What is the best way to cook Laing, dried or fresh taro leaves and stalks?!
My love for anything cooked with gata is soooo in my blood since I am always planning on cooking dishes with cooconut milk whenever time permits and that would actually be every week!! My hubby always reprimands me on the cholesterol content of gata but whenever he smells the gata bubbling away in the kitchen he forgets about cholesterol and eagerly waits for it to finish cooking.. hahaha! he also loves dishes wtith gata even if he really tries to avoid anything with high cholesterol content and fatty foods.. it complements my passion for this wonderful, creamy-white coconut's milk and food is one of the many reasons why we jive...
I was reading a personal message from a fellow blogger who is sooo nice to actually try my recipes and tell me that she loved the shrimp with gata, she requested for me to post all my other "gata" recipes. I made a promise that i would send her all the recipes but unfortunately, i was sooo busy the past couple of days with projects and prelims so i just decided to post another recipe with gata and just send her the rest of the other recipes she asked when i can.. ( sorry sis, school's been eating up most of my time! promise would still send them!! )
I grew up beside my lola and she taught me how to cook a mean laing that would make even the true-blooded bikolano think he's in Bikol eating this dish.. What I usually buy is the dried up gabi leaves which you can buy in any market within the metro, this makes it a lot easier for me instead of buying the fresh gabi leaves and cutting them all up BY HAND (yes, you should always use your bare hands for some reason i forgot already!) and letting them dry under the sun.. aaak! too much work!!! My grandma would tell me to prepare the leaves and stalks about a day or two before i would cook them so that i would have enough time to dry them up. And when i say dry, it means "desert-dry" because if it isn't then you end up with laing that would make your throat and tongue itchy..
I buy about two bags of dried leaves and about a kilo of pork or liempo. (the original recipe actually calls for dried fish but i don't like the taste of fish in my gata so i opted for pork instead) the coconut milk is produced by buying the coconut and having the meat scraped by a machine then you have to manually extract the milk.. tedious work!! eeew!! what i do is buy the milk already extracted which is pure "kakang gata". I usually take a look at the pitcher first and and see if it's really thick. When i get home i prepare the stuff i would need. First i wash the pork and slice them in two horizontally so i get 2 long slices and cut them across about 1inch thick. I then proceed to line a thick pot with the pork so the leaves won't burn. I place the two bags of gabi leaves on top of the pork and sprinkle some salt on top. i usually place my siling labuyo and whole siling pangsigang in between the leaves so it would cook through and the flavor would mix with the gata. i get about 2cups of the gata and dilute it with two cups more of water. this i use for cooking the pork slowly under low flame then i cover it after boiling. this is a long process but the results would be heavenly. check on the pork once in a while and i'm careful not to stir the leaves when checking the pork. when the pork is soft and is already exuding oil i now place the remaining "kakang gata" so it would thicken and cook. I check on it more often so the gata won't burn. the gata would later on thicken and it would look as it it curdled then the oils would come out. this brings out the true flavor of laing. since i don't like my laing to be soupy i make sure that all the gata is cooked through and has slightly dried up, what i end up is laing with a little coconut oil which glistens when you transfer it to a plate.
this recipe i pair with a tall glass of soda, maybe a barbecue and some atchara would be a superb dinner for me and my hubby. i really love having this dish after it has been in from the refrigerator and heated for several times since the flavor has already intensified and it has become a little hotter as compared to when it was first cooked. what i do is cook a big batch and save it in a tupperware container or a big glass bottle, that way i can just get enough laing for me and my hubby and zap it til the oils appear in the microwave. haay.. yummmy... heavenly... glad i learned to cook this for my in-laws are bikolanos and they're really proud that i know how to cook this dish!!
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My love for anything cooked with gata is soooo in my blood since I am always planning on cooking dishes with cooconut milk whenever time permits and that would actually be every week!! My hubby always reprimands me on the cholesterol content of gata but whenever he smells the gata bubbling away in the kitchen he forgets about cholesterol and eagerly waits for it to finish cooking.. hahaha! he also loves dishes wtith gata even if he really tries to avoid anything with high cholesterol content and fatty foods.. it complements my passion for this wonderful, creamy-white coconut's milk and food is one of the many reasons why we jive...
I was reading a personal message from a fellow blogger who is sooo nice to actually try my recipes and tell me that she loved the shrimp with gata, she requested for me to post all my other "gata" recipes. I made a promise that i would send her all the recipes but unfortunately, i was sooo busy the past couple of days with projects and prelims so i just decided to post another recipe with gata and just send her the rest of the other recipes she asked when i can.. ( sorry sis, school's been eating up most of my time! promise would still send them!! )
I grew up beside my lola and she taught me how to cook a mean laing that would make even the true-blooded bikolano think he's in Bikol eating this dish.. What I usually buy is the dried up gabi leaves which you can buy in any market within the metro, this makes it a lot easier for me instead of buying the fresh gabi leaves and cutting them all up BY HAND (yes, you should always use your bare hands for some reason i forgot already!) and letting them dry under the sun.. aaak! too much work!!! My grandma would tell me to prepare the leaves and stalks about a day or two before i would cook them so that i would have enough time to dry them up. And when i say dry, it means "desert-dry" because if it isn't then you end up with laing that would make your throat and tongue itchy..
I buy about two bags of dried leaves and about a kilo of pork or liempo. (the original recipe actually calls for dried fish but i don't like the taste of fish in my gata so i opted for pork instead) the coconut milk is produced by buying the coconut and having the meat scraped by a machine then you have to manually extract the milk.. tedious work!! eeew!! what i do is buy the milk already extracted which is pure "kakang gata". I usually take a look at the pitcher first and and see if it's really thick. When i get home i prepare the stuff i would need. First i wash the pork and slice them in two horizontally so i get 2 long slices and cut them across about 1inch thick. I then proceed to line a thick pot with the pork so the leaves won't burn. I place the two bags of gabi leaves on top of the pork and sprinkle some salt on top. i usually place my siling labuyo and whole siling pangsigang in between the leaves so it would cook through and the flavor would mix with the gata. i get about 2cups of the gata and dilute it with two cups more of water. this i use for cooking the pork slowly under low flame then i cover it after boiling. this is a long process but the results would be heavenly. check on the pork once in a while and i'm careful not to stir the leaves when checking the pork. when the pork is soft and is already exuding oil i now place the remaining "kakang gata" so it would thicken and cook. I check on it more often so the gata won't burn. the gata would later on thicken and it would look as it it curdled then the oils would come out. this brings out the true flavor of laing. since i don't like my laing to be soupy i make sure that all the gata is cooked through and has slightly dried up, what i end up is laing with a little coconut oil which glistens when you transfer it to a plate.
this recipe i pair with a tall glass of soda, maybe a barbecue and some atchara would be a superb dinner for me and my hubby. i really love having this dish after it has been in from the refrigerator and heated for several times since the flavor has already intensified and it has become a little hotter as compared to when it was first cooked. what i do is cook a big batch and save it in a tupperware container or a big glass bottle, that way i can just get enough laing for me and my hubby and zap it til the oils appear in the microwave. haay.. yummmy... heavenly... glad i learned to cook this for my in-laws are bikolanos and they're really proud that i know how to cook this dish!!