One dinner we had leftover dinuguan and A fry it dry the next morning. I love it! So I got into the habit of cooking bigger portions than usual of this hearty blood stew of fatty pork meat, liver and intestine so I can fry ‘em dry the next day. Eventually I cook it dry right away.

Ingredients:
1/4 kilo pork with fat, diced
1/4 kilo of chitterlings
1 cup of pork liver, cubed and salted
about 1 1/2 cup of fresh pig’s blood, or a slab of coagulated pork blood (about 5in x 3in x 3in), mashed)
5 tbsp of minced garlic
1 large onion, diced
1/2 cup vinegar
1 green chili pepper
salt and pepper

Add the chitterlings in a pot of boiling water and boil for about 5 minutes. Get rid of the water, rinse and drain. Add about a liter of water to the pot and bring to boil. Return the chitterlings to the pot and wait till the water boils again. Add salt and pepper and simmer for an hour or more until tender. Slice, dice and set aside. (You may want to do this a day before and just refrigerate the cooked chitterlings.)

Cook pork in a pan over low to medium heat until its natural oil comes out. Move the pork to one side then throw in the garlic and fry until golden brown. Add the cooked chitterlings, mix all together and saute for about 2 minutes. Add salt, pepper and onions, and saute for another couple of minutes. Pour the vinegar and simmer for about 5 minutes without stirring. Adjust the taste, making it a bit salty for the blood later on.

Add in the pork blood, liver and chili pepper and cook with occasional stirring for about 5 minutes or until the sauce dries up. Serve with hot plain rice. Left-over may still be fried and you’ll be surprised it gets even better the next day!

Of course, you can always cook it the normal saucy way.

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.