Filipino Breakfast

Growing up in a filipino household, food always played such a huge role in literally everything that I did.  Every event, every outing always revolved around what we were going to eat next, who were we going to invite and where we were eating or what we were going to cook.  It sounds silly to say this, but I didn't realize how integral food was to my social life until I got older.  I realize now that it was during these gatherings I learned about my culture and history.

 

Through this blog, I'm going to share many of the recipes and their stories I have learned throughout the years.  For my first story, I'm going to start with my favorite filipino meal of the day: breakfast!

If you grew up in a similar upbringing, then you know what I'm talking about: garlic rice, longanisa and a fried egg.

My Story: Sunday Brunch

My parents are like many filipino parents around the world and make every gathering into a big party, regardless of the time of day.  Since I was a little girl, I have fond memories of waking up on Sunday mornings to the scent of garlic rice and sizzling longanisa sausages and fried eggs.  Nice alarm clock right?

 

I loved that almost regularly, it felt like we had a party every week because we would always have relatives or family friends over to have breakfast with and catch up on all the gossip and events of the week.  Many times, when we would host a party on a Saturday and our extended family would stay over, my siblings, cousins and I would wake up to what looks like a scene from Master Chef, where my Dad and aunties (usually my Auntie Josie, my dad's sister) would be commandeering the kitchen and instructing everyone on what to do to put together a breakfast feast.  This still happens to this day and it's always fun to watch all of them scramble around.

So, when I moved away from Southern California to attend college in San Francisco, I didn't get those weekly breakfasts regularly and realized I would have to start making it myself.  I would call or text my parents and Lola (that's Tagalog for "grandma") and asked them over the phone for instructions on how to cook garlic rice, longanisa and tricks to frying the perfect sunny side egg.  The dishes are simple, but sometimes the simplest dishes are the toughest to make because it's easy to add too much of an ingredient or over cook.

But hey, after lots of years of practice, I'm happy to say that I can now cook a pretty decent filipino breakfast that I am proud of and have shared countless times with friends and my husband.

My Favorite Breakfast

Recipe Type: Breakfast

Cuisine: Filipino

Author: Buttery Existence

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 20 mins

Serves: 4 Servings

Garlic Rice

Ingredients

  • Garlic Rice Ingredients:

  • 3 cups of 1-day old cooked white jasmine rice

  • 5 cloves of garlic (chopped)

  • 2 tbsp of vegetable oil

  • Salt, Pepper & Garlic Powder for taste

  • Longanisa Ingredients:

  • 1 pack of longanisa sausages (fully thawed if frozen)

  • *You can purchase these at your local asian market. My favorite place to shop is 99 Ranch (http://www.99ranch.com/)

  • Fried Eggs:

  • 4 eggs

  • Cooking Oil

  • Salt & Pepper for taste

Instructions

  1. Garlic Rice:

  2. Heat up the 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in a large frying pan.

  3. Once the oil is hot, add the chopped garlic to the pan. Cook for 3-5 minutes until brown and the garlic becomes fragrant.

  4. Add the cooked white rice to the pan and begin mixing the rice with the garlic oil. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until rice starts to turn brown.

  5. Add a small amount of salt, pepper & garlic powder to enhance the taste of the rice.

  6. Longanisa

  7. Take the thawed longanisa and place it on a large, deep frying pan.

  8. Fill the frying pan with enough water to barely cover the longanisa. Do not cut the longanisa apart yet because you do not want the remove the seasoning and flavor from the sausage.

  9. Turn the heat to medium/high and boil the sausages for 5-7 minutes in the simmering water. Be sure to turn the sausage around to make sure it's evenly cooked.

  10. Remove the sausage from the pan and dispose of the water.

  11. Wipe down the pan and then add 1 tsp of oil and turn on the stove to medium.

  12. Add the sausage links back to the pan to sear and finish cooking.

  13. Once the longanisa is ready to serve, separate the links using kitchen scissors.

  14. Fried Egg

  15. Add a small amount of cooking oil to a small frying pan.

  16. Heat the pan to medium heat.

  17. Once the pan is hot, add the egg into the pan.

  18. Cook any style you want - my favorite is sunny side up!

Cherlyn MedinaComment