Ginisang Munggo

Mung beans cooked to collapse before anything else enters the pot.

Pork, Shellfish. Not vegetarian — contains fish sauce, pork, shellfish.

Ingredients

• 300 g dried mung beans
• 250 g pork belly, in small dice
• 200 g prawns, peeled
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 onion and 6 garlic cloves, chopped
• 200 g bitter melon leaves, or spinach
• 1.8 litres water
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons oil
• chicharon, to serve

Method

1. Boil the mung beans in the water, with no salt, for 50 to 60 minutes until they have burst and gone creamy. SALT EARLY AND THE SKINS STAY TOUGH however long you give them.
2. Mash about a third of them against the side of the pot so the liquid thickens. There is no other thickener in this.
3. Separately, render the pork belly in the oil until crisp, then add the onion, garlic and tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes collapse.
4. Tip the pork mixture into the beans and simmer 15 minutes.
5. ADD THE PRAWNS FOR THE LAST 3 MINUTES AND THE LEAVES FOR THE LAST 1. Prawns go rubbery in five and the leaves to slime in three, and both are here for freshness against an otherwise heavy pot.
6. Season with fish sauce rather than salt.
7. Crush chicharon over at the table. The crackling against the soft beans is what makes a bowl of pulses feel like a meal, and it has to go on at the last moment or it softens.

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