Ginataang labong

Bamboo shoots boiled twice in changed water, then simmered in coconut milk with shrimp paste.

Shellfish. Not vegetarian — contains shellfish, shrimp paste.

Ingredients

• 700 g fresh bamboo shoots, in matchsticks
• 400 ml coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons shrimp paste
• 40 g fresh ginger, in matchsticks
• 6 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 onion, sliced
• 200 g prawns, peeled
• 4 long green chillies
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 0.5 teaspoon black pepper

Method

1. BOIL THEM TWICE IN CHANGED WATER. Fresh bamboo shoots are bitter and carry compounds that need driving off: 10 minutes in boiling water, drain and discard the water, then another 10 minutes in fresh water. Do not shortcut to one boil, and do not keep either water for the dish.
2. Cut them in matchsticks along the grain, not across. Across the grain they go stringy and catch between the teeth.
3. Fry the ginger, garlic and onion in the oil, 4 minutes.
4. Shrimp paste in, 2 minutes, pressed against the pan until it darkens and stops smelling raw. This is where the salt of the dish comes from, so no fish sauce is needed.
5. Bamboo shoots in, turned over for 3 minutes.
6. Coconut milk in. Simmer uncovered 15 minutes, so the shoots take up the milk and the sauce reduces by about a third.
7. Prawns in for the last 3 minutes, whole chillies for the last 2.
8. Pepper. Taste before adding anything -- shrimp paste varies wildly in saltiness between jars and this is easy to ruin at the last moment.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes