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The last time I spent Christmas in the Philippines was five years ago. Aside from the months-long noisy, bright and borderline-chaotic Christmases of my native Philippines, I miss spending time with my family.
Unlike many Filipinos, who spend Christmas with both their immediate and extended families, our family Christmas gatherings during my childhood consisted of just my parents, brother and me because everyone else lived abroad. But that didn't stop my mum from asking me to develop the menu with her and help her cook.
We'd opt for Japanese food one year, American the next and maybe Spanish the year after. The cuisine always changed, but the most memorable feasts were the traditional Filipino-Spanish Noche Buena ones.
Dinner before Christmas Day
Nikki Alfonso-Gregorio as a child with her family during Christmas. Source: Supplied
Noche Buena (Spanish for 'good night') in the Philippines is Christmas Eve dinner. While a typical dinner may only take several minutes, Noche Buena involves feasting from the moment you get hungry in the evening until you're bursting at the seams when the clock strikes midnight. Basically, Noche Buena necessitates that you be full when Christmas day arrives.
My favourite Noche Buena dishes include queso de bola (edam cheese) enveloped in a thick, red wax and accompanied by round fruits (a good-luck food), paella, morcon (a meat roll stuffed with hotdogs, carrots, eggs, and cheese), , lechon (a roast pig) and (Filipino crème caramel).
My mum's dishes that epitomise Christmas are frozen fruit salad with corn kernels and hamonado (a savoury, salty and smoky leg of ham served with a sweet pineapple-brown sugar glaze).
Lechon from Sydney Cebu Lechon Source: Sydney Cebu Lechon
NOCHE BUENA FEAST
A very Filipino Christmas: Early starts, pigs and plenty of flan
The centrepiece
Our family Noche Buena dishes revolved around the hamonado – I say that both figuratively and literally.
The hamonado took its place at the centre of the table, colourful and glossy with glaze and its own oil. All the other dishes circled it.
Filipino Christmas Eve dinners just aren't quite complete without the hamonado, with many considering it to be the 'star of Noche Buena'.
We used to get a fully cooked smoky ham (with or without the bone) from the grocery store, so all we needed to do was make a glaze.
Much like the typical Filipino hamonado, my mum smothered a pre-cooked pork leg with a sweet pineapple glaze and topped it with pineapple rings and cherries. And much like the typical Filipino mum, she didn't follow a recipe and simply cooked it ouido-style (by feel and instinct).
Mum's hamonado with pineapple and cherries
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
- 4-5 kg fully cooked ham
Glaze
- 1 can crushed pineapples in syrup
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- ¼ tsp ground gloves
Topping
- Pineapple rings
- Cherries
Method
- Combine the glaze ingredients in a small pot on medium-high heat. Stir until fully mixed and the glaze is thick.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C for 15 minutes.
- Score the top part of the ham with a criss-cross pattern and brush with the glaze.
- Place the ham on a roasting rack. Place this in the oven and bake for around 1-1½ hours, depending on how thick the meat is.
- Glaze the ham every half hour while it's baking.
- Once cooked to your liking, remove the ham from the oven and garnish with pineapple rings and cherries.
- Eat it by itself or with pandesal and thin slices of queso de bola.
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