As a kid, I never really had the liking for alugbati or malabar spinach. I didn't like the smell, the sap, its thick leaves. Almost everything about it was far from delectable. Alugbati has dark green leaves that resembles baby spinach leaves. It has red - almost purplish - stems which I thought was weird. But my mother says its nutricious so I still got to eat it.

Alugbati is cooked in a souplike dish. My mother always cooks it with sardines. Just sautee, add water then the leaves and that's it. Today, I thought about trying something new so the kids won't dislike it the way I did before.

This is something that's again quick and easy to prepare. I found this recipe online and used it as my guide. I don't think it'll be a good idea to serve food that has vodka in it so I did not follow the recipe entirely.

Ingredients

Alugbati leaves
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
salt & pepper
garlic powder
1/2 cup water
1 pc egg

Procedure

To prepare the batter, beat 1 pc egg then add all the ingredients gradually except for the leaves. Mix everything well until the batter is a little thick.

Preheat the pan with oil then put the fire to medium heat. One by one, drench the leaves into the batter then put each into the oil. You would want to deep fry the leaves to make sure they are cooked on both sides pretty well. Wait til they're golden brown before gettingnthem off the heat. Drain excess oil in paper towels.

You may prepare a garlic mayo dip for this one. It goes well with rice, surprisingly but I'd eat them as snacks - a good replacement for those chips.

The kiddos loved it maybe because of the crunchiness.

Go ahead, give it a try. 😄