Latik.  What is it?  The best way to describe it is fried coconut milk curd.  Pictured here is the latik as I took it off the  fire.  Leaving it in the hot oil will turn it darker…the perfect topping for a variety of Philippine rice cakes.

It’s quite simple to make.  You take coconut milk and put it in a  wok over medium high heat.  When it boils, turn the heat down and simmer until the oil starts coming out.  The curds will start forming and you can start stirring  to prevent uneven browning.  I like to stir gently so I get bigger curds which I prefer to the alternative.

Here’s the round-up for Lasang Pinoy’s 20^th Edition for the month of August titled, “Binalot – All Wrapped Up!” Thank you to everyone who took time off from their busy lives and sent in a contribution for this LP edition. We covered appetizers to dessert like we all planned it! I hope LP followers will enjoy this round-up as much as the host did.

From Cia in New York City where she writes her blog called, Writing With My Mouth Full, we have two entries featuring delectable Philippine-inspired fish dishes with a twist. She uses herbs like basil, rosemary and thyme not normally used in traditional Philippine cooking, a definite must-try for cooking enthusiasts. Her first entry is Pinangat na Isda or Bluefish in Tomatoes cooked the French-binalot way, en Papilotte or wrapped in paper.

Her next featured dish is Ginataang Isda or Fish in Coconut Milk wrapped in banana leaves. The fish is cooked with not only the usual garlic, onions and chili but also basil, cilantro and parsley. Can you imagine all those flavors in your Ginataang Isda? I can and I think we’re having this on our dinner table soon.

And from another Filipino food blogger writing from the Philippines, Mark of No Special Effects here’s the luscious-looking “La Pinay” . It’s a chocolate crepe filled with delectable mangoes slathered with everyone’s favorite bread-spread and more, Nutella. It’s served over more mangoes and topped with mango ice cream. It’s a beautiful wrapped dessert that will make you forget any diet you’re currently on.

Despite her very busy schedule in China, Lasang Pinoy pioneer Iska Montero of Iskandals comes up with every Pinoy’s favorite appetizer, Lumpiang Shanghai. We all have our different recipes for this meat spring roll but Iska has gone one step further and features her own way of wrapping it. You have to check it out. It’s priceless with the step-by-step photographs.

And from the US Midwest, Filipino Food Lovers blog author Robert has been busy wrapping his fish in newspaper! It’s a very novel way to cook and serve Paksiw na Isda. Curious? Go then, see what Robert’s been up to…

From the opposite side of the Atlantic, Celia of English Patis has come up with a great recipe for Lumpiang Sariwa or Fresh Spring Rolls. She includes the wrapper recipe with some tips to make it even better. This is probably the best recipe I’ve seen online and will have to try it myself.

Philippine-based Anne of Kitchen Conjugations prepares Laing, a national favorite every Filipino in every corner of the world has probably endeavored to reproduce. Laing is a spicy stew of taro leaves with coconut milk which Anne presents all wrapped up and looking hot!

Marvin of Burnt Lumpia in California came up with a great turon idea that’s bound to be a hit. It’s a Banana Foster wrapped in banana leaves, flambed and served with macapuno ice cream. Just roll that idea around in your head a minute…great idea, don’t you think? I was hoping someone would do a turon recipe and this one exceeded all expectations.

From California we move on to Cavite where Kai of the Bucaio blog writes from, we have the Pinoy gourmet breakfast item Kasilyo, more commonly called Kesong Puti. The freshly made cheese is wrapped in fresh banana leaves. Kai also gives great suggestions for incorporating this local cheese to various recipes.

Kaoko, also in the Philippines, writes from her blog called Kitchen Cow. In my opinion, this is one of the most visually-stimulating Filipino food blogs around. For this Binalot edition, she shares with us her family’s recipe for Lumpiang Shanghai.

Kaoko came up with still another spring roll recipe for us just before we published. You’ll be glad she did because this is another very popular Filipino dish to those who are familiar with Philippine cuisine. It’s Lumpiang Prito or Vegetable Lumpia. This is wrapped in thin lumpia wrappers and deep-fried to a crisp. This version is thinner than usual, making it an even crisper roll.

