In which I fancy it plain

My friend Ghia keeps bugging me for crispy fried kangkong. “Babes,” she says, “when are you going to make me some?”

“About never,” I tell her. “Go ask somebody else; you have a restaurant, for crying out loud.”

Is crispy kangkong that much of a bother to make? Not at all. I just happen to prefer my water spninach adobo’ed (stir-fried). Come to think of it, the latter involves more prep work. You could use a knife, but I favor using my bare hands, leaving them sticky with sap afterwards, especially under the nails of my right thumb and forefinger. It’s mindless work that I somehow find relaxing.

Start by picking the leaves off their petioles (the petiole is the slender stalk that connects a leaf to the bigger vertical stem). Discard the larger mature leaves. Then snip off petioles in segments half an inch long, working down to the main stem and do that as well, starting at the top. As a rule of thumb, I snip until I encounter resistance from the stem. It means that from that part thereon it is no longer crunchy — you don’t want that, as chewy water spinach stem (or, indeed, large leaves) can lead to choking. Put leaves and stems in separate containers.

To cook, start by sautéing sliced onion in a tablespoon or two of oil. After a minute, add minced garlic, diced tomato, and chopped red finger chili. Stir around for another minute before adding your subá (the meat component of the dish). You might have noticed that mine does not have any; at most I throw in a teaspoonful of ginamós (fermented fish) for the umami factor as we don’t have MSG or Magic Sarap.

Add kangkong stems to the pan. To flavor, a tablespoon or so of soy sauce and a pinch of sugar, adjusted to taste (add a little water if too salty). Cook stems until slightly wilted but still crunchy, then toss in the leaves, coating with the sauce. The dish is ready when the leaves are just wilted. Serve hot with fried minced garlic on top (optional).

I can not take credit for this recipe. This is how they do it at Jenny’s place. ”Ebing makes wonderful adobong tangkong,” she had said of the help, who was game enough to give me the lowdown. I’m sure she knows how to do crispy kangkong just as well. Hear that, babes? Now give it a rest.