Being considered a holiday dish in the Philippines, you will often see morcon served during the festive season of Christmas and New Year. It is a meat-roll stuffed with egg, cheese, pickles, carrots, hotdogs or sausages.
Filipinos believe that serving round-shaped foods during the New Year will bring luck and prosperity. So that explains why morcon is ever-present on most tables when families welcome the arrival of yet another New Year because it is round-shaped when sliced.
Ingredients:
- 1 kilo beef (thinly sliced)
- 4 slices pork fat
- 2 slices ham
- 2 pcs sausage (Bilbao or Vienna)
- 2 eggs (hard-boiled)
- 10 pepper-corns
- 12 olives
- ½ bay leaf (Laurel)
- 3 tomatoes
- 1 whole onion
- 2 segments garlic
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- ¼ cup vinegar
- 2 cups water
- Salt (to taste)
Cooking Instructions:
- Cut the beef thin about 12 by 16 inches then pound to flatten it. Pound the garlic and peppercorns then add the vinegar. Soak the beef in the vinegar mixture for a few minutes.
- Cut hard-boiled eggs into halves. Cut the ham, sausage and pork fat into long strips and chop the olives.
- Spread the beef on a wooden board. Arrange the ham, sausage and pork fat in alternate rows. Arrange the eggs and add the olives. Roll and tie with string.
- Fry in deep hot fat until brown.
- In the vinegar mixture used to soak the beef, add water, bay leaf, onion, tomatoes and salt. Add the deep-fried beef roll. Simmer until tender.
- Add the tomato sauce and continue cooking for 2-3 minutes. Remove the roll and cut into slices.
- Arrange on a platter and pour the sauce over the meat. Garnish and serve.