Tonight's Dinner: Pork Menudo (Minced Pork and Liver Stew)

Menudo is one of my grandmother's specialties. My fondest memory involving menudo is when I was still in grade school. We live just a few blocks away from school and during lunch break, I would go home to eat lunch since I am saving my day's allowance. One time, she cooked menudo and it wasn't what I would like to have for lunch. She didn't want to prepare other meal because it was already late so she insisted that I eat what was served. Being a stubborn young girl that I was, I spooned the menudo's sauce and slathered it over my plate for it to look like I ate lunch. I wasn't caught and it still remains a secret until now that I am sharing you the story. It was a bad move on my part because I starved and ended up spending my day's allowance.

Photo from here.

Menudo is a Mexican-Spanish dish typically made of pork or tripe stew seasoned with chili peppers. It is one of the famous Filipino stew dishes. Having colonized by the Spaniards for more than 300 hundred years, it is not a surprise that Filipinos have mastered cooking it very well.

Tonight's dinner is something that I rarely cook since I haven't completely mastered it. Lucky for me, I made one that is as good as my grandmother's version.

Here are the ingredients:
1 kilo minced pork
1/4 kilo minced liver
1 medium carrot cut into cubes
1 medium potato cut into cubes
1 bell pepper cut into squares
3 pcs. hotdog, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup calamansi juice
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 tbsps. fish sauce
3 tbsps. oil
1 diced onion
2 cloves garlic
2 cups water
salt and pepper to taste

Here's how to cook it:
1. In a pan, heat oil and sautee onion and garlic before adding the pork.
2. Add the calamansi juice, ketchup, tomato sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce and water. Add a dash of pepper. Slightly mix before covering.
3. Allow the pork to soften and the flavor to be absorbed.
4. Once the pork has softened a bit, add the carrots, potatoes and liver. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Add the hotdogs. My grandmother cooks this separately in a pan and adds is only when the menudo is cooked.
6.Add the bell pepper and raisins and simmer for another 5 minutes.
7. Adjust the taste by adding salt or fish sauce.