Laing is Bicol region’s unbeatable dish. It is an appetizing spicy vegetable dish in which taro or gabi stalks and leaves are slowly cooked in coconut milk seasoned with ginger, shrimp paste and Philippine chili.
Ingredients:
25 pieces gabi (taro) leaves, dried and shredded
1/2 kilo pork meat, diced
1/4 cup shrimp bagoong
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 red onions, chopped
2 tablespoons ginger, minced
5 jalapeno pepper, sliced
1 cup coconut cream or katang gata (1st coconut milk extraction)
2 cups coconut milk or gata
1/2 teaspoon monosodium glutamate (MSG)
2 tablespoons of oil
1 teaspoon salt
Preparation:
1. In a casserole, sauté garlic, ginger and onions.
2. Add the pork meat.
3. Mix in the gabi leaves.
4. Pour in the coconut milk or gata. Bring to a boil then simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Add jalapeno, bagoong, salt and MSG. Simmer for another 5 minutes.
6. Add the coconut cream and continue to simmer until oil comes out of the cream.
7. Best served hot with plain white rice.