As host of LP20, I felt obliged to come up with more than one binalot recipe just because I’m anal and for fear no one was going to participate. I should have known better. Pinoys are reliable and this LP round-up proves it. My contributions are: Ginataang Tilapia Wrapped in Bok Choy Leaves, the Bicolano dish simply called Binalot, Muruecos and Suman sa Ibos.

Please excuse me for being so predictable and boring but I’ve always wanted to say: “It’s a wrap!” – and chances are, it’s a banana leaf!

This is a rice stick everyone in the Philippines knows. Filipinos like eating this with ripe mangoes, specifically, Philippine mangoes and none of the “manila” mangoes sold in the US. As every Filipino who has traveled outside the country will tell you – nothing beats Philippine mangoes for flavor and texture. And this Suman sa Ibos is perfect with our mangoes. This is salty and not sweet at all, a good contrast to a sweet mango.

The Thais also eat their mangoes with a sticky rice dish that is similar to Suman sa Ibos. But they don’t make it into rice sticks like we do.

When I was thinking of a recipe for the Lasang Pinoy 20th Edition which is about wrapped foods or Binalot, I thought of this suman immediately.

Our yaya or nanny (every family had one in those days in the Philippines) whom we called “Nana” taught me how to do the wrap when I was just a little girl of about 8 or 9 years old. I kept pestering her when they were making a huge batch of suman with my grandmother supervising everything. To keep me out of her way, she showed me how to wrap the suman and made me practise without the filling of rice and coconut cream. The first photograph here is the first one I’ve done in years. This is empty though, just a test suman.

The wrapper is young coconut leaves that haven’t completely opened and turned green even. I had my trusty laundrywoman source the leaves for me and she came with a whole bunch of leaves already cut from the long stem it comes out of. I looked at it sitting in the counter of the dirty kitchen and thought to myself, “What in the world am I going to do with all of that?!”

After my ordeal…excuse me…my interesting experience of making the real thing, I realized just how difficult it is. Like the muruecos I did earlier, I’d rather buy this from now on…confident that I gave it a try once and succeeded. Well, partially anyway. It was edible but it was too skinny! And it will probably take a thousand more sumans to make it perfectly plump the way I remember the ones Nana made. I’m not in the suman business so I’m happy.

Here are more photos of the actual rice sticks I made with REAL filling. It’s a simple mix of 1 c. sticky rice, 1 c. pure coconut cream and a tablespoon of rock salt.

There they are – all 5 of them.  Yes, just FIVE.  I didn’t have the heart to ruin it all by making skinny ones like these.  For a first attemp, they were okay, don’t you think?  You might be wondering what happened to all that rice.  Well, with some sugar added, I turned it into a lazy person’s rice cake called biko.  Hahahha!

Anyway, I boiled all five of them in the second extraction of coconut mixed with about 3 cups of water. It took me a full 2 hours before I was sure they were done. Then I noticed they didn’t plump up like I was hoping they would so I didn’t bother to take a photo and carted all of them to Youngest Sister who said they were perfectly done and the grains I used were first-rate, but she did note how skinny they were and how she wished there was more.

On that note, I shall end my pathetic suman story.

Muruecos is the name of a common rice stick or suman as Filipinos call it. It was supposedly my grandmother’s favorite suman. I like it too and featuring it for Lasang Pinoy 20th Edition, Binalot made the effort certainly worthwhile.

Again, this was my first time to try this recipe. By the way, I used white sugar instead of brown. I had this thought the dark latik will make a great contrast with the white sticky rice. You be the judge. I asked my mother how it was made but got no details like proportions and cooking time. We never made this at home even when my grandmother, who instructed rather than cooked, was around. So this was really a huge task for me to undertake. Actually, for all the work that goes into this, I’d rather buy this next time. It didn’t turn out bad …look at the evidence….errrr…I mean photo!

And honestly, I don’t know how suman artisans make any profit. The cooking time alone will eat up any gains. Then there’s the wrapping…how on earth they make a perfect suman each and every time certainly boggles the mind.

