Menudo (Pork Stew)

In the Philippines, there is a popular dish that you almost always come across when in attending fiestas. Menudo, is a dish that has pork, liver, some vegetables, in tomato sauce. In the northern part of the country you always come across this food not only in fiestas but it is very commonly prepared for regular meals also. Not only that, it seems that most of the eateries normally have this on their menu. As usual, almost everyone has variations of the dish. Here’s mine... One thing more, you must not confuse this recipe with another one of the same name in Mexico.

Ingredients:

1 kg Pork, cut into small cubes.

¼ kg Pork liver, cut into small cubes.

½ kg Potato, cubed

2 pcs. Bell peppers (red and green, cut into squares)

½ cup Carrots, cubed

1 cup Tomato sauce

¼ kg Hotdog, sliced

1 tsp. Cocoa powder

5 pcs. Bay leaves

1 tbsp. Sugar

½ tsp. Black pepper powder

½ tsp. Iodized salt

2 tbsp. Safflower oil for sautéing

½ cup Safflower oil, for frying the potatoes and carrots

2 tbsp. Premium dark soy sauce

5 cloves Garlic, minced

1 pc. Onion, medium, thinly sliced

1 cup Water

¼ cup Citron (kalamansi) juice

Cooking Instruction:

In a large bowl, place the meat and add the citron juice and soy sauce. Mix and marinate, set aside.

Heat ½ cup oil in a frying pan and fry the potato until golden brown, next fry also the carrots until browned. Set aside the fried vegetables on top of paper towels to remove excess fat.

In a large sauce pan, heat the oil and sauté the garlic and onion until the garlic is golden brown and the onion starts to caramelize. Add the sliced hot dogs and stir. Cook for approximately two minutes. Toss in the marinated meat and sugar, black pepper, bay leaf, salt, cocoa powder, stir. Cook for about 5 minutes and add the water. When it starts to boil, lower the heat to have a gentle simmer and cover. Cook until the meat is nearly done. Add more water as needed to achieve cooking. Add the tomato sauce and stir, continue cooking for about 15-20 minutes more or until the sauce is reduced to about 1 ½ cup volume. Enjoy with bread or plain steamed rice.