Monday, April 22, 2013

Dinuguan or Tidtad (Pork Blood Stew)

This dish is one of my number 1 favorite Filipino dish. Dinuguan is a stew made of pork that has pig intestine usually including pig ears and everything in bizzare, cooked in its own blood with vinegar, laurel, garlic, onion and japaleños. It is similar to ancient Greek-Spartan melas zomos called the black soup. It may look disgusting and seems to be complicated bloody recipe, but it's delicious and worth all the trouble!
Ingredients:
800g pork butt or meat part is fine, cut to small pieces
700g  clean pork intestine, cut into chunks
3 tbsp fish sauce
3 laurel or bay leaves
4 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped coarsely
5 long green chilies (japaleños)+ 2 red small chili if you like
1 medium red onion, sliced
pig's blood
datu puti plain vinegar or white vinegar
salt and freshly ground black pepper
healthy msg
salt and pepper
Note: Pigs blood its easily find somewhere in supermarkets, ethnic small grocery store or public market here in Taiwan
Preparation:
1. Take 1 pigs blood is equivalent to 100g add some water just enough to make 3 cups, blend it, process it until just  right consistency for the soup base.
2. In a copper casserole or any heavy pot; heat oil over moderate medium heat, saute garlic until lightly brown then add the onion until translucent. Then add fish sauce, stir until it start to sizzle and fragrant.
3. Add the pork meat.
4. Then saute until browned.
5. Add pork intestine into the casserole.
6. Followed by bay leaves, add around 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper and stir for 3 minutes.
7. Pour the blood into the casserole.
8. Add some water around 2 cups, stir well.
9. Add 2 cups vinegar, but I will go for 3 cups it helps to eliminate the strong taste from the blood.
10. Stir, uncovered the pan and  simmer slowly for 30 40 minutes or until blood is cooked and colour turn to black and thickens. All this time, the dinuguan should have been stirred occasionally.
11. After 30-40 minutes, add the chilies. I don’t like my chilies over cooked, the reason why I added last.
12.  Season with salt and msg as required, then stir and uncover.
13. Continue to simmer for about 5 or 10 minutes.
14. Once cooked, turn off the heat, cover and let the dinuguan or pork blood stew sit for awhile before serving. The stew gets more and more delicious even the next days!
15. Time to plate up and enjoy with steamed puto or steamed rice.