Brian Kennett
Amateur Chef and Foodie Extraordinaire
Spam & Corned Beef Sisig
Off to the Philippines now for my version of one of my all-time Filipino dishes, Sisig. But this is Spam & Corned Beef Sisig, my style. Daddypedia time now; I had no idea that Sisig is a Kapampangan word to describe snacking on something sour. I did check that with Mary first, but she didn’t know ha ha. Apparently, it usually refers to fruits. In The Philippines that usually means unripe fruit, such as green mango, so you get the sour flavour. You then dip the fruit in salt, chilli salt or even vinegar, usually when walking the streets or markets. This style of cooking also extends to cover preparation of fish and meat (usually pork), by marinating first in lemon juice or vinegar, and then seasoning with salt, pepper and spice. And there is also Sizzling Sisig, a Filipino dish usually made from parts of a pigs head and liver, usually seasoned with calamansi limes and chilli peppers.
Have a go, here comes my Spam & Corned Beef Sisig.
Where did this moment of inspiration come from? Well as usual, family Kennett were hungry one day. I checked the fridge but we didn’t have a large supply of pig’s heads and livers to make a Sisig. But we did have a load of corned beef and Spam – TING? Let me create a Spam & Corned Beef Sisig. Probably a heinous crime to devout Filipino foodies to call it such, but it ain’t bad on eating I can tell you, and it is an awesome beer food fellas – salty, sour, meaty and hot too.
This will easily serve 4 +;
- 2 red onions roughly chopped;
- 2 chilli padi finely chopped;
- 3 garlic cloves finely chopped;
- 1 tin of corned beef, cut into cubes;
- 1 tin Spam, cut into cubes;
- 2 eggs;
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce;
- 5 or so calamansi limes (simply slice through the tops of each lime to about 3⁄4 of the way through to allow you to squeeze the juice with no pips);
- 3 thinly sliced Spring Onion tops, the green bit basically; and
- 1 handful of deep-fried shallots.
Heat a pan and add some Olive oil. In with the garlic, onions and chilli and fry them off until they soften.
Add in the Spam and corned beef and cook that until the meat is browned, and might start to crust a little – that’s what you want. The corned beef is likely to mush up which is also exactly what you want. Add in the soy sauce and you are finished – that is in effect my Spam & Corned Beef Sisig.
There are two ways to finish this off when serving;
Spam & Beef Sisig Version 1: If you have a sizzling platter, have that in the oven heating whilst you prepare the above. Serve the sisig sizzling away on that, crack the eggs on top, stirring them in table-side with a squeeze or three of lime; or
Spam & Beef Sisig Version 2: If you don’t have a sizzling platter then simply crack the eggs into the pan with the mix you were frying off, stir it through and serve on a plate. As I did for the picture.
Sprinkle the spring onion tops, the fried shallots and serve on the plate with the calamansi.
Spam & Corned Beef Sisig – It is truly delicious. Crack that beer too! I just love this combo as it has all tastes I like, it’s sour, it’s chilli, it’s salty, it’s meaty – all in one. BOOM. And come on how easy was this, truly – and it gets rid of those stock-piled tins of Spam and corned beef that I think we all have on the condo/house ha ha.
