Ground Pork Menudo

 

It's been awhile since I posted a Filipino recipe so I thought that I will share one today. This is quite an old recipe which I posted on my old blog and you can see that with the photo - I didn't know anything about photo composition yet - point and shoot is what I did then! However, don't worry it would still look like this when you cook it - though perhaps a newer photo may do justice to the recipe.
It may be, as my husband would say "A classic from the attic or a spin from the bin" but the taste and flavors in it are timeless! :-)

Instead of the usual pork chunks used in the regular Menudo, here I used ground pork - they cook quicker and absorb the flavors in less time. Apart from the meat, pretty much all of the usual Menudo ingredients are present...Well, I added some boiled eggs but these are not part of the actual recipe so feel free to omit them. They are a good accompaniment though so I often add these when I make the ground pork menudo version.

Most of the time, I eyeball this recipe so the amount of each ingredient listed here serves more as a guide - I'd say make your taste buds work and tweak the taste to your fancy! Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons Olive oil
6-8 Garlic cloves, minced
1 medium Onion, chopped
2 Plum tomatoes, chopped
1 lb ground Pork
2 Tablespoons, Fish sauce (or Worcestershire Sauce)*
Ground Black Pepper, to taste
1 cup, chicken broth (or water)
2 red skin Potatoes, peeled and diced
1 medium Carrot, peeled and diced
1/2 red Bell Pepper, seeded and diced
½ cup Raisins (alt. you may use peas)
1/3 cup Ketchup* or Tomato Sauce
A little brown sugar, to taste
 

*If you don't fancy fish sauce (or don't have the Worcestershire Sauce either), you can use salt instead (just adjust it to your taste). Note though that it's more flavorful with the Fish sauce or Worcestershire Sauce. If you use Worcestershire Sauce, the taste will be slightly different than when you use fish sauce (my first preference) but it will be flavorful. This is just another option for those who don't like Fish sauce. *In the Philippines, my mom would use Del Monte Ketchup (slightly sweeter then the American Ketchup). When we use this we don’t need to add brown sugar because the ketchup is already quite sweet.

 

 

Procedure

Heat the oil in a deep pan. Sauté garlic and onion until aromatic. Stir in the tomatoes and cook until soft. When I cooked this, I only had grape tomatoes so that's what I used as you can see in the photo below but normally we use Plum tomatoes.

Add the ground pork and cook until brown. Season with ground black pepper and fish sauce (or salt, if preferred). Don’t be turned off by the smell of the fish sauce, it disappears as the mixture cooks. When the pork has browned pour in the chicken broth or water and bring to a boil.

Add the potatoes and carrots and simmer covered until the vegetables are slightly tender. Add the bell peppers and raisins. Continue to cook until all the veggies are tender but not mushy. If using peas instead of raisins, add the peas with the sauce.
 

 

 

Pour in the ketchup or tomato sauce. Stir to mix everything well. If you find the sauce to be a little tart, sprinkle a little brown sugar to balance the flavors. Adjust the seasoning to taste. Serve with boiled eggs or quail eggs (if available) and jasmine rice. 

 

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