Vegetable
Dried taro leaves
Tuyong dahon ng gabi
Also called dried gabi leaves, dahon ng gabi, laing leaves, dried colocasia leaves
The large, heart-shaped leaves of the taro plant, shredded or left whole and dried until papery. They are the leaf for Filipino laing, and soften back to a dark, silky green when simmered for a long time in coconut milk.
Origin
Taro is grown across Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Dried leaves for laing come mostly from Bicol and other parts of Luzon and are sold in 100 g packets at Filipino and Asian grocers abroad.
Flavour
Earthy and deep, somewhere between cooked spinach and seaweed, and very good at soaking up coconut milk, shrimp paste and chilli.
How to use it
Taro leaves contain needle-like calcium oxalate crystals that make the mouth and throat itch if the leaves are undercooked. Never eat them raw. Simmer them gently in plenty of coconut milk, leave them unstirred until soft, and cook them for at least 40 minutes in all. Drying, as with these, already reduces the problem.
Storage
Keep the packet sealed, dry and out of sunlight and it lasts for months. Once open, fold it tight or move the leaves to a jar; damp leaves go musty.
