Reduced Calorie Longganisa

We have discovered the secret to diet longganisa!

The secret is in the meat!  

It's true.

No, you don't have to replace the pork with chicken or turkey (or even TVP),  you can still use pork. 

But the secret is ... use ground pork!

Ground pork, you say?  What difference could that make?  One normally uses ground pork to make longganisa.  How would that ever lead to a reduced calorie version of longganisa?

Well, we discovered that if you have to grind the pork yourself using a manual meat grinder, it  uses quite a bit of muscle power and elbow grease.  Getting half a kilo of ground pork is no joking matter.  If your meat grinder doesn't have sufficient suction on the bottom, the grinding process becomes a two-man job, so two people get their workout. 

(But wait, there's more!) 

If the other person keeps on making wise cracks about the activity, you end up laughing and your abs get additional workout.

This is what we discovered over the weekend when we finally brought out the grinder I had purchased ages ago when I had the bright (read 'cockamamie') idea of making pasta from scratch.  I swear, I had never worked so hard to prepare longganisa before.  Thank goodness MacGyver had the good sense of cutting up the other half of the pork to make to tocino before we started, so we were only working on grinding  half a kilo of pork instead of a whole one.

As I saw how slowly our pile of ground pork was coming along, I could not help but think how much easier it was to go to the butcher and point to the container of minced pork and say, "One kilo, please."  

We have been using this skinless longganisa recipe for some time.

Skinless Longganisa

1 k ground pork

1/2 c brown sugar

2 T rock salt

2 T worcestershire sauce

1/4 c crushed garlic

1 T crushed black pepper

1/4 c native vinegar

Combine all ingredients in a bowl

Form into little balls

Lay balls in plastic squares or wax paper

Roll into finger-like shapes

Refrigerate until ready to use or freeze in tightly covered plastic containers

Pan fry over medium heat.

but have recently shifted to this one.

1 k pork

1 c brown sugar

2 T cornstarch

1 T seasoning  

1 T hot sauce

1 T worcestershire sauce

2 T chopped garlic

2 t gr pepper

1 t salt

 (was hoping to reduce the sugar to 3/4 c but somehow people can tell)

Back to storage for the grinder and there is the proof of the reduced calorie longganisa on the side.