Aside from Bicol Express, another dish that is part of my regular menu is laing. When I have visitors for dinner, it is one of the sought-after dishes, eclipsing party favorites like menudo and other meat viands. What is laing? Laing is a Bicol dish made of either dried or fresh taro or gabi leaves, coconut milk or gata, fresh shrimp paste or balaw, bird’s eye pepper or labuyo and pork slices. It is cooked practically the same way as the other coconut-based dishes in the region. Cooking laing used to be tedious but recent developments have made it easy. I can easily whip up a plateful just by going to the nearby Commonwealth market.
First, the main ingredient, taro leaves are available in the supermarkets, though only the dried variety are sold. If you want to use fresh taro leaves, you have to go to the wet market. I prefer to use the dried leaves that come in packs. Next to be prepared is the coconut milk. When before I balked at cooking coconut-based dishes because squeezing the milk from the grated coconut is cumbersome, now it is a breeze. Freshly squeezed coconut milk can be had for P20 per nut from the market. Supermarkets are not yet offering this service so if you want to make laing the easy way, you really have to go to the market. While at the supermarket, you can also buy the coconut milk in cans or pouches. I still prefer to use the freshly squeezed milk, though. Balaw can be bought from both the wet markets and supermarkets. Make sure to get the fresh pink one. If you got the brown one, chances are you bought the sauteed version which is not what is needed. Adding pork slices is optional but I love mine with pork.
With all ingredients within reach, you are now ready to cook laing. In a sauce pan, pour half of the freshly-squeezed coconut milk, a little water, a tablespoon of balaw, 3 to 4 pieces of sliced labuyo, and 100 grams of pork slices. Let the mixture boil before adding the dried taro leaves, maybe a pack or two. Stir the mixture occasionally to avoid burning the leaves. When the leaves are already cooked, add the remaining half of the coconut milk and cook over low fire. Add a pinch of salt if needed. When you see that the oil from the milk is rendering, you can already turn off the fire. Some prefer their laing to be dry but I like my laing creamy.
Laing is best eaten with hot steamed rice, fried fish or what Bicolanos call pritos, nilantang pili and kuyog or fermented small fish with lemongrass. Kakan na kita!
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