Cooking for the Bicolano palate is very simple. Cook rice, fry some fish and make sure that there is slow boiled vegetable in coconut.
Pinakulaw na Kalunggay (Moringa) is pretty staple in the bicolano kitchen. Every household would most likely have a tree of kalunggay planted in the backyard that gets trimmed off every time the urge to eat inspires. Cooking it is pretty simple, it is the preparing that takes a lot of time. The idea is to remove the stems, big and small, from the leaves. Considering the really small leaves that are in every stalk of moringa, you would imagine the time it takes to prepare this vegetable before cooking. I envied the manangs before every time they prepare this vegetable as they have it to an art. Preparing a whole bunch would take them less than an hour, whereas it would take me a whole day to make sure that the stalks are removed.
Anyway, here's how to cook it:
Prepare the moringa leaves, remove as much stems as possible from the leaves, without crushing the leaves.
Also prepare the bataw, or beans, by removing the hard stalks.
In the pan, crush garlic and chili in a small amount of salt.
Add in bagoong and shrimp (optional) and the coconut milk.
Let boil while constantly stirring the milk.
Once it boils, reduce fire to medium and let the coconut milk simmer.
Once the coconut milk is cooked, add in the beans and let it cook.
When halfcooked, add in the moringga leaves. Do not stir.
Let the coconut oil boil and immerse the leaves for a minute before folding the leaves slightly to immerse them in coconut milk. Add in long chilis. Let cook for another minute.
Season to taste.
Comments
Post a Comment