Pork cooked with pork blood, onion and black pepper until the blood thickens into a dark sauce — a traditional Khasi preparation that uses the entirety of the pig. The blood thickens like a gravy, coating each pork piece with an intensely savoury dark crust.
Ingredients
400 g pork — cut into 3 cm cubes
1/2 cup fresh pork blood (ask your butcher — available at fresh meat markets; mix with 1 tsp salt immediately after collecting to prevent clotting)
2 tbsp oil
1 large onion — finely chopped
6 garlic cloves — finely chopped
1 inch ginger — finely grated
1 tsp black pepper — coarsely ground
2 green chilli — slit
salt to taste
spring onions for garnish
Method
Brown the pork: Heat a wide heavy pan on medium-high. Add oil. Add pork cubes. Brown on all sides for 5 to 6 minutes until a golden crust forms. Remove and keep aside.
Cook onion: In the same pan with the remaining fat, add finely chopped onion. Cook 8 minutes until deeply golden.
Add garlic and ginger: Add finely chopped garlic and grated ginger. Stir 2 minutes.
Add green chilli and black pepper: Add slit green chilli and coarsely ground black pepper. Stir 1 minute. Black pepper is the primary spice in most Khasi meat preparations.
Return pork: Add the browned pork pieces. Stir to coat with the onion mixture.
Add a splash of water: Add 1/4 cup water. Stir. Cover and cook on medium-low heat for 15 minutes until the pork is nearly tender.
Check salt before adding blood: Taste the pork. Adjust salt if needed before adding the blood — blood is naturally salty.
Add the pork blood: Add the salted pork blood to the pan. Stir immediately and continuously as the blood hits the hot pan. It will begin thickening very quickly — the blood proteins cook rapidly like egg.
Cook the blood until thickened: Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, for 3 to 4 minutes. The blood will thicken from liquid to a dark, thick sauce that coats every piece of pork. Do not stop stirring — uneven stirring creates clumps.
Serve immediately: Scatter spring onions. Serve immediately with steamed rice. The dark blood sauce should coat each pork piece like a thick glaze.
Note: Doh Snam reflects the Khasi tradition of whole-animal cooking where no part of the pig is wasted. Using blood as a sauce thickener is a technique found across many traditional food cultures — from European black pudding to Filipino dinuguan. In Khasi culture, the preparation of doh snam is specifically associated with pig slaughter days when fresh blood is available and the entire community shares in the feast.