Guinataang Bayawak (Water Monitor Lizard Cooked in Coconut Milk)

"Ginataang Bayawak” (Water Monitor Lizard Cooked in Coconut Milk)

How does a “bayawak” (water monitor lizard, "tilay" in Pangasinense) from the wild taste when cooked? Like a chicken dish, so they say. So let's find out.

Last month, my pond help, Noli, spotted a small “bayawak” that accidentally got stuck in a net in one of our milkfish ('bangus") ponds. It’s about 32 inches from head to tail. He untangled it from the net, disabled it, and decided to cook it.

It’s not often that we get to catch a "bayawak" even in our fish farm, and eat "bayawak" dish, which is a prized local exotic food. 

So I decided to feature the “bayawak” in this Fish Pond Buddy blog post because it's one of the unique and interesting creatures in a natural habitat like a bangus farm.

In our rural area where fish ponds abound, the “bayawak”, being carnivorous, has gained notoriety as a fish predator. 

It’s also a known predator of native chickens. Often victimized are our newly weaned or even older chicks, straying away from the safety of their hen’s bosom. The chicks tried to scrounge along the grassy sides of earth dikes of our bangus ponds. Unaware of the lurking, stalking “bayawak”, coming out of its hidden burrows, looking for prey. Alas, it was a bad break for the young chicks, but the "bayawak" had to hunt for any food that comes its way.

Sometimes, my workers see a "bayawak" swim across the pond, even mistaking it for a large snake. With only its snake-like head and dorsal side of its long blackish body out in the water while swimming, you won’t think it was a lizard.

I saw one myself, after a severe storm and the "bayawak"  did look like a snake with its long tongue used to “sniff” the presence of prey. Experts say that swimming is the forte of the "bayawak", thus the name water monitor lizard. It can traverse long stretches in a body of water, like fish ponds, using its tail to move forward, and its legs tucked in at the side for a more streamlined body while swimming.

At the same time, the “bayawak” is a prized exotic food that tastes as good as chicken, that is, if you can catch one.

Scientifically called Varanus salvator, the local “bayawak” in our fish farm most probably falls under the same category as the common Asian water monitor, which can be found in multiple Asian countries, including the Philippines.

Experts say there are quite a number of species/subspecies of the water monitor lizard. Here in the Philippines, we have other water monitor species which are endemic, such as the yellow-headed water monitor, or Cuming’s water monitor – a large species of monitor lizard in the family Varanidae – according to Wikipedia.

But based on appearance, the "bayawak" we meet in our locality is not the Cumingi species. Those we see have a dominant dark brown body (with yellow underbelly) (see photo below).

Water monitor lizard ("bayawak") on its dorsal side; see dark brown, blackish body

The Varanus salvator water monitor lizard (“bayawak”) falls under the least concern (LC) category of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

From Wikipedia, we also learned that its diet consists of fish, birds (including our native chickens as mentioned above), rodents, shellfish, mollusks, carrion (decaying flesh of fish, bird, or other animals). As to size, I heard it can grow to as large as a meter and a half in length.

After my farm help retrieved the trapped “bayawak”, he went on to clean it, cut it into pieces, boil it, and de-skin it (peel off its skin). After doing so, he passed the meat on to my farm overseer/cook, who prepared the ingredients for the cooking of “ginatang bayawak”.

Here’s how to do it.

Procedures:


Note to readers: There may be some pictures of the lizard that may be disallowed under Google Publisher Policies, so these were taken down. Any remaining pictures that may be violative will likewise be removed.

1. Cut the head.

2. Slice the body lengthwise along the belly from neck to pelvis to expose the guts (intestines, organs, etc.). Set aside.

Innards (intestines, liver, etc.) exposed

Parts of innards set aside in a small basin

3. Wash the carcass in a small basin.

4. Cut off the two forelegs. Cut off the two hind legs.

5. Cut the body crosswise into small pieces. Cut off the part of the tail without any meat, retain those with meat.

6. Get leaves of a “sampalok” (tamarind) tree. My pond overseer says that this is the secret in cooking "bayawak", i.e, the use of "sampalok" leaves.

"Sampalok" (Tamarind tree) leaves

Sampalok leaves and cut meat in preparation for boiling

5. Put the leaves in a pot and fill with water.

6. Put the cut pieces of the "bayawak”, including the liver, into the pot.

Cut meat parts being transferred to pot for boiling

Liver, with other cut meat parts, ready for boiling

7. Boil the cut up body, thighs, including the liver, in the pot with water and "sampalok" leaves. 

Why sampalok leaves? This is to remove the slimy, fishy quality of the meat and also loosen the skin still attached to the "bayawak" meat cuts.
 
8. When the boiled “bayawak” meat is tender, set aside.

9. For each boiled piece, remove by hand the lizard’s skin. Do the same for all boiled pieces. 

Boiled pieces of "bayawak" meat; skin being removed by hand

Meat part after skin is peeled off (foreground); see meat piece still with skin on top

10. Prepare coconut milk (click this for detailed procedures; see Steps 13 to 18). Note that there are two types: (a) first coconut meat extract which is creamier and thicker, called coconut cream or "kakang gata" in Tagalog and (b) second extract, (where water is added and meat is squeezed to extract the milk) which is called coconut milk.

Coconut cream/milk - first coconut meat extract in red, second extract in yellow

 11. When the coconut milk/cream is ready, prepare garlic, onions, and plenty of ginger. Crush the ginger and garlic and dice them. 

Sliced/diced onions, garlic, ginger

12. Saute the garlic, ginger and onion in a pot with cooking oil.

Sauteing garlic

Sauteing the other spices - onions, ginger with the garlic

13. Put the cut parts of the "bayawak" into the pot with the sauted spices, and cook without the coconut milk yet until meat is dry and any meat juice absorbed.

Adding meat into the wok with sauteed spices

Cooking the meat with the sauteed spices until meat is dry and spices absorbed

  14. When the "bayawak" meat is cooked, pour the coconut milk (the thinner second extract) and cook for about an hour until meat is tender.

Coconut milk being poured into wok with the sauteed and cooked "bayawak" meat

15. When the “bayawak” is dry and the coconut milk and spices fully absorbed into the cooked flesh, add salt and pepper to taste.

16. Also pour the coconut cream (the thicker "kakang gata"). Cook for a little while making sure that the meat when cooked is soft and juicy and retains some coconut cream sauce. Serve hot with newly steamed rice.

Pouring the thicker coconut cream into the pan

Finished "bayawak" dish ready to be served with newly steamed rice