Ginisang Munggo

Everybody has their own way of cooking ginisang munggo. I've always thought that in Pampanga, our town in the Philippines, they always processed their munggo so that it's very smooth. And since we didn't have food processor or blender, we used to press the cooked munggo in a slotted bilao we called bitse. Excuse the words, I don't know what they're called in English. lol

Well, apparently, not everyone in Pampanga processed their munggo. I guess, it's only us .. lol

I have always processed my munggo, and that's the only way my husband and children know how to eat it. If they see munggo and it's not processed, they won't eat it. I must admit, I am not used in eating it that way too, so I usually stay away from it when it's not processed. I have served this munggo with fried Ling. In the tagalog region, they usually serve it with paksiw na isda , but if we have to serve something with munggo it's always fried fish, preferably galunggong.




Ingredients:

1 cup of munggo beans

2 tbsp oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped finely
1 tomato, chopped finely (optional)
1 - 2 tbsp of fish sauce
2 sticks of celery, chopped thinly and diagonally. Add the celery leaves if they're there.
bunch of spinach leaves (in my case, i put silver beet from the garden), washed thoroughly

Directions:

Boil 3 cups of water. When the water is boiling, add the dried munggo beans. Cook until it's very soft. About half an hour to 45 minutes. Keep stirring it, while cooking otherwise it might burn. When the munggo is soft, put it in a blender. I use a hand-held blender and blend it directly in the pot.

1. Saute garlic in the oil until slightly brown.
2. Add the onions, cook until translucent.
3. Add the tomatoes, and cook for another minute.
4. Season with fish sauce.
5. Add the celery pieces and cook further until the celery is slightly soft.
6. Add the processed munggo. Let it boil.
7. Add the spinach or silverbeet. Cook until the leaves are soft.
8. Serve with rice and your preferred fried fish. Or you can also serve pork chops if you're feeling generous.

When I was still in the Philippines, we used to put pumpkin flowers and the young leaves of the pumpkin. When I have zucchini flowers, I put them too. Other people, they use bagoong to season the munggo, but since my family do not eat bagoong, I use fish sauce. And others they put pork with it too. If you want to incorporate pork, saute the thinly sliced pork after putting the tomatoes. Cook the pork until it's tender, then proceed as above.