Lucban Sausages

LAST weekend a good friend sent me a bag of sausages from Lucban, Quezon. Unlike the tender and sweet Filipino garlic sausages or Longganisa, Lucban sausages are salty and tend to be a little dry inside. Paired with fresh tomatoes or local vinegar and steamed rice, these garlicky and herby babies are an absolutely scrumptious treat. And today I had them for lunch.

Clockwise from left: Deep-fried chicken wings with steamed rice and a dollop of hickory barbecue sauce, apple-lettuce-cucumber-and-tomato salad, cold water, chilled orange and mango slices, peppered coleslaw dressing, Lucban sausages.

The chicken was my son's meal, as requested. Due to current health issues, I could not eat plenty of rice, so the vegetables and fruit made up for it. Still, the sausages and salad (made complete with lashings of sweet-sour coleslaw dressing) made an excellent combination, and I was thoroughly satisfied.

According to my friend, they should be boiled in a little water first before frying. He also recommended that they be dipped in brown sugar to counter the saltiness. But instead of dipping the lot in sugar, I tried adding a few pinches of sugar to the boiling water/oil combination, then slowly reducing the liquid until the sausages were caramelized. Bingo! The only mistake I made while boiling the meat was not piercing the sausage casing first, so when I remembered to do it, bright fuschia gouts of steaming sausage juice literally fountained all over my stove. Purrrty.

Next time I will attempt to make these sausages from scratch, or at least what passes for it. I don't want to undergo withdrawal symptoms when I run out of my current stash.