Counting down to the production of Eating with Lola at the Next Stage Festival in January, I shall share some of my Lola Pinang's recipes with my own twist.An expert at making gourmet food with ghetto resources, these recipes will be kind to your wallet, but brutal on your waistline.
So get your cupboards open, loosen your belts, and get cooking.
Lola's Meatloaf
This recipe utilizes the typical food rations given to Filipinos by American army bases during World War II: canned meat and ketchup. Don't dismiss this as humble pie, though. It is worthy of any dinner party.
Ingredients:
2 lbs ground pork. Hands off the low fat stuff. You need lots of drippings for the gravy.
4 eggs
10 strips of smoked bacon
1 can of SPAM or pate
1 teaspoon of salt and pepper
3 teaspoons of soy sauce
1/2 cup of ketchup
1/2 a cup of corn starch mixture
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Hard boil 3 out of the 4 eggs.
While the eggs are boiling, line a narrow casserole dish with foil.
Place 5 of the bacon strips along the bottom of the dish, width-wise.
In a bowl, hand-mix the last egg, the ground pork, the canned meat of your choice (remember that Lola -- both in the play and in real life-- would have found anything in the cupboard), salt and pepper and 1 teaspoon of the soy sauce, together until well blended.
Spread 1/3 the mixture on top of the first layer of bacon.
Take the hard boiled eggs and place them lengthwise atop the pork.
Take the rest of the pork mixture and place on top of the eggs.
Place the remaining strips of bacon on top of the loaf, width-wise.
Using the foil, start to mould a loaf. Once the loaf is formed, bound the foil together and place the loaf in its casserole dish into the oven and bake for 1hour until meat is cooked.
You will notice a crapload of drippings. Do not feel guilty for eating this. A pig isn't good for anything until it's dead and tomorrow you can walk it off. For now, you must love yourself enough to eat this.
Pore the drippings into a saucepan. Put it on medium heat. Let it simmer.
Add the ketchup and the remaining soy sauce. Whisk well.
Add the cornstarch/water mixture to create a gravy. Whisk well.
Slice the cooked meatloaf in 1 inch slices and serve with steamed rice and the gravy.
Eat with a fork and spoon.
