingredients

  • 2 pkg – 12 oz Frozen Hot Pork Longanisa
  • 6 slices –  uncured Bacon (optional)
  • 2 tomatoes – diced
  • 1 cup – rice
  • 12 cloves – garlic chopped (should be about 1/4 cup)
  • 4 tbspn – cooking oil (I use coconut oil for this)
  • 1/4 cup – Fish Sauce
  • 1/2 cup – shredded White Cheddar Cheese
  • 2 pie pans

Preparation

Cook the rice as directed by the package.  Prepare the tomatoes and garlic by getting all the chopping done.  In a large pot, but in the cooking oil and heat on medium high heat.  When it’s hot enough add in all the garlic and stir until its all starting to brown.  Remove half of the garlic and set aside till final assembly.  Drop in the rice with the remaining garlic and stir while frying for about 5 -10 minutes or until the rice is just a little browned.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.  Put this away in the fridge until ready for final assembly.

Chop up the longanisa and bacon into 1/2 chunks and then cook in a skillet over medium high heat until it’s all thoroughly cooked.  Remove from the skillet and place on a paper towel to drain.  Raise the heat to high and the skillet is still a little greasy add in the tomato chunks and cook until they start to wilt and get browned edges.  This should take about 6 minutes.  Remove and mix together with the meats from above.  Refrigerate until ready for final assembly.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Apply a thin coating of coconut oil to the bottom of the pie pans.  Mix all of the previously prepared ingredients together thoroughly and place equal portions into each oiled pie pan.  In a mixing bowl, prepare the standard quiche base mix but add in the Fish Sauce as well.  Whisk until frothy while adding a little salt and pepper to taste (I use 1 teaspoon salt and 2 teaspoons pepper) and pour over the fillings in the pie pans.  Put on a thin coating of a white shredded cheese on top and then add the remaining fried garlic.  This all goes in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until its starting to brown on the top.  Remove from the oven and it’s ready to serve as soon as it’s cooled down a little.  Or pack it up a blanket for the rink.

Pear, Pancetta and Pecan Quiche (PPPQ)

I honestly don’t know where my wife got the idea for this and this is almost all her creation.  She just came home on night and gave me the ingredients and said you figure out the portions.  After a couple of days of thought and experimentation, the portions were set.  While I still worry about all the runny quiches that if made while using pineapple I figured this might work. The bonus of her idea lead me to nutty crusts.  While not an original idea, it is intriguing and provides another way to get some additional protein and flavors.  The nutty crust is best used for this and you should reserve some of the nuts used for the crust to garnish the top with for some extra texture. Any nut base works good, but this was done with pecans.

Serves: 16 – 22

Ingredients

  • 1 Cup pancetta, diced
  • 2 large shallot, diced
  • 2 Tablespoon butter
  • 2 Tablespoon brown sugar
  • 4 pears, cored and sliced into bite sized pieces
  • 1 teaspoon thyme
  • 2 Tablespoon finely chopped toasted pecans
  • 3/4 C gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
  • 2 pie crusts of your choice. This one is based on the Pecan Nutty Crust.

Preparation

First chop up your pancetta, shallot and thyme.  Then put these together in a large skillet or pan over medium high heat.  After enough time for the shallots to start to turn translucent, about 5 minutes, of heat while stirring you add in the butter.  As soon as that is melted, add in the sugar and completely mixed for about 2 more minutes.  Then add in the chopped pears and sauté for another 5 minutes, until the pears are tender.  Remove this from the heat and allow to cool.  Then put the mixture away until ready to assemble.

Assembly

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Beat the eggs and half and half together to make the basic egg mix.  Mix in the pear and pancetta mixture and cheese into the eggs until completely mixed.  Then pour into each prepared pie pan and top with some of the toasted nuts.  Place in the oven for about 35 to 40 minutes.  Remove and serve or pack it up for the rink.