Laing is not the most visually appealing dish out there but trust me this is a good dish, it’s so good every Filipino gathering I attended this is one of the most sought after dishes. This dish is made out of taro leaves, coconut milk and chillies, it is very popular in the Bicol Region a Southern part of the Luzon Island where the ingredients mentioned is very common.
When I was a child I always remember we have this dish always on our dinner table as my mom is from that region and this is her specialty, I never ate it as it does not really appeal my visual senses until I had my 12th birthday where my High School friends were invited. Apparently my mom gave them the challenge to eat this really hot dish and being girls they accepted the challenge just to boost that girl ego, and to my surprise they liked it so I gave it a try as well and indeed it is certainly hot but it was really good. Since then I enjoyed it and I liked it so much I even came to a point in asking my mom to bring me lots of it .
So if you are also up for the challenge you should also try this dish and make sure it’s super-hot as that what makes this dish. If you can’t take how it looks just imagine it’s just like a very hot spinach curry.
Today we will be preparing it exactly how my mom does it, I still remember she starts to simmer coconut milk in the morning so before lunch time it has rendered enough fat to start the real cooking process. If I can remember it will take her around three hours to prepare this which starts by grating coconut flesh and extracting the milk by hand, finishing off with a really nice aromatic smell that lingers on our kitchen, enough to make you hungry and start grabbing some.
Laing
Special Laing is a dish of dried taro leaves cooked in coconut milk and cream with tender pork pieces and lots of red chillies.
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 1 hour 30 mins
Total Time: 1 hour 45 mins
Yield: 5-6
Category: Main Course
Cuisine: Filipino
Ingredients
- 500 g sun dried taro leaves
- 500 g pork neck, sliced into small pieces
- 4 pcs medium taro, sliced
- 2 tbsp bagoong (fermented shrimp paste)
- 6 pcs birds eye chillies, chopped and seeds included plus more for garnishing
- 5 cups coconut milk
- 1 cup coconut cream, plus more for garnish.
- 12 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 thumb sized ginger, sliced
- 1 large red onion, chopped
- freshly ground black pepper
- fish sauce
- cooking oil
Instructions
- Generously season pork pieces in salt and pepper, set aside
- In a wok add 1 cup of water then add the pork, bring to a boil then continue to boil until water dries out and renders fat, once it renders fat continue to cook until its brown and crispy.
- Remove all but 3 tbsp of oil into the wok, add garlic, ginger, onion and chillies. Sauté for a minute.
- Pour 3 cups of coconut milk then bring it to a boil, simmer in medium high heat until sauce thickens and starts to render coconut oil. This will take around 20 to 30 minutes.
- Add the remaining coconut milk, bagoong and taro leaves, try to submerge all leaves gently (do not over mix) into the coconut milk then continue to cook covered in low heat for 20 minutes. Check liquid levels, add a bit water if necessary.
- Mix the laing making sure it’s not stuck on the bottom of the wok.
- Add the sliced taro on top together with the coconut cream, simmer in low heat for 10 more minutes.
- Season with fish sauce, turn off heat then serve garnished with more coconut cream on top.
Nutrition
Calories: 927kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 21g | Fat: 90g | Saturated Fat: 56g | Cholesterol: 83mg | Sodium: 140mg | Potassium: 1642mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 7340IU | Vitamin C: 93.1mg | Calcium: 215mg | Iron: 10.1mg
