Is your family like my family? When Friday comes it's like "Hey, it's Friday, it's munggo day!"
This was something I grew up with in my Father's side. They, my dad, titos and titas have ginisang munggo in almost every Friday of their lives. They never get tired of it. What is it with family food traditions? :)
Anyway, here at home, we do not have ginisang munggo every Friday, but we have, for a couple of Fridays and one Friday is today.
It was perfect timing because it has been raining since Thursday night until early this morning, so I thought we should have it. It's a great dish on a rainy day! Our household's ginisang munggo recipe is not so different from yours. But there is just one "deadly" thing that we put as a topping.
We used to have chicharon with it until Mang Romy (the pork vendor in the market) highly recommended to use "batok ng baboy" (pig's nape) instead of the usual chicharon. So we did and we never went back to chicharon eversince.
If you enlarge the photo, you can see the crispy pig's nape on top of the munggo bean stew, beside the ampalaya leaves -- that's what I'm talking about!
The cut of the pig's nape looks a little like liempo but with more fat. It's cut is thicker as well. I wish I took a photo of it to show you!
In the meantime, let me share with you our household's ginisang munggo recipe:
For the Crispy batok ng baboy (pig's nape), I ordered 2 pieces of the pig's nape from Mang Romy.
The how to:
Cut the pig's nape in small cubes, marinate it for about 30 minutes in about 1 tsp of fish sauce and about 1 to 2 tbsp calamansi juice and pepper.
After 30 minutes or so, fry it until golden brown and crispy, drain the oil (please!) then set aside.
For the ginisang munggo:
1 cup of green munggo (mung beans)
3 cups of water (for boiling)
1 small onion, minced
about 1 tsp of minced garlic
2 small native tomatoes, chopped
2 medium sized smoked fish/tinapang galunggong, flaked
about 1/4 cup of dried shrimp (hibe)
1 Pork bouillion cube
Ampalaya leaves (sometimes we use Malunggay leaves, especially when I was still breastfeeding!)
Fish sauce to taste (optional)
Pepper to taste
The Way
Boil the Munggo beans until they are soft, drain. then set aside. Set aside the water as well to be used as the broth.
Sauté the onions, garlic and tomatoes. Stir in the munggo beans, tinapa flakes, hibe (dried shrimps) and water. Allow to simmer. Then add the Pork bouillion cube, fish sauce (optional) and pepper to taste and bring to a boil. Then add the ampalaya leaves and simmer agian for about 5 minutes.
You may want to add some more water if you want it to be soupy. You can squish some of the beans using your ladle to make the soup thicker.
Serve it while it's hot: in a soup bowl, or as rice topping plus the crispy fried pig's nape on top!
Warning: ADDICTING
Happy Saturday and Sunday! :)
Though I am an an eater of Hunts Pork and Beans since childhood and I also like the sweetened beans from our Halo-Halo, this bean stew called Fabada -- is something I am not totally aware of until I became a follower of her wonderful blog and her contributions to this great food magazine!
This June's ish was fantastic (all issues are!) as I was able to use two of its recipes from the ish (and more to come soon!) and those recipes left WoW looks on my folks here at home.
Before I made this, I was supposed to make it with Hunts Pork and Beans (See how desperate I was?) Good thing I asked and waited for a couple of days 'til grocery time and there I had all the ingredients for this The Quick Fabulous Fabada. Now I found another way to enjoy beans! Ergo, patience is a virtue and patience pays! ;-)
Here's the Quick Fabada Recipe by Johanna de Larrazabal-Blanco:
(from page 44 of Yummy Magazine, June 2009)
Olive Oil
1 big white onion, chopped
5 to 6 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
1 bay leaf
100 grams bacon, chopped into 1 inch pieces
150 g chorizo bilbao or any spanish style chorizo, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces (I used Purefoods Chorizo Bilbao Style - but I sliced it into about 1/4 inch or less -- beep beep , too much excitement!)
2 cans of white beans, one can drained (but juice reserved) and once can with juice (not drained)
salt and pepper to taste
about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of Spanish Paprika (I used 1/2!)
Heat olive oil in saucepan, once oil is hot, add onions, garlic and bay leaf/ Sauté until onions are soft and translucent
Add bacon and cook until fat is rendered and sides are starting to curl, but not crisp.
Add chorizo and cook until the lovely orange oil is released and chorizo is almost done
Add one can of beans with its juice/liquid and one can of drained beans. Stir and bring to a simmer. If mixure looks too dry, add some of the reserved bean liquid/juice. Tast and season with salt, pepper and spanish paprika.
I love it with garlic bread on the side :-)
For the garlic bread, I have two easy suggestions:
Suggestion # 1
in 1/2 cup of softened butter, add about 1/2 teaspoon of fresh minced garlic, a teaspoon of parmesan cheese or Mc Cormick's Garlic Bread Sprinkle and a dash of dried herb - basil, italian seasoning, parsely as garnish
Suggestion # 2 (the easiest and stress free way! hahaha! a.k.a. pag tinatamad ka na!)
use Star Margarine, garlic flavor (the green one) and sprinkle a dash of dried herb - basil, italian seasoning, parsely as garnish
Spread over any bread slice / left over bread, toast in oven for more or less 10 minutes in 220C, and choose "Brown Toast" option, if that option is available.
FYI, my angels eat this with rice. Super Carbo Load! Ok, I go for the toast, carbo load is a little bit less here (may butter naman! hahahaha! Excuses!!)
This is a comfort food added to my list. Hope you can try this at home!
Enjoy! :-)
