Easy Pork Recipe: Spicy Sisig Recipe

I’d walk a mile for good food. For this sisig recipe, I’d go to the ends of the earth. I’d wash my husband’s clothes every day, brush his hair every night, do the plumbing, do cartwheels to entertain him and buy him a Jaguar if he says he’ll dutifully cook this for me every time I ask for it.

The original (some say reinvented) recipe is credited to Lucia Cunanan of Angeles City and is perhaps a reflection of the traditional Filipino cook’s tendency to let nothing go to waste. As the story goes, the sisig recipe was the result of finding some use for pigs’ heads that were due for disposal.

Renowned chef Anthony Bourdain (the other man I would willingly enslave myself to) of No Reservations had a taste of the original recipe and declared, “When you’re drunk this is exactly what you want.”

My husband doesn’t use every part of the head. Like most sisig cooks, he only makes use of the face which in our locality is called the maskara. He also likes to rev up the heat with lots of hot peppers. In my city the hot pepper he uses is called espada because of its elongated form. I’m guessing in Luzon this is called siling labuyo. Perhaps in other parts of the world jalapenos would do?

Incidentally, he doesn’t just occasionally whip up this magical dish to secure my happiness. It makes him and his friends of the round table happy too when they’re up late discussing the mysteries of life with shot glasses.

Sisig Recipe Ingredients:

1 kilo pork face / maskara
2 hard boiled eggs, diced
1 cup ginger, chopped
¼ cup bell pepper, chopped
¾ cup onions, chopped
hot pepper (as desired), chopped
green onions
salt
5 tablespoons vinegar

Procedure:

1. Wash the pork. Rub salt. Grill until cooked. Chop the grilled meat into squares.

2. Transfer the chopped meat into a warm pan. Add ginger and bell pepper and mix.

3. Keep the heat low. Wait a minute or two then add the onions and eggs and mix.

4. Pour in the vinegar. Add salt if needed. Add hot peppers and mix.

5. Top with green onions and remove from heat. Serves 5-6 ruffians.

Wife’s Verdict:

This is my wildest fantasies realized. You cannot pry me away alive from this dish. The soft, rubbery, crunchy texture and the fatty saltiness of the meat were the undisputed stars of the dish but the ginger, onions and vinegar gave the flavor swagger.

The heat of the espada was nothing short of explosive and, if I may say so, nearly debilitating. That’s just the way my personal cook is though. He loves to punish his internal organs with too much spice. You don’t have to. You might not live to tell the tale.

Jan’s Quip: “If you don’t like the heat, don’t eat the peppers.”