Ginisang monggo is a staple food in Filipino homes. The ingredients are readily available and inexpensive. While you can prepare it any time of the week, it is conventional to cook monggo on Fridays. Apparently, there are two theories: no-meat day, which has a historical and religious reason which dates back to the Spanish colonial era, and affordable dish to cook on Friday when there is little money left from the paycheck.
I think the last one holds at present. Monggo is cheaper to prepare, whatever day it is.
Ingredients:
- monggo
- bitter gourd (Ampalaya)
- ampalaya leaves
- alugbati leaves
- chopped onion
- garlic cloves
- chopped tomatoes
- 1/4 kilo pork kasim cubed
- 1/4 liempo cubed
- patis
- salt
- pepper
- water
- chicharon baboy (Pig skin crackling)
Procedure:
- Place monggo, garlic, tomato, chopped onion, pork meat in a casserole pot.
- Add a sufficient amount of water. Bring to a boil until tender.
- Add patis or salt and pepper to taste.
- Add in bitter gourd. Simmer for a few minutes.
- Add ampalaya and alugbati leaves. Simmer for a few minutes more.
- Turn off heat. Serve and add chicharon baboy as toppings.
You can pair the plain monggo with any fried fish of your choice. For hubby and I, we love monggo with fried dalagang bukid. Yum!