Laswa

Mealtimes with our little Queen B continue to be challenging. It takes a lot of cajoling, trickery, and sometimes begging in our part for her to finish her meal. As she is still in the low end of the range of considered normal weight for her age, we must not let our guard down in ensuring she gets as much as nutrient-dense food as possible. This means that we always consider her preferences in food when planning our meals.

One dish that makes an almost weekly appearance in our dinner table is Laswa. Laswa is an Ilonggo vegetable stew made with a variety of local vegetables. Our little Queen B loves this dish with rice. With this on her plate, we are assured that she will finish her meal without much difficulty. Sometimes, she even asks for seconds. So today, I would like to share to you my recipe of Laswa.

Laswa

Ingredients:

¼ kilo shrimps

1 cup of saluyot (jute) leaves

5 sitaw or string beans, cut into 2-in long pieces

5 okra, cut into 1-in long pieces

1 wedge of squash, cut into squares

1 medium red onion, julienned

2 medium tomatoes, cut into wedges

2-3 tbsp fish sauce

4 to 5 cups of water

Procedure:

1. In a pot, boil water with the tomatoes and onion.
2. Upon boiling, tear off the saluyot leaves before placing in the boiling water. Let the mixture simmer for 5 minutes. Do not cover the pot to retain the color of the saluyot.
3. Put the squash in the mixture and simmer for 3 minutes or until half-cooked. 
4. Place the remaining vegetables in the mixture. Add the fish sauce and simmer for 2 minutes.
5. Place the shrimps and simmer until all the shrimps turned orange or cooked.
6. Serve hot with rice. Enjoy!

Servings: 4

I actually only learned how to prepare this dish last January during our last visit to J’s family in Negros. We requested Mama Bebe, J’s mom who happens to be a great cook, to cook it for us and I intently observed how she did it.

Like my little Queen B, I also love this dish. I love saluyot and its sliminess. Shrimps are also a favorite of mine. It reminds me of another vegetable stew I grew up having in our dinner table regularly, the Dinengdeng. As we are still careful with our little Queen B’s salt intake, Laswa is a better option for us as it does not use fermented fish sauce or Bagoong Isda. Also, I prefer Dinengdeng with labong or bamboo shoots and they are not always available unlike the ingredients for Laswa. Eggplants can also be added. It just so happen that I don’t like eggplants cooked this way so I opted to omit it in my ingredients list.

Even though I have no plans of becoming a vegetarian, I like having lots and lots of veggies in my plate. It is my intention to have our little Queen B grows up liking vegetables too. So far, she likes squash, carrots, onions, green papaya, radish, and taro root. As most toddlers do, she finds ampalaya (bitter gourd) distasteful. I hope this change soon.

#xoxo