SAWCLicious: Gising Gising

I remembered the first time I cooked this recipe was in Cincinatti, 3 years ago. I was on a month long business trip and I visited my friend during Thanksgiving. She wanted this dish, so I tried to cook it and it was close enough with the one I ate in Recipes (restaurant). I didn't research for any recipe at that time and only guessed what I should put in it. 

For those who are not familiar of this dish, it is a Filipino vegetable dish cooked with coconut milk and originally very spicy. The word gising means wake up in English so then I can translate the dish to Wake Up, Wake Up!

Gising Gising

Ingredients

• 1 - 1& 1/2 cups of sliced beans (slice in very small pieces). You can also use the stems of morning glory a.k.a. kang kong
• 1 small can of coconut milk
• 1/2 cup ground pork
• 1/4 cup shrimp sliced into small pieces
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 white onion, minced
• 10 bird's eye red chilies a.k.a. sili labuyo or 1/4 cup sliced green chilies a.k.a. finger chili
• fish sauce
• pepper
• 2 tbsp. oil

Note: The chilies are optional. If you want it to be spicy but not too much, I suggest adding just a few chilies and tasting it first before adding more. If it becomes too spicy, just add a bit sugar while cooking the dish.

Procedure

1. Heat pan and add around 2 tbsp. of oil. Saute garlic and onion. When onion becomes a bit transparent, add the pork.
2. Season pork with around 2 tbsp. of fish sauce. When pork is almost cooked, add shrimps into the pan.
3. When shrimp is cooked, add the beans, coconut milk, and chilies. You can add some water/pork or shrimp stock if you like. Once it starts boiling, bring the heat to low and let it simmer for around 10-15 minutes.
4. Add some pepper and taste the sauce. You can add more fish sauce if it is bland. If too spicy or salty, add some sugar. 

Best accompanied with steamed white rice and some beer!