I know I just had offal overload last month with LP9 but this maybe a reason for us to celebrate as it is the first time I cooked dinuguan (pork blood stew) in Beijing. Why, it’s the first time I saw it available in the supermarket! Oh well I found dugo ng baboy damo (black pig’s blood) last week but I don’t think I would like to use that. I am sure a lot of things are available here we just don’t have the time to actually go out to find where. I received a tip from a reader who also resides in Beijing (many thanks to you!), about a wet market here frequented by expats. We haven’t checked it out yet so my stock is still limited to what I find in our favorite supermarkets. Actually it’s not that bad to buy from these supermarkets. Maybe a little bit expensive but most of the time the meat and produce are always fresh and in good quality.

I have few childhood memories of dinuguan. It is also a famous carinderia dish that I learned from my dad. It is exotic and may be unacceptable to some westerners. I still don’t know how the locals cook it but I am sure they have their own special way of doing so. How was I able to find it here if they don’t eat it, right? So I accidentally saw this small slab of pork blood, looked at it and saw it is clean and nice and bought it right away. Back home, we usually buy blood from newly-slaughtered pig that all you need is mash it with your own hands in prep before cooking. Here I mashed half of it with a fork and the other half I cut into cubes. Also, I wasn’t quite sure if I could do this the right way as it’s been a long while since the last time I cooked dinuguan. Luckily, it turned out quite well.

Ingredients:
Pork, diced
5 tbsp of minced garlic
1 onion, diced
a slab of pork blood (about 5in x 3in x 3in)
1/2 cup of vinegar
1 green chili pepper
onion spring, sliced (optional)
salt and pepper
Patis (fish sauce)

Add the pork to a casserole of boiling water (about 5-6 cups) and scoop out the scum when it floats. Boil for about 5 minutes then sprinkle some salt. Simmer for about 25 minutes then transfer to a bowl and reserve, leaving only the pork fat.

Over low heat, stir the pork fat occasionally until oil from the fat comes out. Move the pork fat to one side then throw in the garlic and fry until golden brown. Mix all together, stir in the lean pork and saute for about 2 minutes. Add patis, salt, pepper and the onions, and saute for another couple of minutes. Pour the vinegar and bring to a boil without stirring. Simmer until there is little liquid left.

Add the reserved broth and bring to a boil, again without stirring. Adjust the taste making it a little bit salty to accommodate the blood later, bring to boil and simmer for about 2 minutes. Add in the pork blood and chili pepper and cook for another 10 minutes with occasional stirring until the sauce thickens. I served it topped with onion spring not that I like it that way. I happen to have some extra inside the ref. It added some spice.

By the way, Happy Mother’s Day!

Related Link: Dry Dinuguan

Iska

I am not a professional cook. My only claim to having a culinary background is a short stint as my dad’s teen ‘sous chef’ in his carinderia ages ago. Dad ran small eateries since I was a young kid - serving standard ‘turo-turo’ food ranging from the likes of menudo, adobo, pritong isda, dinuguan, binagoongan, bopis, munggo, pinakbet and giniling to merienda fares like goto, ginataan, pancit bihon, halu-halo and saging con yelo.

My father, a farmer in his hometown before working his way to becoming an accountant, definitely influenced my cooking in a lot of ways than I thought. My siblings and I were raised in a backyard full of fruit trees and vegetable garden. We spent weekends and the summer breaks running around with ducks, chickens, goats and pigs. I had wonderful memories of gathering eggs, butchering chickens, selling vegetables and the sweet aroma of preserved fruits. But my love for art led me to a degree in Architecture. Just few months after getting my license, I went abroad and lived independently at age 23. Definitely no maid, no cook, and a totally different food culture. Along the way I met lots of friends and spent what seemed a lifetime learning new tricks and recipes.

Now living in Auckland, I am a work-from-home mum who juggles time between work, fun and family - in pursuit of work-life balance. No matter how busy I am, I love the idea of cooking for my family. My blog chronicles home cooking greatly influenced by life outside my home country from Southeast Asia to Beijing and Auckland. And most of the time, being busy also means easy (sometimes quick), affordable meals.