Psssst! Before you dive headlong into a holiday cholesterol orgy, can I interest you to try something healthy on the side? It’s really good — and by that I mean not at all icky — for alugbati or vine/Malabar spinach, that is. Trust me, I used to hate alugbati.
You probably have an idea why: laway — properly “mucilage,” but “drool” is simply more evocative of the substance the plant exudes at some point during cooking. It’s the same reason I stay away from okra, which Ma used to eat dipped in ginamós (fermented fish) with every meal before she was diagnosed with a heart condition (long story, but now she can’t eat green, leafy vegetables). Now she reminds me that I am on anti-platelets myself.
I mean, does that alugbati strike you as slimy? I used only the shoots and young leaves (₱20 worth), steaming them for exactly two minutes, after which I steeped them in an icy bath to stop them from cooking any more. Then I started two cloves of minced garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil in a cold pan over low heat; still, I managed to almost burn the garlic (I stepped out for a smoke, if you must know). Finally, the drained greens went into the pan and quickly seasoned with salt and pepper, plus a splash of sesame oil.
In the interest of fair reporting, I should add that the alugbati was served alongside crispy pata. In my defense, fish was hard to get by this morning. And if you just happened to be there looking for green-stemmed alugbati, I believe it was me who got the last ones — the rest were of the red/purple-stemmed variety, which I hear are more langto (pungent). I guess we’ll find out about that soon enough.
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