Ginataang Langka

Filipino young jackfruit simmered in coconut milk with shrimp paste, ginger, and long green chillies, finished with malunggay leaves and thick coconut cream

Origin: The Philippines

From the journey of Jackfruit.

Ginataan means cooked in gata, coconut milk, and ginataang langka is the jackfruit member of a family of dishes cooked across the Philippines: young jackfruit simmered in coconut milk with garlic, onion, ginger, and a spoonful of bagoong, the fermented shrimp paste, often with a little pork or shrimp, and finished with the leaves of the malunggay, the moringa tree, and a last pour of thick coconut cream. The same method gives ginataang kamansi with the breadnut and ginataang rimas with the breadfruit, and in Cebu and the Visayas the dish is ginataang nangka. The jackfruit was in the islands before the Spanish. When Magellan's fleet reached Cebu in April 1521, Antonio Pigafetta listed the nangca amongst the produce of the island, with rice, ginger, bananas, sugarcane, and coconuts, and later described its seed, which 'has a delicate taste like chestnuts'. The Visayan nangka and the Tagalog langka are the Malay word, and the tree came to the islands through the trade of the Malay and Javanese seas. The Philippines eats the fruit at both ends of its life: young, as here, as a vegetable, and ripe, in desserts, in halo-halo, and in turon, the banana spring roll.

Ingredients

Jackfruit

  • 700 g young jackfruit (langka), peeled, cored, and cut into 3 cm pieces, or 2 x 400 g tins of young jackfruit in brine, drained

Stew

  • 200 g pork belly, cut into thin strips, or 250 g peeled shrimp
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 5 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 3 cm ginger, cut into matchsticks
  • 2 tbsp bagoong alamang (sautéed shrimp paste)
  • 400 ml coconut milk (gata)
  • 200 ml thick coconut cream (kakang gata)
  • 3 long green chillies (siling haba)
  • 30 g malunggay (moringa) leaves, or young spinach
  • 1 tbsp fish sauce (patis), or to taste
  • 0.25 tsp ground black pepper

Method

  1. Oil your hands and knife before handling fresh jackfruit. Boil the pieces in salted water for 10 minutes and drain. Tinned jackfruit needs only a rinse.
  2. Heat the oil in a wide pan and fry the pork until the fat runs and the edges brown. If you are using shrimp instead, leave them for later.
  3. Add the garlic, onion, and ginger and cook until soft, then add the bagoong and fry for a minute.
  4. Add the jackfruit, stir to coat, and pour in the coconut milk. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until the jackfruit is tender and the sauce has reduced by about a third.
  5. Add the shrimp, if using, and the long green chillies and cook for 3 minutes.
  6. Pour in the coconut cream and simmer gently for 3 to 4 minutes, until the sauce thickens and a little oil shows at the edges.
  7. Stir in the malunggay leaves for a minute, season with fish sauce and pepper, and serve with rice.

Notes

For a vegetarian version, leave out the pork, shrimp, and bagoong and season with salt and a few sliced mushrooms fried with the aromatics. The breadnut and breadfruit versions, ginataang kamansi and ginataang rimas, are cooked in exactly the same way.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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