Laing

Name: Laing
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Yield: 5
Cuisine: Bicolano
Ingredients: 80 g Dried taro leaves (dahon ng gabi); 800 ml Coconut milk; 150 ml Coconut cream; 200 g Pork belly, diced small; 2 tbsp Shrimp paste (bagoong alamang); 6 Garlic cloves, minced; 1 Onion, chopped; 20 g Fresh ginger, julienned; 6 Bird's eye chillies

Dried taro leaves left to collapse into coconut milk with shrimp paste and chilli until they turn almost black and drink the fat — Bicol again, and one of the best things done to a leaf anywhere.

Fuente

Receta de Bicolano kitchens · 🏺 Tradicional · The Bicol region cooks with more coconut milk and far more chilli than the rest of the country — the one Filipino cuisine outsiders call hot.

Bicol · taro leaves — An ownerless traditional dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article confirms it as a Filipino dish of shredded or whole taro leaves with meat or seafood cooked in thick coconut milk spiced with labuyo chilli, lemongrass, garlic and shrimp paste. Quantities, the dried-leaf warning and the do-not-stir instruction are this book's own.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

Watch it being made · 3 videos

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⏱ 70 min🍽 5 porciones🔥 340 kcal🇵🇭 Filipinas🌶️🌶️

Sin glutenSin lácteos

Pasos

Bring the coconut milk to a simmer with the garlic, onion, ginger and pork. Cook 15 minutes.
Lay the dried taro leaves on top. Do not stir.
💡 Do not stir for the first 25 minutes, whatever it looks like. Stirring early is what makes laing itchy — the leaves have to submerge and cook through on their own.
Simmer uncovered 25 minutes, until the leaves have sunk and darkened.
Now stir in the shrimp paste and chillies. Cook 15 minutes more until the oil separates and pools at the edges.
Finish with the coconut cream, cook 5 minutes and serve with rice.

💡 Consejos

If it makes your throat itch, the leaves were under-cooked or stirred too early. Cook it longer — that genuinely fixes it.
Better on day two, like most coconut braises, and it freezes well.