Dinuguan (Blood Stew)

In the Philippines, there is this popular dish which is called locally as ‘dinuguan’; it is some sort of a stew wherein one of the unique ingredients that imparts uniqueness to the taste is blood. In several parts of the world, blood is being prepared as food in various ways. In the Philippines, various food products with blood as ingredient either part of or forms a major part of the dish is found. However, the most popular and unique to my mind is this dish of which a recipe I share on this blog.

Recipe for dinuguan in different regions of the country varies, and the one found in Bicol region (a place somewhere in the eastern part of Luzon) is the most unique and has the most different uniqueness not only in terms of preparation but also of taste. In fact, the recipe is so unique that even in the Philippines, very few people know how to properly prepare it in the traditional fashion so as to create the dish that resembles and tastes as what our ancestors has enjoyed in the past. People who are used to eating this type of dish but have not tried out the 'dinuguan' from Bicol region often are surprised and find new and delightful experience upon first partaking of this particular variation of the dish. The preparation is also not the same as the other variations from other regions. In fact, this is more complex process were some steps are not performed or unknown to people not from Bicol and those residing in the particular region but have no interest in cooking their traditional recipes. I hope now I have shared this unique recipe and record in some fashion the original procedure of making the dish so that it will not be loss.

Ingredients:

½ kg. Pork small intestines (cleaned properly and cut into about 1 inch length)

1 ½ kg Pork

2 pcs. Coconuts (fresh, split open, discard the water, and grate the meat.)

2 cups Pork blood (whole, must be as fresh as possible, not the usual blood tofu you purchase in some groceries. It must be raw and still in semi liquid form, there should be minimum of coagulated blood as much as possible)

2 tbsp. Garlic (minced, for sautéing)

1 pc. Onion (thinly sliced, for sautéing)

3 pcs. Long green pepper (fresh)

4 cloves Garlic (crushed, skins removed for preparing the meat)

1 pc. Onion (medium, peeled, quartered for preparing the meat)

½ tsp. Black pepper (powdered, for preparing the meat)

1 pc. Charcoal (about, 2 inch size)

½ tsp. Iodized salt

2 tbsp. Safflower oil for sautéing

½ cup Water

Cooking Instruction:

Tenderizing the meat –

Place the meat, garlic, onion, black pepper, salt, and water in a pressure cooker. Pressure cook for at least 10-15 minutes. After this time turn off the flame and allow normal cooling. Do not vent steam from the pressure cooker to hasten cooking as the extra time required for normal cooking is used as additional cooking for tenderizing the meat which will take an additional of 10-15 minutes. Skim off any excess fat the floats and fish out the meats. Cool and slice them into thin 1 inch portions. Set aside.

Prepare the coconut milk –

In a frying pan or some suitable clean, metal container place the grated coconut. Start the burning of the charcoal by holding with suitable tongs or some implement over a gas stove flame. When it starts to glow, place it on the center of the grated coconut and blow upon the charcoal so that its flame is not extinguished and continues to burn. Place some portions of the grated coconut on the charcoal but be careful to have a space for the charcoal flame to access oxygen and to continue burning. Burning is assisted by blowing upon the charcoal. This will sear or burn some of the grated coconut as well as the grated coconut absorbing some of the smoke that is emitted by the charcoal and the burning portion of the grated coconut. This will impart that unique smoke flavour to the coconut milk.

After some you think that you have burned or imparted enough smoke flavour to the grated coconut, you should cover the charcoal or the container in which you have placed the grated coconut and the charcoal, this will cause the flame to be extinguished and smoke that ensues from the charcoal will also be absorbed on the coconut meat.

After the charcoal is extinguished and the coconut has absorbed the smoke, uncover and remove the charcoal and add the whole pork blood.

The blood is kneaded with hands into the grated coconut. The liquid from the pork blood will be used the extracting fluid for the coconut milk and also, the procedure will help separate the clotted blood from the liquid which may cause unwanted consistency in the sauce of the dish.

After the mixture is properly kneaded, the solids are separated by squeezing the liquid off the mixture of grated coconut and pig’s blood. Collect the liquid which will be used in preparation of the dish.

Assembling the recipe –

In a suitable saucepan, heat the oil and sauté the garlic and onion until the garlic turns golden brown and the onion starts to caramelize (the saucepan must be very hot). Add the coconut milk with blood and immediately stir and scrape the surface of the pan so that the blood will not curdle on the surface and forms lumpy solids. Continue stirring until the entire liquid turns from red to dark brown which means that the blood has been cooked already. Stirring must be continues until this stage is reached otherwise lumps will form which is considered undesirable.

Toss in the meat and stir. Continue to boil with constant stirring until the consistency starts to thicken and the volume is reduced to about 1 ½ cup remains. Add the green long peppers and continue to cook and stir until drops of oil starts to appear. At this point the dish is done and can be enjoyed with ‘Puto’ (puto is a unique steamed rice cake in the Philippines) or as rice topping. You can also enjoy this with bread.