The wrapper is a young banana leaf. To prepare the leaf, wipe it down with a clean damp cloth to remove any debris. Pass the whole leaf over an open flame to make it easier to handle. A hot clothes iron will also do the job. Cut into rectangles about 4×12 inches.
So here’s the recipe:

2 c. sticky rice

2 c. pure coconut milk

1 c. white or brown sugar (brown sugar is used for the original Suman Muruecos)

1/4 tsp. salt

4 c. coconut milk from second extraction

latik

1 young banana leaf, prepared as described above
Start by washing the sticky rice over running water. Strain to remove excess water. Soak the rice in a bowl with the pure coconut milk. Season with the sugar and salt. Adjust to your taste. Cover and leave in refrigerator at least 4 hours.

Lay out a piece of your banana leaf wrap on a small flat tray, wrong side up. Put 1 1/2 tablespoon of the soaked rice on one end. Top with latik as shown in photo.

Then take the leaf on the end where the rice is, move the rice over an inch and fold over the leaf once to secure it. Make sure the rice grains don’t run off as you fold all the way to the end. You can do this by folding one side, then lifting and repeating for the other side. When you have folded the whole leave over your rice stick, fold the sides so the ends meet in the center of your rice stick.

Take two of the sticks and tie it loosely back to back with a strand of banana leaf. Place this in a stock pot and continue wrapping until all your rice and wrap is used up. Cover the wrapped rice rice sticks with the coconut cream. If this doesn’t cover the  rice sticks, add more water to your pot.

Cover and bring to a boil. Allow this to simmer for 2 hours.

Another entry for Lasang Pinoy’s 20th Edition titled “Binalot – All Wrapped Up!”. This dish is simply called “Binalot” by Bicolanos. It’s shrimp and coconut meat wrapped in gabi leaves then stewed and braised in coconut cream and herbs and spices.

This is one dish I’d never seen or tasted before but it intrigued me no end when Youngest Sister first told me about it. I asked two native Bicolanas I know about it. One was our laundrywoman who also plants and sells vegetables for a sideline. She also brought me the fresh taro leaves and herbs I needed. Actually, she brought me a whole lot of leaves yesterday…but more on that in the next post.

Apparently, I made one big mistake according to Youngest Sister. The wrap should have less stuffing and more of the leaves. I only used one large taro leaf per pouch. It would have been more interesting with more layers of leaves soaking up the coconut cream. She said I also should have let it dry further, till only the coconut oils are left in the pan. My big worry during cooking was drying it up too much that the pouches were going to burn! It turned out alright. My sister said it was delicious, and suprisingly, my husband loved it.

I had a little problem sourcing the coconut meat for the stuffing. You need to use the “bucayo-stage” coconut meat. There are several stages to a coconut: mala-uhog (literally, snot-like), mala-kanin (rice-like, for salads), bucayo (thick meat but not mature enough to yield coconut milk), niyog (mature, for milk extraction mainly). I asked our buko-man who peddles fresh young coconuts in our neighborhood to find me some and deliver it the next day. He didn’t show, so I assumed he didn’t find any. I went to the small market a few blocks away from our place and found the mature coconuts but not the bucayo ones. I saw a buko cart sitting nearby, but the buko-man was nowhere to be found. We waited, and waited…people stopped to buy his buko and kind-hearted strangers started selling them buko juice and leaving the money in a jar which the buko-man also left!

Finally he shows up and explains he went for his mid-morning snack. He picks me a green coconut with flecks of brown on it, but it isn’t bucayo…more like mala-kanin. But what do I know, so I take it. I spy another coconut in the corner of his cart. It had more flecks of brown on the surface so I asked him to try that one. Voila! It was perfect!

Lemongrass and herba buena is also used to flavor this dish. Herba buena is something my laundrywoman says is different from the local oregano, but she brought me fresh oregano anyway. The heart-shaped taro leaf is what I used for a backdrop to showcase these two herbs.

Now for the recipe. I’ll try to give you details as experienced by a first-timer. I’ll also point out where the mistakes were made so you can decide how to proceed when you try this recipe.

