Description

What to do with pig face, you’ve probably never wondered. Sisig is one of the stars of a class of Filipino food known as pulutan — snacks made to accompany beer or alcohol. Pork sisig is a hot, chewy, cartilaginous mess of chopped snout, cheeks, ears, and pork belly, fried with garlic, onions and chilies, and served steaming on a sizzling platter. The late Anthony Bourdain rhapsodized over it, calling it “a divine mosaic of pig parts.” There are other versions, including seafood and vegetarian iterations. Since I didn’t have a pig head lying around, I turned to a mix of wild mushrooms to mimic the look and texture of pork sisig, and served it stove-to-table in a cast-iron pan.

Ingredients

Units Scale

4‒6 Tbsps of butter
1 head of garlic, cloves peeled and minced
1 1-inch piece of ginger, minced
8 cups of mushrooms (like shiitake, maitake, or oyster), diced small
1‒3 Thai red chilis (also called bird’s eye chilis), sliced thinly (for less spiciness, remove the seeds and membrane)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup cane vinegar, coconut vinegar, or rice vinegar
2 tsps sugar
1 heaping Tbsp mayonnaise
1 small red onion, minced
6‒8 calamansi limes (Philippine limes) or 1 regular lime
3‒4 scallions, sliced in small rounds
1 egg yolk (reserve white for another purpose)

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Instructions

Heat a cast-iron pan on high heat. When hot, add 4 tablespoons of butter.
When the butter has melted, add the garlic and ginger, and sauté for 30 seconds to a minute. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally to prevent burning, until they are dark brown. Add more butter (or olive oil) if dry.
Mix in the chilies, soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar. Sauté until well mixed. Add mayo and mix well.
Lower heat, and add red onions. Mix and warm through. The red onions should remain crunchy.
Squeeze the limes over the mushroom mixture, and sprinkle scallions over everything.
Add an uncooked egg yolk to the middle of the pan, turn off the heat, and serve immediately in the skillet, mixing the yolk into the hot mushrooms at the table.