Morcon

Morcon is a Filipino meat roll stuffed with twelve different fillings - egg, pork strips, pork fat, liver strips, sausage or hotdog, chorizo, carrots, pickles, bell pepper, celery and cheese sticks and raisins. This is considered as a holiday dish and is usually served during Christmas (Noche Buena) and New Year’s eve (Media Noche). This is my Nanay's specialty and I love watching her prepare it with all of its complexities and hard work. The sauce is the Pièce de résistance - even without the meat roll, the sauce on top of the rice feels like heaven!

You need a cut of beef that is lean and that which you can slice thinly, fill and roll without tearing. Though your best bet is a flank steak, it is quite an expensive cut. Other options are top round or bottom round. You can ask your butcher to prepare the beef, tapa-style.

Ingredients:
1) beef marinated in Kikkoman soy sauce, calamansi juice, black pepper and Ajiginisa mix
2) Margarine
3) Scrambled eggs cooked into thin crepe
4) Beef liver strips
5) Pork fats strips
6) Hotdog strips
7) Celery sticks
8) Carrot sticks
9) Chorizo de Bilbao strips
10) Pickle sticks
11) Cheddar strips
12) Raisins
13) Liver spread
14) Tomato sauce
15) Pickle relish
16) Bay leaves (Laurel)
17) Grated cheese
18) string
19) Beef broth

Cooking Instructions:
1) Spread and stretch the sliced beef on your working table
2) Apply a thin spread of margarine
3) Spread the scrambled egg on top
4) Arrange the fillings on top: beef liver, pork fats, celery, carrot, cheese, chorizo, pickles, raisins
5) Roll the sliced beef with all the fillings and secure w/ a thread or string
6) Fry the rolled beef in butter until brown but not well done
7) Arrange all the beef rolls in a pot; add the marinade, all left-over ingredients (finely chopped), tomato sauce, pickle relish, bay leaves, beef broth. Season with salt and pepper. Add liver spread or breadcrumbs to thicken the sauce.
8) Let simmer until the beef roll is tender
9) Add grated cheese and simmer until melted
10) Remove from the pot and separate the beef roll from the sauce. You can continue to simmer the sauce until you have reached the desired consistency.
11) In order to slice the morcon without it crumbling, you can freeze it for an hour, then remove the string and use a very sharp knife.
12) To serve, arrange on a baking dish and heat in an over for a few minutes. Top with sauce.

Enjoy!