Dinakdakan

Grilled pork face and ears sliced and dressed cold, served at room temperature rather than hot.

Pork, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

• 800 g pig's face and ears
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 4 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 60 ml vinegar
• 40 g fresh ginger, in fine matchsticks
• 6 siling labuyo, chopped
• 2 tablespoons calamansi juice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 bay leaves

Method

1. GRILLED, THEN DRESSED COLD. This is where it parts company with the sisig on this site: sisig is chopped fine and sent out spitting on a hot iron plate, and this is sliced and tossed in a cold dressing and eaten at room temperature. Served hot, the mayonnaise splits and slides off.
2. Boil the face and ears with the bay and a teaspoon of salt, covered, 1 hour, until a skewer goes through the ear cartilage with slight resistance still. Cooked to collapse, there is no crunch left and the crunch is half the dish.
3. Drain and dry them thoroughly, then grill over a high heat or under a very hot grill, 4 to 5 minutes a side, until charred in patches. Dry first or they steam instead of charring.
4. Cool for 15 minutes, then slice everything into strips 5 mm wide. Slicing hot pork tears it.
5. Soak the sliced onion in the vinegar for 10 minutes. It takes the raw bite off and starts the dressing at the same time.
6. Mix the mayonnaise, calamansi, ginger, chillies, salt and pepper into the onion and vinegar.
7. Fold the pork through the dressing. It should be coated, not swimming -- add mayonnaise a spoonful at a time if it looks dry.
8. Rest 20 minutes before serving so the vinegar gets into the meat. Taste again at that point; it will need more calamansi than you expect.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes