Gising-gising, wake your senses

...gastronomic and digestive senses, that is!

Gising-gising translates to "wake-up - wake-up" which is quite an interesting name for a dish.
First introduced to me, without tasting it, by a close family friend when we were visiting Luzon. He told me that one of the specialties of that restaurant was this dish. When I went home, I quickly Google'd it and what it was about.

Gising-gising 2.0

I found out it was a vegetable dish(green beans) with pork(ground) - all cooked in coconut milk.
(Don't worry, it got me at coconut milk too.)

I knew, right then and there, I had to try it. Good thing we were close to a supermarket that night.

I grabbed the essentials, but thought of other ingredients to either add or substitute and I eventually ended up adding an ingredient or two to the original recipe I searched for.

This was the gising-gising recipe I found first in an always go-to blog when searching for Filipino food. I love how simple, easy, and convenient it is, kudos to the guys behind it.

The recipe calls for green beans, ground pork, shrimp paste, coconut milk, onions, garlic and some chilis. I then think about one of my favorite Filipino dishes, the Bicol Express.

First try on Gising-gising

Other than the stuff above, I grabbed sigarilyas, or some winged beans, and some liempo because I wanted to try different textures with it. Though, simplicity is best. I also tried the dish with ginger, but then that'd be a different dish altogether now wouldn't it?

What I did with the 2.0 version was boil the pork so as to soften it but instead of water, I used the coconut milk and just a little bit of milk and the flavor gets absorbed by the pork and takes it up a notch. Once the pork is almost tender, I fry the onion and the garlic with a bit of that chili to bring out the heat, then comes the vegetables followed by the pork and the coconut milk.

Anything with coconut milk is 💖 add to that some bagoong and it's a whole new level of love!

Here's my recipe and what you'll need:

Ingredients:

• 1 kg Ground Pork or Pork Belly
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 cup green beans, chopped
• 1 cup winged beans or sigarilyas, sliced
• 1 to 2 tbsp bagoong or shrimp paste
• 1 medium sized red onion, diced
• 1 tsp or 3 garlic cloves, minced
• Thai chili (for that extra heat) or Long Spanish Peppers, sliced, and yes - no exact measurements because it all lies upon your preference. Go crazy and really wake your senses up, or go chill on the spice.
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. On a preheated pan, fry onion and garlic and let caramelize or sweat. You may also add half of prepared chilis to add spice, otherwise proceed to step 2.
2. If using pork belly, slice them up into 1-inch chunks and brown them up quickly, seasoning them with a bit of salt and pepper and pouring coconut milk to tenderize it for about 8 to 12 minutes. If using ground pork, around 4 to 5 minutes and let coconut milk simmer.
3. Add winged beans and green beans, and cook until tender for about 2 to 3 minutes
4. Add bagoong, to taste, and stir in everything to incorporate. 
5. Serve with sliced chilis.

Go ahead. Try this recipe. It'd most definitely wake up the senses.