Special 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.

I did made laing before but it was nowhere near my mom’s version, my laing was the version for the lazy, a quick and easy way to make one, my mom’s version is for the patient as it takes more time than my one but that extra time is worth the wait. Ingredients for both recipes are the same apart from one and the only major difference is the process.

With the difference in process the dish tends to taste creamier and richer, texture is smoother as well, the meat and leaves just melts in your mouth, as a result it is more enjoyable to eat even for the ones who haven’t tried laing before.

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.

Special Laing

• Author: Raymund
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hour 30 mins
• Total Time: 1 hour 45 mins
• Yield: 5-6 1x
• Category: Main Course
• Cuisine: Filipino

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Description

Special Laing is a dish of dried taro leaves cooked in coconut milk and cream with tender pork pieces and lots of red chillies.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 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

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Instructions

1. Generously season pork pieces in salt and pepper, set aside
2. 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.
3. Remove all but 3 tbsp of oil into the wok, add garlic, ginger, onion and chillies. Sauté for a minute.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Mix the laing making sure it’s not stuck on the bottom of the wok.
7. Add the sliced taro on top together with the coconut cream, simmer in low heat for 10 more minutes.
8. Season with fish sauce, turn off heat then serve garnished with more coconut cream on top.

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