The Filipino Turkey Heirloom Recipe that No One Knows About

It's hard for her to take care of him. He's like a baby to her. She's hands-on with him. She doesn't want to blame him. She doesn't want him to get hurt. He gets hurt easily. And it's expensive to take care of a pig. But most are prepared for feasts served during town fiestas as a way of giving thanks to the town's patron saints for good health and a bountiful harvest throughout the year. One such dish is the pavo embuchado, a colonial heirloom recipe that is starting to disappear from Filipino tables and is practically impossible to find in restaurants. The high-ranking officials of Spanish or Spanish-speaking countries were the ones who taught us. Embuchado means stuffed. Stuffed. They were the ones who taught us how to make, cook, and eat meat that is stuffed. Pavo is not home-grown. It's not endemic to the Philippines. It was brought here by the Spaniards. For their consumption, they need to satisfy their taste buds. That's why they bring all the ingredients they can bring to the Philippines. Pavo is one of the ingredients they bring to the Philippines. While dishes like pavo embuchado are in danger of disappearing from our culinary history, Juan Bulaquena has been sharing her grandfather's version of this dish in the hopes of preserving it. During the Spanish period, there was a kind of fad. All kinds of ingredients, such as longganisa, chicken, and shrimp, were used as fillings. So pavo was not spared. Alfa's version was handed down to her by her ancestors. Her grandfather put his own interpretation on the original culinary dish. Very Spanish in nature, it has clearly been influenced by local ingredients and techniques, such as cooking in bamboo and using sticky rice. In 2015, Alfa shared it with her local community in a food competition, and it won first prize. Yet, due to the tediousness of its cooking process and the difficulty of finding turkeys, she remains to be the only person who cooks it in their town. One day, my father was taking care of a lot of turkeys. In our town, Bakura, there's a lot of turkeys, so my father loves to cook lechon. My mother, on the other hand, she's the one who cooks the most famous dish, actually, it's called biringhi there. It's stuffed inside the turkeys. Actually, on July 4, it was my sister's birthday. For dinner, that's what we eat. Back then, life was hard. It's easy to cook delicious food. Here in our barangay, we're the only ones who have turkeys. So, on July 4, we're happy because we're going to cook turkeys. You know, there's an embotido, it looks like this. It's round. It's the same with turkeys. When you put it in your mouth, it's still round. Let's start from the beginning. We cut the turkeys. We peel it. Then, we remove the blood. Then, we lift it up, so that the blood drips down. Then, we peel the turkeys. Then, we remove the fins. We add pepper and salt. Then, we skin it. Then, we rub it inside the meat of the turkeys. Rub, rub, rub, rub, until you can taste the saltiness of the turkeys. Then, we soak it in kalabawo milk overnight. It's more flavorful and removes the smell. Then, we add garlic and onion that we cut inside the turkeys so that the taste of the garlic and onion can be absorbed by the turkeys. Maybe every four hours and five hours, I turn it inside. It's inside the refrigerator. I turn it around so that the other parts can absorb the kalabawo milk. It's a term for birinje or arroz valenciana. That's why we use it there. You cook the sticky ones. When you cook the sticky ones, you saute the garlic, onion, and yellow ginger. Then, you drop the inside of the turkeys because the inside of the turkeys is hard. That's why you need to soften it. While the turkeys are soaking in the milk, you can soften it. When it's soft, you cut it into small pieces. Then, you can add chicken meat if you want. It's already sauteed. Now, you add the liver, balun-balunan, and rice. You mix it with the carrots, chili, and raisins. You can season it if you want. But I don't season it because the kalabaw milk is already tasty. You mix it until it's a little thick. The difference is, the arroz valenciana is thick. This is not coconut milk. You need to soak it in the milk. Then, you cover it with rice. There are banana leaves underneath and on top. You cover it until it's hot. When it's hot, you can stop cooking. When you're done cooking, you can stop cooking the turkeys. The affluent families, those who live in the city center, are exposed to the kitchen of the convent. They absorb everything that's cooked in the fryer and take it home. We, Filipinos, prepare everything that's delicious and expensive so that we can be thankful. That's how we give thanks. One of the dishes that we eat when there's a fiesta is the pavo empanada. There are two types of dishes that we cook when there's a fiesta. There's a dish called bukit, and there's a dish called poblacion. The dish called poblacion is made from the food of the rich who live in big houses. It's made from adobe bricks. It's Spanish-inspired houses. We call them ancestral houses. In July, when the turkeys are still young, it's easy to cook. But when the turkeys reach December, they get old and take a long time to cook. That's why in July, we prepare and eat the turkeys. What does this mean to us, as Filipinos, when it comes to pavo empanada? Pavo empanada is a dish from a rich Spanish culture that we Filipinos embraced. When the turkeys are cooked, the turkeys taste like milk. It's because they're soaked in the milk of the turkeys. The filling is sweet because there are different kinds of filling. There are carrots and chilies. It's spicy. Pavo empanada is spicy. It's tender and juicy. I think that's why pavo empanada is rare. During the Spanish period, the ingredients came from Intramuros. The location, availability of materials, availability of ingredients, are some of the reasons why the propagation of pavo empanada has been so successful. This also shows that in a part of our history, during the Spanish period, we had a strong bond with food. This became a symbol of our gratitude as Filipinos for the blessings that were bestowed upon us. This story proves that it's hard to pin down what Filipino food is. Through centuries of colonization and trade, influences and ingredients have found their way to our shores, solidifying their place in the fabric for our local culture. We are not only defined by our origins, but more so by our adaptation and growth. It's all part of us, and it's important we remember as much of it as possible.