Sauteed Mongo Beans with Shrimp

Good day y'all.  Went to the Farmer's market at Third and Fairfax today.  Ate an early lunch of panini and salad from The French Crepe Factory.  The panini had sliced mozzarella, prosciutto, sliced tomatoes, and basil in it.  It was surprisingly good.  The meal came with a garden salad that had a mustard dressing.  The salad was okay but nothing spectacular.

The Farmer's market, being an LA landmark is always crowded with tourists and can get pretty noisy around lunch time.  The alleys and passageways are narrow and  usually congested with foot traffic.  Despite all that, I still like to go there because of Monsieur Marcel as well as La Surla Table and World Market.  I try to go early in the morning though before the lunch and tourist crowds arrive since trying to find parking can be a huge pain in the butt.



As  usual, my trip to the farmer's market isn't complete if I do not go to the usual stops.  Today, I stopped at Monsieur Marcel and picked-up some cold cuts and cheese (Havarti with dill, french ham, and oven-roasted turkey breast).  Although I can find these at the regular store, I prefer getting them from Marcel because the quality is better.  I also stopped by at La Surla and World market but didn't find anything that I liked.

From the farmer's market, I made a quick stop at home to drop off the cold cuts and the made my way to Glendale where I met with my friend.  We went to Glendale galleria and shopped a bit.  Finally, I was able to buy the bamboo matcha scoop/spoon that I wanted.  Hooray for that!!!



By the time I got home, I was starving again.  A quick inventory for ingredients yielded a bag of mung beans, shrimps, a bag of fresh spinach, tomatoes, and onions - things I needed to make sauteed munggo beans.  This dish is a childhood favorite which my mom used to cook for us.  I think I learned making this dish while watching/observing her cook the dish.

This is a simple, no-frill dish which can be prepared easily.  This is a dish which can probably be found in almost every places in the Philippines though there might be slight variation in the ingredients used or preparation.  Some people add sinigang mix to make it sour.  We usually use a different green vegetable but since it is not readily available here in the States, spinach is acceptable.



Cooking mung beans may take a long time so prepare the dish well in advance so that it will be ready when meal time  comes.  You boil the beans until it becomes soft, mushy, and liquid thickens.  If the water has evaporated before the beans softens, you can add more.  Also make sure that you stir it every few minutes as the bean could stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.  Aside from the fact that burnt mung beans do not taste good, it is also hard to clean a pan with burnt mung beans.



Ingredients:

1  cups of mung beans

1/2 lb shrimp (more if  you prefer), trimmed and deveined but leave the shells on

2 cups fresh spinach

1 onion, sliced

1 tomato, sliced

salt and pepper according to taste

oil

1 Place mung beans and water in a pan and simmer until soft and mushy. Set aside.

2. In another pan, add oil then sauteed onion and tomato until onion is translucent and fragrant

3. Add shrimp and lightly saute until it turns slightly orange.

4. add softened mung beans to the pot and cook until it boils and slightly thickens.  NOTE: add more water as needed

5. When soup thickens slightly, add spinach and cook for a minute or two.

6. Season with salt and pepper then remove from heat.

7. Serve warm.

Che Dau Xanh (Vietnamese Sweet Mung Bean Dessert)

Chuseok is one of the biggest Korean holiday. It is equivalent to American thanksgiving where people go home to their hometown and tend to cook and eat too much. Of course, as an avid South Korean enthusiast, it has become part of my yearly celebration. This year, I fully intended to conquer the art of songpyeon making. Songpyeon is a Korean rice cake which is commonly served during chuseok. The day before chuseok, I woke up really early. How early? 630 in the morning. That is really significant for me because I rarely sleep before midnight therefore my waking hours is usually later than 9 am. Anyways, I woke up really early and went to the Korean market to buy things I need for songpyeon. Of course knowing me, I went and bought way too much which included ingredients for three different fillings. One of those fillings happen to be split mung beans. Well, I made several attempt at making songpyeon, all of which were deemed a failure. So here I am eleven days later with tons of leftover ingredients and don't really know what to do with them...hehehe


I began searching the internet last night and found a split mung bean desert recipe that looked easy enough. The recipe is a sweet Vietnamese street food which uses coconut milk, sugar, and split mung bean soup. I have all of those ingredients in my cupboard so it was convenient. The recipe calls for soaking the mung beans for three (3) hours and then boiling it in water until almost all of the fluid is absorbed then in a separate pan, you bring coconut milk and sugar to a slow simmer until sugar is dissolved then add the mung bean mixture. I topped the dessert with lightly toasted sweetened coconut which gives it another flavor dimention plus the aroma of the toasted coconut is just heavenly. The recipe is easy enough but takes a few steps to finish the dish. The outcome? it was awesome...Sweet, creamy, tasty. Perfect for an autumn afternoon snack or dessert. It reminds me of a Filipino sweetened mung bean snack only this one is creamy and rich. This is a keeper for me.


adapted from here

Ingredients:

1 cup split mung beans
2 cups coconut milk
1/4 cup sugar, adjust according to taste
1/4 cup sweetened coconut flakes.

1. Place mung beans in a strainer and rinse then place in a container. Add water to slightly above the level of the mung beans and let it soak for at least 3 hours.
2. After 3 hours, drain water, rinse mung beans and place in a sauce pan. Add about 500 ml of water and let it simmer until almost all of the fluid has been absorbed. NOTE: Make sure you keep an eye on it and stir occassionally to prevent burning mung beans especially at the bottom of the pan.
3. Place coconut flakes in a pan and lightly toast over medium low heat. Remove form fire and set aside to let it cool.
4. Remove from heat and let it cool before placing it in a food processor to puree.
5. Heat a clean pan over medium heat. Add coconut milk and sugar and stir until sugar dissolves. Let it simmer for 3-4 minutes.
6. Add mung bean mixture and mix well. Cook until heated through.
7. Remove form heat and transfer to warm containers. Top with toasted coconut flakes and serve immediately.