The Recipe:

shredded meat of about 2 bucayo-stage coconuts, about 3 cups (1 coconut will do)

1/4 kilo fresh shrimp, peeled and roughly chopped

about 4 c. milk of 3 mature coconuts, extracted with about 3/4 c. water added

12-15 taro leaves for wrapping, lightly wiped with a damp cloth to remove any debris. If you get rust stains on your cloth, it’s not mud, just the sap from the leaf. Be sure to cut the stem at the center of the leaf so it’s easier for wrapping. Just cut it with a knife till it’s flat.
about 6 leaves fresh Philippine oregano

about 2 stalks lemongrass, washed and cut in 1-inch pieces, pound with the back of a knife to release the flavors

5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1 large onion, peeled and minced

2-inch ginger root, peeled and sliced thin

2-3 siling haba or pepperoncini peppers

2-3 bird chilis or any hot chili you prefer

1 tsp. rock salt

2 tbsps. fish sauce

latik

coconut leaf rib or kitchen twine for tying the pouches

There’s a lot of prep work for the ingredients but once you have it all ready, the next step is just wrapping and cooking.

Lay out a taro leaf on a small tray and place about 2 tablespoons of the coconut meat, Top it with a tablespoon of shrimp. Wrap as you would a paper envelope and tuck in the last flap into a fold. Repeat the wrapping 3 times with more leaves. Tie it lightly just to keep it from unravelling during the cooking. Repeat till you’re out of stuffing and leaves, after making about 4 pouches.

My mistake here was putting more stuffing than was necessary, about 1/2 c. coconut meat and 1/4 c. shrimp and just using one leaf to wrap it. This made my pouches quite flimsy.

In a flat-bottomed casserole, place the rest of the ingredients minus the liquids.

Set your pouches over this and pour the coconut milk over it. Add the fish sauce and cook covered over medium heat about 1.5 hours or until the sauce is gone and you are left with nothing but the coconut oils covering the bottom of your pan.

Since the pouches will be sturdier wrapped in more leaves, you can then turn it over once in the middle of the cooking.

Serve individual pouches unwrapped at the top and sprinkled with latik.

This is the first of a series for the Lasang Pinoy Edition 20: Binalot, All Wrapped Up! I’m hosting this month’s event and while I thought it might be interesting, I had no clue what I was in for! This was actually the easiest dish I made so I’m posting it first.
The dishes I had in mind were all rather complicated and required dexterity, which I unfortunately lack….big-time. Then there was the scrounging around for ingredients and recipes. Then there’s the fact that these are recipes I’ve never tried to do on my own before. I even attempted a recipe I’d only heard of, but never tasted or saw before. Despite all the hassles, I enjoyed myself but am glad I’m done with the cooking.

Here’s a photo of the Ginataang Tilapia. It’s a whole tilapia unwrapped from its white bok choy encasement after stewing in coconut cream, onion, garlic and ginger:

This was one of my old favorites which my mother made quite often in the past. Our version doesn’t have the tomato stuffing that our neighbor from Bicol says the original version has. I’ve tried that and still prefer my mother’s version but this recipe here has both.

If you look at the photo closely, it looks like the sauce didn’t thicken. This is because the photo was taken right after I turned off the heat and transferred this fish to a plate. A few minutes later, the sauce thickened further and it looked gorgeous sitting on a large serving plate. I regret not taking a photo of all three fishes laid out that way…with the coconut cream all thick and yummy.

For those living in the US, this can be an easy recipe to make since all the ingredients are readily available in supermarkets with an Asian community. You can serve this to anyone who is not afraid to see a whole fish – as it should be served I personally believe.
There are a just a couple tricks to the wrapping. I have a photo here of how I wrapped the first one. The other two in the pot were wrapped differently though. Instead of having the leaves in a mirrored position with the white stems fanning out, I laid them on top of each other, with the white ends about an inch apart. This was easier to handle. You also have to smack the white stems of the bok choy with the back of your knife to flatten it out. Don’t use the whole stem, just leave about half an inch to an inch.

