Pig’s brain and eggplant frittata
This is a combination of two popular Filipino dishes–tortang utak (pig’s brain omelet) and tortang talong (eggplant omelet). To cook this dish, diced pig’s brain, garlic, onions, carrots and chooped fresh parsley are blended with beaten eggs, stuffed into boiled and peeled whole eggplants and pan-fried.
There are several versions of tortang talong. The most common is to dip the flattened eggplants in a mixture of flour and eggs and fry them. That’s the plain version. Another one uses ground pork to stuff the eggplants. This is the most popular version. I used to cook this version with a little twist. I would place a few slices of cheese on the eggplant before filling it with the pork mixture. A trick I learned from Sandy Daza in his TV cooking show.
Traditionally, tortang utak is cooked this way: the brains are boil and split in half, like splitting a bun. They are dipped in beaten eggs and fried. That was the way both my father and my mom-in-law did it. The first time I served tortang utak to my kids, the brain was mashed and thoroughly blended with the beaten eggs. I was careful not to let them see the brains before they were safely mixed with the eggs. That way, they were not prejudiced even before they could try the cooked dish. They enjoyed it tremendously.
This recipe is a combination of those two popular Filipino dishes. When I thought about cooking tortang talong with pig’s brains, there was no more need to mash the brains because I knew that the kids were no longer afraid of eating them. As I expected, they enjoyed the tortang talong with pig’s brain just as much as they did the tortang utak.
There are several ways of cooking the eggplants before stuffing them. They can be boiled in a little water, steamed or even grilled. There won’t be any difference in the flavor of the cook dish whether they are boiled or steamed. However, if the eggplants are grilled over live coals, then the cooked dish will retain a distinct smoky flavor.
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[...] pig brain and eggplant frittata [...]
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[...] but I’ve gone beyond the traditional in so many ways. I’ve cooked tortang talong with a pig’s brain filling and and even with a sisig filling, and I’ve even tried baking it for a less oily result. [...]
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[...] dish. If you prefer the meaty version, try the version with ground pork or the more exotic one with diced pig’s brain. I served this meatless tortang talong as a side dish to pork [...]
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I tried tortang utak ng baboy when i was much, much younger. But my aunt never told me what it really was, until after I got a spoonful in my mouth and said it was okay. Haha. It was okay. Very creamy. But now knowing what it is, I’d rather not have it again. Hehe.