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RECIPE: Dinuguan, Filipino pork blood stew
In this week's food section I wrote a little about my recent experiment cooking dinuguan, a traditional Filipino pork stew whose scariest ingredient — pig's blood — miiiight come off slightly off-putting to some.
RECIPE: Dinuguan, Filipino pork blood stew
In this week's food section I wrote a little about my recent experiment cooking dinuguan, a traditional Filipino pork stew whose scariest ingredient — pig's blood — miiiight come off slightly off-putting to some. Look, I get it — it terrified (and fascinated) me as a kid, and it's not uncommon to hear Filipino cooks perform some adorable misdirection on children by telling them that muddy gray-brown color is derived from chocolate. (Ha!) But just as Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan wrote in their book Memories of Philippine Kitchens, one of multiple sources I used to develop the recipe below, the dish sounds totally fucked up but it's shockingly accessible and middle-of-the-road. I understand if you're skeptical, but hear me out. Wait, where are you going?! Wow you can run so fast!
On the real though, pork blood and pork liver are the only two quote-unquote "peculiar" elements of dinuguan. (The name derives from the Tagalog word "dugo," meaning blood.) The characteristic funkiness of both ingredients is present in each bite of the stew, but a handful of other important additions do a hell of a job of slicing right through it, and rather dramatically at that. The most prominent non-porky member of Team Dinuguan? Vinegar, specifically rice vinegar. Added in the same stroke as the blood and liver, late in the cooking process, its sour, cleansing personality is imperative. The aromatics of the stew — every recipe's different, but my batch included bay leaf, ginger, lemongrass and long hots — also serve as vital flavor foundations, especially since this recipe requires patience to coax the best out of it.
Look, this is all you need to know: Yes, dinuguan has blood in it. Yes, you'll be able to tell that it has blood in it, but it's just one of many ingredients. No, it's not all you taste. Yes, it is delicious. At least it is to me.
Dinuguan (Filipino Pork Blood Stew)
(Adapted using elements from these three recipes, plus the recipe in the amazing book Memories of Phillippine Kitchens)
Go Get This:
1.5 lb. pork butt, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, excess fat trimmed
1 medium onion, sliced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 thumb-size piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
1 long hot pepper, seeded and chopped
4 bay leaves
1 lemongrass stalk, trimmed, cut crosswise into 4 pieces and crushed
2 cups chicken stock (basically, just enough to cover contents of pot)
1 tbsp. fish sauce
1 cup pork blood (we got ours fresh; you can purchase it this way at most Asian groceries, or you can buy it pre-packaged, in which case it'll be refrigerated/gelatinized)
3/4 lb pork liver
1/2 cup rice vinegar (have more on hand to adjust flavor, if needed)
Salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper to taste
Now Do This:
Place a large soup or stock pot on medium-high heat and drizzle in a bit of cooking oil. Sear pork butt cubes, in batches if necessary to avoid crowding the pot, while seasoning with salt and pepper. Remove pork once lightly browned and set aside.
Add onion and cook until lightly caramelized and tender, about 3 minutes. Add ginger, long hot pepper, bay leaves and lemongrass and stir until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and stir until fragrant and soft, about 3 minutes. Add pork back into pot in batches, gently working meat into existing onion mixture. Once thoroughly mixed, add chicken stock and tablespoon of fish sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer, skimming fat occasionally, for roughly 45 minutes, or until pork is extremely tender and stock has reduced by about half.
While pot is simmering, remove pork liver and pork blood from refrigerator. Use a knife to mince the liver to an extremely fine consistency, as smooth as you can possibly get it. Pour pork blood into a mixing bowl and whisk in liver in batches. When pot has finished simmering, stir in blood/liver mixture and rice vinegar and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for roughly 30 minutes, or until stew has reduced and thickened considerably. Taste the dinuguan regularly while simmering, adjusting flavor with salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, fish sauce and rice vinegar if you'd like.
After stew has thickened, remove from heat and let it sit, uncovered, for about 15 minutes. Remove bay leaves and lemongrass stalks and serve with plain white rice or puto, the Filipino rice cake.
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