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This rice cake is a variation of sinukmani. It uses the same ingredients, except for the sugar. You see, palup-si uses salt as its flavoring. And it is easier to cook.
All you have to do is cook the malagkit as you would any regular rice, BUT using coconut cream as its water. Put in some salt accoding to taste. And that’s it.
Like I said, I have a sweet tooth, so the original palup-si I have to dunk into sugar still. OR I would mix in sugar, instead of salt, to tweak it according to my taste.
One more thing, I have never seen it served with peanut or latik toppings. I guess, it is served as it is.
Latik is not a snack in itself (although you can make it into one). It is usually used as a topping to various rice cakes. Latik is the “coconut cream curdle”. It is a by-product from extracting coconut oil from coconut cream.
What to do
To make latik, you will need thick coconut cream, the kakang gata, that is, pressed with no water added. The real coconut cream, not the instant creams, powdered or not, that can be bought in supermarkets. Go to your favorite grocer or the nearest palengke to buy a fresh mature coconut. Have it shredded and squeezed.
Now, cook the coconut cream in low fire.
You will notice that some white stuff will start to form on top of the cream. Leave it be. That will become the latik you can use as a topping.
Eventually, the white cream will be clear with brown stuff/residue. You have now extracted coconut oil AND cooked latik. Just separate the two, put the oil in a jar and keep for future use, and harvest the latik.
Use as a topping for various kakanins.
Try this!
You can opt to squeeze the coconut yourself. But if your grocer offers mechanical squeezing, I would advise you to avail of it to ensure the maximum cream squeezed out of the coconut.
Cook the latik in sugar and this becomes a sweet snack in itself.
Taktakkong Leaves
Tapey is a native wine, actually it is a rice wine that originated from the Cordillera region. It uses traditional diket or sticky rice called balatinao, and bubud or the fermenting agent. Tapey is usually served on ceremonial occasions and during traditional bayanihan or mutual aid, like moving or building a house, gathering big rocks for the rice paddies, etc.
A 3-day old tapey can be eaten like dessert. It is not strong enough yet to make someone drunk. But a tapey that is at least a week old, packs a wallop in its sweet, rich taste.
What to do
To make tapey, cook the 5 cups of balatinao rice.
Spread it on a platter. This will facilitate faster cooling of the rice. Hot temperatures will kill the yeast.
When the balatinao has cooled down a bit, sprinkle finely crushed bubod as evenly as possible. One whole bubud is about the size of a thick cookie. Use only 1/2 of it for 5 cups of balatinao.
Transfer it to a clean vessel where it can sit for a few days. Seal it well.
In three days, when the fermentation has just begun, the mixture will produce some water. This is natural. As the balatinao rice gets more and more fermented, the rice will dissolve and the liquid that is left is the wine itself.
What to do
To make this dish, you will need malagkit or glutinous rice, gata or coconut cream and sugar, brown sugar is traditionally used.
Cook the 2 cups malagkit and 1 cup ordinary rice as you would any regular rice.
Cook the coconut cream and brown sugar together into a creamy santan (How to make Santan). Do this in a frying pan big enough to accommodate the malagkit as well.
Slowly mix in the cooked malagkit. Mix the malagkit and santan thoroughly. This is a tough job, so the men in the provinces usually get delegated to this strenous job.
But small quantities of sinukmani can very well be managed by women, like this biko vendor in the market cooking her kakanin for the day.
Transfer the sinukmani or biko in a serving dish. Banana leaves are used for transfering it. Banana leaves have a smooth surface that makes transfering the sticky sinukmani into the serving dish a littler easier.
You can serve this as it is or top with latik.
Try this!
Kapeng barako,or brewed coffee, if not salabat, brewed ginger, will complete the snack.
One option is topping it with ground roasted peanuts.
I know I’ve said this a million times, but I’ll say it again. Turon is a favorite-favorite of mine. And yes, it is a banana treat that is also peddled in the streets or found in the market.
My aunt cooks very aesthetically pleasing turons. The secret she says is in the wrapper. Turon is banana (plantain or saba variety), in lumpia wrapper. My aunt recommends the using the yellow lumpia wrapper found in the market, instead of the regular white ones.
The yellow color of the lumpia wrapper turns into an even golden brown shade when fried. It’s bigger than usual size enables wrapping two whole pieces of saba.
What to do
To make turon, in a single wrapper, lay down two pieces of medium-sized saba/plantain.
Sprinkle it with sugar. Having the sugar inside minimizes splotches of caramelized sugar outside the wrapper. It minimizes too the chances of burning your sugar.
Wrap it as you would wrap a spring roll, tucking in the edges nicely.
Deep fry.
Try this!
There are two variations I have tried with turon. One is inserting strips of langka for a more tropical flavor and the other is sprinkling it with a bit of cinnamon for a modern twist.