Here’s the complete recipe, with the tomato stuffing and the chilis:

3 whole tilapia, gutted and scales removed

6 large white bok choy leaves with an inch of the stems still on and hit with the back of a knife to take out the stiffness

3 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced (optional)
3 scallions, minced (optional)
1 minced garlic (optional)
1/4-inch ginger root, peeled and minced

about a cup of pure coconut cream (from 1-2 coconuts)

about 2 cups of the second extraction of 1-2 coconuts

half a head of garlic, peeled and minced

1 large white onion, diced

about 1/2-inch ginger root, peeled and sliced thin

3 siling haba chilis or any chili you prefer (optional)

2 tbsps. fish sauce

Make sure your fish is clean. I always gently rub fresh tilapia with rock salt just because it makes me feel good. Rinse well. Cut a slit in the belly. Dry and keep in your refrigerator if it’s a hot day (it always is where I am!).

Mix the tomatoes, scallions and ginger root in a small bowl. Add about 1/2 teaspoon salt. Take out the fish and stuff the bellies with this mix.

Lay out a couple of bok choy leaves on a small tray one on top of each other is best. Place one fish on one end and start wrapping it. Don’t worry about the ends sticking out. That’s perfectly fine. Repeat for the rest of the fish. Set aside.

In a kawali or wok, place the rest of the ingredients except for the coconut cream. Place the fishes over this and then pour out the coconut’s second extraction. Place your pot over medium heat and allow to simmer till most of the water is gone. This should take about 20 minutes with the lid half on.

At this stage, pour the pure coconut cream and allow to boil once before turning off the heat. Check for taste. Serve immediately.

There are a myriad ways of preparing Filipino foods and a favorite is wrapping in leaves. The dish is referred to as “binalot” and while it usually means picnic lunches, Philippine cuisine does have a thousand and one recipes that uses this technique of food preparation. It gives you a peek into the Filipino’s practical nature, ingenuity, creativity and propensity to have fun – wherever and whenever.

As in most Southeast Asian countries, the most commonly used leaf is the banana leaf. The banana leaf is huge and has this thin, waxy outer layer that makes it perfect for wrapping even the sauciest of dishes. Another commonly used leaf are coconut leaves, folded and woven into all kinds of shapes and sizes.

But Filipinos don’t stop at leaves. There’s fresh bamboo cylinders, then there’s crepes and wonton wrappers which are both an influence of the Chinese population in the Philippines. Whether the wraps are thrown on the grill over hot, live coals, or perhaps boiled or steamed, the wraps leaves its own distinct aromas and flavors to the dishes encased within. The experience of unwrapping while all the steamy goodness and aromas fill your nostrils is definitely half the fun.

The possibilities are just endless and instincts tell me there are more wraps out there being used for binalot recipes than we know of. It’s probably as many as the 7,100 islands of our modest archipelago in the South China Sea and the Pacific.

Perhaps you’d like to feature the technique of folding and wrapping, that will definitely be interesting to readers from all over. Or maybe you have the best recipe for lumpia wrappers or your very own Philippine-inspired wrapped concoction using your own wrapper idea, that’s certainly welcome.

Whichever you choose to write about in your blog or someone else’s blog (this one included), Lasang Pinoy only requires that you submit your entries to the current host or the Lasang Pinoy team with your name, blog name and the link to your entry. For quick identification, title your emails, LP20: Binalot, and please use the icon shown here on your blog entries. As always, our icon for this month was creatively designed by Iska Montero and Mike Mina – maraming, maraming salamat! Thanks to everyone at Lasang Pinoy for your support too!

For this August edition, entries will be accepted starting today through the 1st of August 2007. Unless the host gets all wrapped up in some unforeseen circumstances, we hope to release the round-up within the first week of August…then we’ll call it a wrap!

Let’s get rolling and wrapping!

I didn’t have time to cook anything specially for this edition of Lasang Pinoy.  I’ll do the next best thing and make a list of everything I’ve already featured here. 

The Philippines was under Spain for over 300 years.  The Iberian influence is evident in our everyday life yet we have become oblivious to it.  While the influence is Spanish, it is an influence filtered through Mexico.  Modern-day Filipinos who now inhabit every corner of the earth have taken this with them everywhere we’ve gone.  There are certain words in our language, our names, the Catholic faith…then there’s the food.

Here are a few dishes of Spanish influence that I have featured here before:

Morcon

Shrimp Gambas

Afritada

Adobo

Arroz Valenciana

Paella

The Filipino food bloggers’ event, Lasang Pinoy celebrates it’s first year anniversary this month of August. Congratulations and here’s to more participants and anniversaries!

