Native Halo-halo

Halo – Halo recipe that uses coconut milk instead of evaporated cow’s milk, mashed boiled ube and shredded young coconut meat.

Ingredients

• 1 cup coconut cream
• 1 small pc ube, purple yam, mashed
• 1 small pc kamote ( sweet potato ) boiled and cubed
• 1 cup buko, young coconut meat, shredded
• 4 Tbsp. white sugarsugar
• crushed ice
• 1 cup pinipig, fried
• red kaong
• ice cream (optional)

Instructions

1. Refrigerate coconut cream.
2. In 4 tall glasses, distribute the mashed ube, boiled kamote and shredded buko.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and fill each glass with crushed ice.
4. Top with ice cream,coconut cream and pinipig.
5. Garnish with red kaong.

Ginataang Pinipig

Ingredients:
2 cups coconut cream
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup fresh green pinipig (pounded rice)
1/2 cup gabi (taro root) cubes
2 pieces medium sized kamote(sweet potatoes), cut into cubes and boiled till tender
3 pieces saba, cut into cubes
1/4 cup langka strips

How to cook ginataang pinipig:

• Combine coconut cream and sugar in a pot. Let boil, then add the fresh pinipig, the gabi, kamote, saba and langka strips. Let boil until the green pinipig is cooked.

Ube Halaya

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo ube yam root
• 1 can (14 ounces) evaporated milk
• 2 cans (12 ounces) condensed milk
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla (optional)

Cooking Instructions:

1. On a pot, boil the unpeeled ube yam in water and simmer for 30 minutes. Drain and let cool.
2. Peel and finely grate the ube yam.
3. Heat a big wok in medium heat.
4. Melt butter or margarine, add the condensed milk and vanilla flavoring. Mix well.
5. Add the 1 kilo grated ube yam,
6. Adjust the heat to low
7. Keep on mixing the ingredients for about 30 minutes or until sticky and a bit dry (but still moist).
8. Add the evaporated milk and continue to mix for another 15 minutes.
9. Let cool and place on a large platter.
10. Refrigerate before serving the halayang ube.

Cooking Tips:

• You may spread additional butter or margarine on top of the jam before serving.
• For the sweet toothed, sprinkle a little sugar on top of the jam after placing on the large platter.
• Instead of manually grating the ube, you may cut it in cubes and use a blender to powderize the ube.

Maja Blanca

Ingredients:
4 cups thin coconut milk
2 cups buko juice
1 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup water
1-1/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cornstarch
1 cup water
1 can cream style corn
shredded buko meat from 2 coconuts
1 cup thick coconut milk ( for latik )

How to cook maja:

• In a large casserole put all Maja Blanca ingredients. Simmer over low fire for about 15 minutes. Pour into serving dishes and cool.
• Heat the thick coconut milk over medium heat. When it starts to boil lower the heat and cook for about 25 minutes stirring constantly. Strain excess oil. Sprinkle over cooled Maja Blanca. Makes 12 portions

Note: To make the maja more flavorful, the addition of milk powder was implemented. Believe us this is tastier than the ordinary maja blancas we've tried.

Espasol

Espasol is a cylinder-shaped Filipino rice cake originating from the province of Laguna. It is made from rice flour cooked in coconut milk and sweetened coconut strips, dusted with toasted rice flour.

Ingredients:
4 cups malagkit (sticky rice)
3 cups coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 tsp iodized salt

PROCEDURES:
1. Toast malagkit until golden brown. Allow to cool, then pound or grind into powder form.
2. Set aside 1/2 cup of the the powder.
3. Combine coconut milk, vanilla, and sugar in a pan or double broiler. Over low heat, cook and stir continuously until the mixture thickens. When the mixture becomes oily, remove the pan from heat.
4. Spread the mixture on a board sprinkled with flour. Use a 1/4 inch thick rolling pin to roll out the mixture.
5. Cut into strips using a greased knife or cutter.
6. Take the powder that was set aside earlier. Roll the sliced malagkit on it, then wrap each piece in wax paper.

Kutsinta

Kutsinta

Kutsinta Ingredients:
* 1 cup flour
* 1 cup brown sugar
* 2 cups sugar
* 1 tablespoon lihiya (lye)
* yellow food color or atsuete
* grated niyog (coconut meat)

Kutsinta Cooking Materials:
* steamer
* muffin pan
* strainer

Kutsinta Cooking Instructions:
* Half-fill the steamer with water and boil.
* In a bowl, mix all ingredients except for the grated niyog. Stir well and pass the mixture through a strainer.
* Pour the mixture into each of the mold in the muffin pan. Place muffin pan in the steamer and steam for 10 to 20 minutes.
* Cool before transferring to a tray. Serve with grated niyog on top

Kutsinta Tip:
* Do not put grated niyog on top of kutsinta if you will not consume them immediately. This is to avoid them from easily spoiling.

Sapin-sapin

No fiesta in our family passes by without this delicious filipino kakanin dessert.

Ingredients:
3 1/2 Cups of rice flour
1 Cup of white sugar
2 Cups of coconut milk
food coloring (green, yellow and purple) or any color you may wish
1 cup of finely chopped fresh buko (or macapuno preserve if fresh coconut is not available)
pandan leaves (if not you can use pandan extract)
1 cup of crushed cooked ube
½ Cup of chopped langka or jackfruit
½ tsp anise extract
some banana leaves
Procedure:
In a bowl mix your flour, with your sugar and coconut milk.  Mix them until it becomes homogenous. Line your round pan (preferably about 9 inches in size) with your banana leaves. Divide your flour mixture into three portions.  Add the langka flavor and yellow coloring on the first, the ube and purple coloring for the second and coconut and green coloring for the last one. Preheat your steamer for about five minutes.  Pour the yellow color first on your round pan and let it steam for fifteen minutes.  Then add the langka flavor over the first layer and steam it for fifteen minutes.  Lastly pour the purple color and steam for another fifteen minutes. Let it cool before removing from the pan.  Serve with toasted shreaded coconut and some sugar.

PALITAW

Ingredients:

2 cups of mochiko 1 tbsp of sugar 3/4 cups of water Another tbsp or so of sugar 2.5 cups of sweetened, shredded coconut (and you may end up needing more!) Food coloring, if desired

Set a small pot of water on the stove to boil. Mix the mochiko, one tablespoon of sugar, and the water. It will form a stiff dough when it's ready. (You may need to hand-knead it a little to get it thoroughly mixed.) roll it into balls about the size of a quarter, then drop them, a few at a time, into the boiling water. Lift them out again when they float to the top and drain them very lightly on paper towels. Then sprinkle it with sugar and immediately roll it in the coconut. Voila!
If you want to color the coconut, just dribble a few drops of food coloring into it and mix it with a fork. At first it will look like it's not going to mix well, but after a minute or two the color will get around. It'll be rather varied and confetti-like - click on the image above for a closeup - but I like it that way. Keeps it from looking mass-produced, y'know?.
Some variations include flattening out the balls into thick cookie shapes before boiling, and serving them with a mixture of sugar and sesame seeds on the side.

Palitaw