Laing anyone????

It's kind of funny how this lowly Bicol dish is making in-road as an identity-maker in my adoptive country.  Many years back, when I was just finding my way here, I never thought that this dish will give me my unique identity as a Filipino and my ethnicity as a true Bicolana. 

I used to make this dish for comfort.  Being thousands and thousands of miles away from home and with weather that can be so depressing at times, laing and Bicol Express warm the heart and the tummy.  However, when family from hubby's side, friends and colleagues came to taste these dishes, it also became their comfort food.  When we go to potluck parties or when we have parties at home, the expectation runs high that Bicol express and if they are extremely lucky, laing will be on the menu.

The dish is easy to make, at least to me. I use very few ingredients, preferring to keep it simple so that the taste of individual ingredients remain pure and distinguishable.  For spices, I use only crushed garlic, onions and chillies.  I heard that others also add ginger and lemon grass.

Basically, laing is just one ingredient more than Bicol Express.  I used a lot of pork here because the irony of it, a kilo of pork at Eur 5.00 is cheaper than a kilo of fresh laing leaves at Eur 7.00.  Weird, isn't it?  Laing leaves almost cost nothing in the Philippines but it is worth its weight in gold here so to speak. 

Took me about 3 weeks to dry these laing leaves on a clothesline at home.  I used to place them on top of the radiator/heater before but our heaters do not go off till autumn when the temperature inside the house has dropped considerably. 

Other ingredients are the coconut cream, coconut milk and the salted tiny shrimps (balaw in Bicol or alamang in Tagalog).  I'm happy that I don't need to manually grate the coconut to extract the milk, the coconut cream in tetra packs from Thailand are just amazing.  I season the laing with the salted tiny shrimps from South Korea which I can buy from a Korean shop at Gelderlandplein in Amsterdam.

I first let the pork boil and simmer in a little water to tenderize the meat.  When the water evaporates and the oil from the meat comes out, I add the garlic and onions to sautee for a few minutes. 

Coconut milk and cream are then added.  Let it simmer for a while.

Because I am using mostly coconut cream, the consistency is already thick and creamy so I don't need to wait a while to add the laing leaves.  Just as soon as the coconut cream simmers, the dried laing leaves can be added.  I also add the salted tiny shrimps at this time.

When the laing is almost done, that's the time to add the chillies.  I don't add them early on lest they get overcooked. 

The whole process requires a great deal of patience.  True Bicol style of laing means that the coconut cream should be reduced to the oily state.  There is also an explanation to this -- longer shelf life.

The smell of the dish now dominates the kitchen. 

I can just imagine how friends will devour this dish ahead of the other stuffs at the Pinoy party where we are going.