Biko at last!

I've had a few kitchen flops and I don't mind talking about them. When I was first learning to cook I remember roasting a whole fish for hours in the oven hoping it would get brown. Only much later on I realised I should have used the broiler instead to get a crisp golden skin. I could also have covered the fish for a while and then uncovered it in the last stages. And added a bit of oil instead of letting the fish essentially poach in its own juices.

I also remember making a truly soggy eggplant/veggie lasagna that I forced my poor sisters to take home. I'm sure there were other disasters that my friends and family will remember :-)

More recently I tried my hand at making cassava cake (or cassava bibingka) the Pinoy way. It was tough and chewy and a total waste of ingredients. But I know now each flop is a great learning opportunity. That cassava disaster told me to never use ground cassava flour (tapioca flour in the supermarket) if I want good results. Grated cassava is the ONLY way to go.

So when I decided to try making biko with latik topping the other day it was with some trepidation. I love Filipino style desserts so much -- hello ginataan! hello suman sa lihiya, kalamay at latik, bibingka at puto bumbong! -- but have not really made many of them. I guess when I was living in Hong Kong I was spoiled. I knew that the next visit home was never more than two or three months away and failing that, there were always sources of Pinoy food at Worldwide House in Central. But living in Canada makes access to my food heritage a bit more difficult since I don't drive and public transit in our area is limited.

To satisfy my biko craving I did some research and after some tinkering came up with this recipe. It worked out well -- so well in fact, that my husband ate 3/4 of a pie-plate-ful of the dessert in 48 hours. He very generously left a few forkfuls for me, isn't he sweet ;-)



Here's the recipe. It makes enough to fill a 9-inch pie plate with about 3 cups left over. If I had a rectangular 11' baking dish I would have used that. You can use any pan you like. The biko should fill the pan around 1 inch to 1.5 inch deep for best presentation...most people prefer a thicker topping instead of a thicker rice-cake bed.

Biko at latik
(Rice cake with caramel topping)

For the biko
•2 cups cooked malagkit (sticky rice) (I used the rice cooker)
•3/4 c. brown sugar
•Around 3 cups freshly squeezed, or canned, coconut milk
•3 - 4 tablespoons of butter
•optional - strips of sweetened langka (jackfruit, which you can also buy prepared)

Topping:
•1 15 oz can condensed milk
•3/4 cup rich coconut milk
•2 tablespoons flour or tapioca flour, to thicken

While still hot, combine the cooked sticky rice with the brown sugar and coconut milk. Add butter and optional langka strips and stir well. Transfer to the baking dish and bake in a preheated 300 F oven for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile make the topping by combining the topping ingredients in a heavy-duty saucepan and stiring constantly over low heat until the mixture thickens.

Pour topping over the rice mixture and return to the oven, baking until the topping turns golden brown, around 15 minutes.

This is wonderful hot or cold -- and especially, I'm thinking, with an icy glass of Coke!