This month’s theme, Definitively Pinoy, was not so easy for me.  I wanted to do  the Ilokano dishes “dinengdeng” or  “pinakbet” that my mother does so well.  I could,  but it just wouldn’t be the same without the best ingredients.  So instead, I decided to feature a very Pinoy food product everyone who grew up in the Philippines will remember from their childhood:  Choc-Nut.  Just the mention of this chocolate and peanut confection elicits happy memories for Pinoys. 

I mentioned this in a previous post on Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter Cup ice cream of all things.  It’s just one of those things that with just a little bite, conjures up so many memories and faces from your childhood. 

It hasn’t changed at all and I’m grateful for that. Even in Colorado, a world away from my home, it still brings me back and reminds me how definitively Pinoy I’ll always be….no matter where I wake up.

Lasang Pinoy, the Filipino food blogger’s event,  has a very interesting theme this month:  Distinctly Pinoy with a Twang. Pinoy Fusion. Philippine cuisine, as we know it, is even now a fusion of various influences:  Malay, European, American, Chinese and Arab influences….a veritable melting pot of the various cultures that left an impact on our own culture, our language and our traditions.  The Filipino’s contemporary reality has made the mix even more fascinating. I can’t wait to see what my fellow Filipino food bloggers out in cyberbia will come up with.

Here’s a dish I like to call Italian Adobo.  It’s similar to Chicken Scarpariello and a recipe I saw on a PBS cooking show hosted by Lidia Bastianich.  I’ve made both recipes in the past and came up with this…it has more complex flavors while using an easier method of preparation.

Purists will say this is not quite an adobo which requires marinating the meats before cooking. The addition of rosemary is not often seen in Philippine cooking.  But that’s the whole idea.  Let’s get creative, stretch our minds and see where we can take our favorite dishes….I love this LP theme!

I had a previous post on adobo some months back where I mentioned another version of this Philippine national dish. It was a simple deviation of the original which made a big difference on the final outcome. All I did was  splash some balsamic vinegar during the final browning of the meats.  Then splashed extra virgin olive oil before serving.  That turned out to be pretty interesting as well….the flavors deep and satisfying, but not totally Filipino.

The addition of the bell peppers here is my idea, similar to a scarpariello’s pickled Italian peppers. The change was made more for the introduction of a vegetable, as well as to add color to the dish.  But the final product will remind you of Philippine adobo…that vinegary, garlicky and salty flavors of the pork and chicken…plus a little bit more.

Thanks to Ces of Essences for hosting this month’s Lasang Pinoy event.

Italian Adobo

1 chicken leg quarter, cut in 3 pieces

1 bone-in, skin-on chicken breast, cut in 2 pieces

3 pieces sweet Italian sausage

.5 lb. pork ribs, cut in 2-inch squares

6 large garlic cloves, peeled

1/2 c. red wine vinegar

1/2 c. red wine

1/4 tsp. dried rosemary

1 bay leaf

1 ea.  red and green bell peppers, cut in 1-inch. sqaures

salt and pepper to taste

For starters,  put the Italian sausage in a pan with about half a cup of water over medium-high heat.  Add the pork and allow to boil, lower heat to medium and cook until the water evaporates.  Prick the sausages and allow the fats to drain. Cut the sausages in 1-inch pieces and return to the pan.  When this is all browned, transfer to a plate and set aside.

In the same pan, add the chicken pieces in one layer.  Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.  Brown well on each side.  If there’s too much oil in the pan for you, discard at this point.  Add the garlic cloves and brown it just a little bit.

Put back the sausage and pork into the hot pan. Stir.  Sprinkle some red wine vinegar on the meats, followed by the red wine, a little at a time. Stir constantly.  Throw in your rosemary and the bay leaf and cook covered over medium heat for about 20 minutes.  Add a bit of water if it gets too dry and check for seasonings.  At this point, you are just braising so all the flavors will mix nicely, a very little amount of liquid is required for this stage, maybe a tablespoon or two at a time.

Add the peppers and cook covered for 3-4 more minutes.  When peppers are crisp-tender, uncover and turn up heat.  Stir-fry the dish until a light brown glaze forms and serve immediately over hot rice.