Biko for the New Year

In the run-up to the New Year, you might want to cook something sweet and sticky and the easiest dessert to make is biko for Visayans or sinukmani for Tagalogs. Each one might have his/her own recipe for biko but the recipe below is so scrumptious it will make you forget your low-carb diet. Adding finely chopped calamansi peel, which I learned from my Bol-anon students, will give it a lemony tang which is a good counterpoint to the rich coconut milk and brown sugar taste. Try it and I'm sure you will like it.

This recipe serves four hungry persons so you may need to double or treble the measurements if you're cooking for a bigger group.

Moni's Biko

2 cups malagkit (preferably tapul or black)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 big coconut, grated
1 1/2 c water
1 tbsp finely chopped peel calamansi or grated lemon rind
2 tbsps pounded ginger

Put 2 cups malagkit or sticky rice in rice cooker pot or thick pot using an equal amount of water. Add salt and pounded ginger; push the ginger to the bottom of the pot. Cook until done. Add 1 1/2 cups water to the grated coconut and extract the milk. Mix coconut milk, 3/4 cup brown sugar and chopped calamansi peel in a wok (kawali, kawa). Bring to a boil, then put in medium heat and keep on stirring until the mixture is thick. You need to stir continuously to prevent the coconut milk-brown sugar mixture from curdling. [To test the mixture for thickness, put a drop of the coco milk-sugar mixture (latik) in 1/4 cup water.] If it dissolves in the water, it isn’t ready yet so continue simmering until it is thicker. Stir in the cooked malagkit and mix thoroughly with the latik.

Divisoria before the New Year

I went to Divisoria after lunch yesterday and realized that it was much too late in the day to go to a crowded place. But in the morning, I had to wait for the aircon technician to install a bigger drain pan to the bedroom aircon as it was leaking. Two nights before I could hear the water dripping on the aircon one floor down from my son's condo unit and I didn't want the resident to complain again.

Upon arrival, I avoided Divisoria and instead headed to Ongpin and Benavides St. to buy Zhen de shou for my son and two packs of black bean bread at Xinyilong and two taipao from Masuki. I escaped immediately afterwards and I was grateful to the pedicab driver for taking me to the area near Sta. Cruz church where traffic was surprisingly flowing at 3:30 p.m.

This morning I decided to return to Divisoria to buy a few items like the no-battery flashlights at 168 shopping mall, a batik malong and Caruso handkerchiefs in Ilaya, seedless navel oranges at Sto. Cristo, etc. Being the wholesale fruit center in Divisoria, Sto. Cristo was teeming with wooden crates of pomelo and guava and boxes of oranges, kiat-kiat, Fuji apples, etc. Piles of wooden crates and boxes of fruits spilled into the streets and this has caused a huge traffic jam.

Many Filipinos believe that having 12 round fruits on New Year's eve will bring them good fortune in the coming year. Round fruits are said to resemble money. Kuya Kim (Kim Atienza) was about to give the trivia surrounding this practice but I didn't get to hear his story. No wonder, fruit buying in Divisoria in the days leading to the New Year has become a frenzied madness. Many buyers, rich and poor alike, bought kiat-kiat, chico, grapes, dalandan (native orange), pears, longgan, guava, watermelon and apple. Someone on TV suggested yesterday that the 12 fruits need not be imported. One should consider aratilis or manzanitas (Singapore cherry), tomato, singkamas (turnips), mangosteen, santol, macopa (tambis), and mabolo.

Still, it is hard to resist the bargains that beckon everyone in Divisoria. It is a place where one's money will go a long way. Large seedless navel oranges were being sold at 3 for 50 pesos. I quickly calculated the price difference between the oranges I bought in Shopwise in Makati the week before and I succumbed to the bargains. Lugging back a dozen navel oranges was a challenge as I had to weave in and out through the sea of people, pedicabs, porters hauling boxes of fruits, and delivery vans.

For the uninitiated, Divisoria may not be the place to be during the holidays because the crowds and traffic jam will defeat you. But for the brave at heart like me, Divisoria will always be a special place.

Who are my readers?

It warms my heart to see an increasing number of readers from the Philippines, U.S.A., Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Germany. Google Analytics, which provide the stats, showed that in the Philippines, an overwhelming majority of my readers come from Batangas. Interesting. So far, very few has ever left a comment in my posts. Comments and posts make up a blog so I would appreciate it if you could leave some feedback -- a question, a comment, perhaps another twist to a recipe or a travel experience I have ranted or raved about.

