Ginataang munggo

Mung beans boiled plain and then finished in coconut milk, not stewed in it from the start.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains fish sauce, pork.

Ingredients

• 300 g split mung beans
• 500 ml coconut milk
• 1.2 litres water
• 200 g pork belly, in small dice
• 1 onion, chopped
• 8 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 150 g moringa leaves
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 0.5 teaspoon black pepper

Method

1. THE BEANS FINISH IN COCONUT MILK rather than cooking in it, which is the difference from the ginisang munggo already here. Dried beans boiled in coconut milk take twice as long and the milk splits and goes grainy long before they are soft. So: plain water until tender, then the coconut milk for the last ten minutes.
2. Boil the mung beans in the water, uncovered, 35 to 40 minutes, until most have burst and the liquid has gone cloudy and thick. Skim the grey foam off in the first 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile fry the pork in the oil, 8 minutes, until the fat has rendered and the dice are brown.
4. Garlic, onion and tomatoes in, 5 minutes, pressing the tomatoes until they slump.
5. Tip the pork and everything in the pan into the beans. Fish sauce in.
6. Coconut milk in and the heat dropped low. 10 minutes at a bare simmer, stirring occasionally. It must not boil hard from here.
7. It should be thick enough that a spoon leaves a slow-closing track. If it is soupy, 5 more minutes uncovered.
8. Heat off. Moringa leaves in, lid on, 2 minutes. Pepper, and taste for fish sauce.

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