I searched the web for a more definitive version of gising-gising and found none. The main vegetable ingredient may be sigarilyas (winged beans), yard-long beans or just green beans. What other vegetables you may add to the beans is up to you.
In this updated gising-gising recipe, we used winged beans, okra and squash. And, instead of the usual bird’s eye chilies, we used finger chilies. The okra and chilies we harvested from our garden, so I figured it was a good time to post a better gising-gising recipe.
Because there are multiple vegetables in the dish, and each requires a different cooking time, it is not wise to dump all the vegetables in the pan at the same time. If one (or more) of the vegetables you’re using is more mature than the others and requires a longer cooking time, you’ll have to throw that one into the pan first.
That said, below is a visual guide for cooking gising-gising with crispy pork belly.
Saute shallot, ginger, garlic, chilies and tomatoes for a minute, drizzle in fish sauce and add shrimp paste. Continue sauteeing for a few minutes. This is your spice base so you’ll want the vegetables to soften and soak up the flavors of the fish sauce and shrimp paste before proceeding.
The winged beans and squash from the local market were both young and tender so they were added to the spice base at the same time. Coconut milk was poured in and the vegetables cooked in its sweet creaminess just until done.
Note that in the ingredients list, you will find coconut milk AND coconut cream. We use both to cook gising-gising. The solid ingredients cook in the coconut milk until most of the liquid has been absorbed. This ensures that the vegetables soak up the creaminess and acquire the flavor of the coconut milk. Coconut cream is added toward the end of cooking to give the dish a lovely creamy sauce.
Fully cooked crispy pork belly, chopped into bite-sized cubes were stirred in toward the end of cooking time. If you need instructions on cooking crispy pork belly, see the linked recipe below.
Air fried lechon kawali (crispy pork belly)
Simmer a slab of pork belly, drain and transfer to the air fryer. Thirty minutes later, you have perfectly cooked crispy pork belly with crackling skin.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 1 red onion peeled and diced
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- ½ cup diced tomatoes
- 2 finger chilies thinly sliced
- fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon shrimp paste
- 2 cups thinly sliced winged beans
- 1 cup sliced okra
- 2 cups cubed squash
- 1 ½ cups coconut milk
- ¼ cup coconut cream
- crispy pork belly (as much or as little as you like) cut into bite-sized pieces
Instructions
- Set the stove to medium and heat the cooking oil in a pan.
- Saute the onion, garlic, ginger, tomato and chilies for a minute.
- Pour in about a tablespoon of fish sauce, stir in the shrimp paste, cover and cook until softened, about three minutes.
- Add the winged beans, okra and squash.
- Pour in the coconut milk.
- Cover the pan and simmer until all the vegetables are done.
- Pour in the thick coconut milk, stir and bring to a simmer.
- Taste and add more fish sauce, if needed.
- Toss in the crispy pork belly.
- Serve your gising-gising with crispy pork belly with newly-cooked rice.
