Lucban Hardinera
Hardinera is a type of steamed dish made out of pork, hotdogs, pineapple, peppers, raisins, eggs and pickles, it closely resembles embutido but instead of ground pork hardinera used chopped pork pieces. Hardinera also is steamed traditionally in a llanera or a mould used to cook leche flan unlike embutido where it is shaped like a log held together by an aluminium foil.
This dish is popular in Southern Luzon and considered to be the Lucban’s Top four. Top four meaning top four dishes served during special occasions like fiesta’s, birthdays and Christmas. So if you are in the region during these special events you will definitely be served with this four, the hardinera, embutido, pastel and kaldereta.
Like most of the Filipino recipes it is prepared differently with some minor adjustments from different families, these adjustments are their secret ingredient which are not usually shared so trying this out will be a different experience from house to house but definitely they are mostly good.
- 500 g pork shoulder, sliced into small cubes
- 3 pcs hotdog, sliced into small cubes
- 1 small size chorizo de bilbao, sliced into small cubes
- 1 234 g pineapple slices
- ½ cup raisins
- 1 small can liver spread
- ½ cup grated cheddar cheese
- 2 pcs hardboiled eggs, quartered
- 3 eggs, beaten
- ½ yellow capsicum (bell pepper), diced
- ½ red capsicum (bell pepper), diced
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- ⅓ cup sweet pickle relish
- 1 cups breadcrumbs
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 white onion, finely chopped
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- oil
- In a wok sauté garlic and onions.
- Add pork and chorizo and cook for 3 minutes.
- Add tomato paste and salt then cook for 3 more minutes while continuously stirring.
- Add a small amount of water then then cook in low heat covered for 20 minutes or until meat is tender. Add water occasionally if needed to prevent from drying out.
- Add the hotdog, capsicums and raisins then cook for 2 more minutes while continuously stirring.
- Reserve 3 slices of pineapple then slice the remaining into cubes.
- Place meat mixture in a large container together with cubed pineapples, liver spread, cheddar cheese, pickle relish and breadcrumbs.
- Prepare a greased mould by placing pineapples and quartered eggs on top.
- Add half of the meat mixture then half of the beaten eggs, press the mixture gently to the bottom of the mould.
- Add the remaining meat mixture then the remaining beaten eggs on top, gently press it again to the bottom of the mould.
- Cover the mould with aluminium foil then place in a prepared steamer and cook for 2 hours.
- Remove from steamer and let it cool for 5 minutes before removing it from the mould. Serve with ketchup.
I’ve never seen anything like this dish. What an interesting set of ingredients – lots of meat, pineapple, eggs, cheese and pickles! It sure sounds like it would be good. Great presentation too.
Me too! Never seen anything like this before. Looks really good. Gotta try it sometime.
New to me too – Raymund – sounds really interesting.
What an interesting dish. Originally when I first saw the image I thought it was a sweet dessert, but after reading the post and finding out that it is savoury – I definitely am curious to know what it tastes like!