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This Philippine delicacy is one of my favorite growing up. I remember always asking my mother back when I was a young girl in our province to order it from the ”kakanin” lady.  This kind of palitaw is different in a way that it is serve in the coconut milk it was cooked in. The usual palitaw that I see and buy in the market is the soft cooked rice dough serve in a wilted banana leaf  with fresh coconut and brown sugar toppings. 

The recipe below is serve with latik, my favorite topping for kakanin. I am not into palitaw that much, but when I tasted this one with “broth”, I fell for it, but it is so hard to find it sometimes in the market, it’s either it’s already gone or they didn’t have it available on that day;  it’s not one of the regular delicacy sold, probably because it spoils easy because of the coconut milk, I’m not sure or maybe because not a lot of people like it??? Still not sure there… but I sure know that I LIKE  it…A LOT!  It’s been years since I last had this  and just recently I had a craving for this palitaw with sabaw (broth) -it’s what I call it- and since I know no kakanin lady in the city I currently live in who makes this delicacy,  I had to learn how to make it myself.  I asked around- I asked my mom, my lolas and  aunts on how it is done, they did not really give me an exact recipe, they just told me how and since I’ve seen it done  a few times before, I went ahead and tried it (with fingers crossed).   It’s actually pretty easy to do and there are very few ingredients, only three in fact.  The only hard thing here is the extraction of the coconut milk; you can always use the canned one but for me, it’s not the same taste wise and besides, the coconut from the market is cheaper than the canned coconut milk– I’m just being practical here.

So, I made this a couple of days ago, it was a hit with my 2 year old son, wish I could say the same for his daddy and sister, who inspite of the fact that they don’t really like kakanin that much still ate quite a lot but said it’s not really one of their favorites. Anyways, here’s the recipe: and the picture is up there - I’m lousy at taking pictures so bear with me, that’s the best I can do… Happy cooking!

This recipe serves 4-5 persons

1 cup sweet rice flour or glutinous rice flour
water
2 cups coconut milk
For the latik:
1 coconut, shredded
2 cups lukewarm water

First, you need to extract the milk from the coconut; to do this, put the shredded coconut in a large bowl, pour in 2 cups of lukewarm water, mash the coconut with your hands to extract the milk, then use a strainer to pour the coconut milk in a clean bowl, squeeze the shredded coconut to get all that first extract of milk- this is called the kakang gata, it’s thick and creamy. Put the shredded coconut back again to the large bowl for the second extraction.  Just repeat the process, add the same amount of water; this time you will  get a thinner consistency of coconut milk extract.

Put the first extract, the kakang gata on a skillet or any shallow pan, reserving 1/4 cup. cook it over medium-high heat. Do not stir. J ust let the coconut milk boil till all the water evaporates and only the solid part is left- that will become the latik- lower the heat and stir gently ocassionally to break the latik and continue to cook it in it’s oil till it’s golden brown.

Meanwhile, while the latik is cooking, pour the second extract of coconut milk into a saucepan, add in 1 cup of brown sugar, stir until the brown sugar is dissolved and bring to a boil. 

Put the sweet rice flour in a bowl, add water to  it gradually, just enough to hold the all flour together and form a moist dough, be careful when adding water, you don’t want a very sticky dough, knead a little then form into one-inch balls then flatten each ball as you make it into an oval shape, it doesn’t have to be perfect; just make sure you make uniform size “dumplings” so they will cook at the same time.  When they’re ready, drop them into the boiling coconut milk and sugar mixture. Cook for about 10 minutes or until the “palitaw” floats, that’s when you know it’s done, then add the reserved first extract of coconut milk, the kakang gata;  simmer for 3 minutes, then add the latik and turn off heat.

Let it cool a bit before serving because the palitaw can be very, very hot. It’s a good merienda (snack) on a rainy day…warms your tummy!

Yummylicious!