Ah, spring has sprung, and with it, a cornucopia of fresh and colourful produce. And what better way to celebrate nature's bounty than to create one of the dishes that epitomises the greenness and crispness of the season - our own Gising-Gising.
The aptly termed Gising-Gising awakens the palate with its complementary combination of spongey-crisp sigarilyas or winged beans, umami-rich ground pork, and creamy coconut milk. Bites end with lingering heat from the chili.
While the flavour and texture of the sigarilyas lend well to the Gising-Gising, the vegetable isn't prevalent in Australia; so should you want to cook Gising-Gising this spring, a good alternative to sigarilyas is asparagus.
With similar flavour and texture to sigarilyas, the asparagus in Australia are long, crisp and solid, and almost resemble lavender stalks with their green and purple gradations.
The asparagus in Australia are crisp and solid, and almost resemble lavender stalks with their green and purple gradations. Source: Nikki Alfonso-Gregorio
Ingredients:
500 gms ground pork
200 gms prawns, shells removed and sliced into small pieces
3-4 bunches asparagus, sliced into approximately 2-centimetre pieces
1 can coconut milk
2-3 tbsps shrimp paste or bagoong alamang
half an onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 pcs green chili
red bird's eye chili, optional
salt and pepper, to taste
Procedure:
1. Sauté garlic and onion in a pot.
2. Add ground pork, and season with salt and pepper.
3. Spoon in shrimp paste. Adjust amount according to preference.
4. Add coconut milk and prawns. Let simmer until prawns turn orange.
6. Add asparagus. Take care not to overcook the vegetables.
7. Add green chili.
8. Should you want the dish to be hotter, add red bird eye's chili to the pot.
8. Serve with rice.
Notes:
After 24 hours of ingredients fully integrating into the dish, the Gising-Gising becomes even more flavourful. Source: Nikki Alfonso-Gregorio
* The Gising-Gising becomes thicker when cooled, and becomes more flavourful the next day.
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