I hope the lack of comment does not reflect a lack of trust in the writer of the blog. To find out more about me, you can check out my other professional blog -- devcompage -- in which I write in my own name and the About section describes what I have done professionally. Happy holidays and let me hear from you.

Moni's roast pork

Since it's Christmas eve, this is a good time to cook this special dish. This is my favorite and although the basic recipe is Chinese pork asado, I spent years modifying it while we were living in Kauai, Hawaii in the 1970s. It is so easy to make and it has always elicited raves from our dinner guests. Besides cooking it for formal occasions like dinner at home, I also bring it to picnics where the preferred potluck dishes are not the soupy ones.

The spices -- Chinese five spice powder and star anise -- can be found in Chinese grocery stores, supermarkets, or even wet markets. If buying these spices in a wet market, the key is to use their local terms.

If you have queries about the cooking procedure, please leave a comment to this post and I will get back to you quickly.

Moni’s roast pork

2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp Chinese five spice powder
2 pcs star anise
1 head garlic, crushed
1 ½ cups water
2 kg pork ham (pigue) – whole with bone removed, tie with cotton string (crochet thread)
1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 1/3 cup water

Mix the first five ingredients in a thick cooking pot or Dutch oven. Add whole pork ham (pigue). Cover and simmer in low fire for about 1 ½ hours or until tender when pricked with a fork – you may have to add more water to avoid drying up; make sure there’s about 1/3 cup liquid left in pot when pork is cooked. Remove pork from pot, cut string, and slice thinly (like ham). Thicken the remaining liquid in pot by stirring in cornstarch dissolved in water. Arrange the thinly sliced roast pork in cascading style on a platter. Drizzle some gravy on top of sliced roast pork, but keep a gravy boat nearby.

Chicken macaroni salad

Another favorite Christmas dish of Filipinos is chicken macaroni salad. I have an attachment to it as I practically grew up eating it, just as other families must have their ham and quezo de bola. I have whipped up macaroni salad for many years, serving it at special occasions like my son's graduation party. But with our shift to a low-carb eating lifetyle, I have excluded this from my list of must-eats but I would like to share the recipe with you. The quantity is clearly for a crowd and you can adjust the recipe, depending on your guest list.

Chicken-macaroni salad

1 kg chicken breasts, boiled and flaked
1 kg elbow macaroni
3 big cans pineapple tidbits
2 apples, peeled and diced
½ kg carrots, boiled and diced
1 medium pkg. raisins (200 g)
1 small bot. pickle relish
1 bot. Lady’s Choice mayonnaise, 810 ml + ¼ can condensed milk
1 box cheddar cheese, grated
2 tsps. salt

Boil elbow macaroni following package directions and drain. When cooked macaroni has been drained and cool, mix with the rest of the ingredients in a large mixing or salad bowl, except for the grated cheese, which should be added last. Freeze for 1 hour and chill in refrigerator.

Humba (braised pork belly)

I'm visiting my son during this long Christmas holiday so I have obliged and cooked humba for him. Today, I woke up early to go to the wet market in Guadalupe, Makati City to buy the leanest pork belly I could find. Is there a lean pork belly or is this an oxymoron?

After lunch, I called up my sister in San Francisco, CA. to greet her a merry christmas before the phone lines get clogged. In the course of our conversation, I asked her what she was preparing for Christmas dinner. She said she was going to cook humba using the recipe I sent her. I told her, how coincidental as I had cooked humba a few hours earlier. I don't have a photo for now but I hope you can imagine how it will look like. Here's the recipe of my Cebuano version of humba:

Humba (braised pork belly)

1 1/5 kg pork belly (cut up in chunks)
2 tbsp canned salted black beans (crush beans with back of spoon or ladle)
1/3 cup vinegar
6 segments garlic (pounded)
2 tsp black peppercorns (crushed)
2 bay leaves
2 star anise
2 tbsp brown sugar (preferably muscovado)
1 1/2 cup water

Heat a thick cooking pot and pan fry pork chunks till light brown to render the fat. Drain oil from pot and set pork aside. Stir in sugar and melt in low heat.[Note: If you're on a low-carb diet, you can substitute 1 sachet of Splenda for the brown sugar.] Mix all ingredients - Simmer in low fire for about 45 minutes or until the pork chunks are tender. You may have to add more water to avoid drying up. Make sure there's about 1/3cup liquid left in pot when pork is cooked.

Serve hot with steamed rice.