An Ilonggo favorite: Laswa

Laswa is to the Ilonggos as what dinengdeng and pinakbet are to the Ilocanos. These are mainly vegetables based dishes with a few meats and seafood.

What makes laswa different is that guinamos or bago-ong is not part of the recipe. In both Ilocanos dishes, bago-ong is a major flavour enhancer giving both dishes a distinct bago-ong taste.

Laswa, on the other hand, is a tamer version since guinamos is rarely used and it just relies on garlic, onion and tomato plus a little salt as flavour enhancer. Thus, it is a perfect combination with fried or grilled fish or pork!

Here's the basic recipe for the Ilonggo favorite - Laswa

Ingredients

Kalabasa cubes
Okra slices
Eggplant slices
Sigarilyas slices
Patola slices
String beans
Saluyot
Takway (optional)
Puso ng Saging (optional)
Alimasag, dilis, shrimps, daing na isda (optional)
Garlic, crushed
Onion, quartered
Tomatoes, sliced
Salt
Water

How to cook Laswa

Wash all the vegetables and arrange them in a pan with the hard vegetables (kalabasa, okra) at the bottom.
If you are using seafood, place them on top of these vegetables.
Place garlic, onion and tomatoes on top plus add salt.
Add little amount of water just not to burn the vegetables. Their juices will just be "extracted" in the cooking process.

Cover and cook for 15-20 minutes or until all the vegetables are cooked to your liking - you can have these veggies half-cooked. You can also opt for a soup laswa by adding more water and seasoning with more salt.
Transfer in a dish and serve.

Note: There are no measurements in this recipe since you just throw-in the available vegetable ingredients and adjust the seasoning (esp. salt) on the amount of vegetables.

Here are a few more laswa variations with the addition (or "subtraction") of few ingredients.

Laswa with kasag and takway

Laswa with Dilis

Laswa with Hipon

Laswa with puso ng saging

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