BAVINA SOOKDEO

Sushi chef Myles Marbella has been cooking since she was a child.

Born and raised in the Philippines until she was 14, when she came to Trinidad with her parents, Marbella remembers watching an anime series called Master Chef. It was about a young boy who won a competition by making a dish called golden rice – basically a fried rice in which egg yolk made the rice look golden.

“After watching the series, I went to the kitchen and made myself the golden rice,” Marbella recalled. “I failed, of course, but I kept trying.

"Now I make my own version of golden rice by making sushi.”

A sushi chef for 12 years now, Marbella is known for her creativity and her fun-loving attitude. At 19, she got a degree in culinary management at the TT Hospitality and Tourism Institute (TTHTI) and has worked at several well-known restaurants.

Today, she owns her own business, Mylesushi, on Malabar Road, Arima, the first sushi company to offer delivery nationwide.

She told the Newsday, “Being a chef is such a dream come true for me. The craft I showcase gives me this warm feeling, especially when my clients enjoy them. Cooking for me is like being in a committed relationship: either you’re fully in it or not at all. Every day is a learning, relearning and unlearning process.”

MyleSushi started in early 2017 and has grown in popularity. Deliveries help her to form a closer relationship with her loyal clients.

The Marbella family’s Easter meal tradition is normally grilled meat, grilled melongene and fried embutido with steamed jasmine rice.

"Embutido refers to a Spanish sausage,” she explained. “The Filipino version of the dish is more like the American meatloaf, studded with American products such as raisins, pickles, hotdogs, and cheese, making it a festive Filipino treat.”

Marbella lives by the words, “Do what you love and love what you eat.”

The Easter recipe she offered is a traditional scotch egg with a Filipino twist.

Ingredients

Set A

¾ kg ground pork or meat of choice

¼ cup sweet pickle relish

½ cups cheddar cheese

¼ cup red bell pepper

¼ cup green bell pepper

½ cup raisins

½ cup carrots, minced

¼ cup onion, minced

1 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon pepper

¼ cup ketchup

Set B

5 hard-boiled eggs

¼ cup breadcrumbs

¼ cup milk

1 cup flour

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients in Set A until fully incorporated.

Take a handful of the pork mixture and make a big meatball and stuff it with one hard boiled egg. Repeat the process 5 times.

Bread the embutido with flour, milk and breadcrumbs.

Deep fry the embutido at 375 degrees F until golden brown.

Serve.

[caption id="attachment_1008733" align="alignnone" width="819"] Myles Marbella, owner of Mylesushi. Photo courtesy Myles Marbella -[/caption]

The post Mylesushi’s scotch egg embutido appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.