#170_ Biko & Mango Jam Deja Vu

Biko Topped with Home-Made Mango Jam
from Post #167

The kids in my ward were playing "Fear Factor"
and requested people from other nationalities
to bring food from their countries.
Well, I didn't want to gross the kids out too bad so I thought
the new biko recipe of mine might be a good one to take to them.

Lisa Taylor in the center is holding the bilao-ful of biko
with the rest of the no-fear-for-the-biko youths.


Here's how to prepare this dessert:

1) Make the Biko without the traditional topping.
To check out the Biko recipe, click here.
2) Press cooked Biko in a baking dish and slice it into squares.
3) Place each slice in paper muffin cup liners.
4) Make indentations in the center of each rice cake
with the back of a measuring teaspoon,
then fill them with mango jam.

ENJOY!!!

***************************************

#65_GLUTINOUS RICE CAKE WITH TOPPING

Latik or Nilatikan
(Glutinous Rice Cake with Latik Topping)

It is always fun to go to Filipino get-togethers because we play "name games" on the food we bring. Just like with this rice cake, someone from the Tagalog region call this "bibingkang malagkit", another one from Manila said they call it "bibingkang kakanin", in Bicol, they call it "biko". I'm from Pangasinan and we call it "latik" or "nilatikan" over there. One thing we all agree on though is that it is yummy, no matter how we call it.

Latik refers to the caramelized sauce made of coconut cream and panucha (molasses cake) and is used as topping for this particular rice cake. It also refers to the kakanin (rice cake) itself, thus latik.

On the otherhand, in Tagalog, latik refers to the curdles from coconut milk when making coconut oil.

Confused???!! I don't blame you because I'm too! That's why I chose "GLUTINOUS RICE CAKE WITH TOPPING" for the title.

In this recipe, I used light brown sugar instead of the panucha for the topping. Most of the time though, I use the bottled coconut jam or katiba, found in most Asian stores, for the topping. It is a shortcut to making this dessert...it is quick, less work and less messy.

If you decide to use the bottled coconut jam, heat it in a pot with some coconut milk to make it more spreadable. Do not microwave.

RECIPE FOR NILATIKAN:

4 cups glutinous rice
4 cups water
1/2 can coconut cream
2 cups white sugar

TOPPING:
1 1/2 cans coconut cream
2 cups light brown sugar

Cook rice just like the procedure in Biko recipe #7, click here.

1) Rinse glutinous rice with cold water, drain well. Add the water and cook in a rice cooker just like cooking regular rice.
2) When cooked, stir in the sugar and coconut cream. Mix well.


3) Spread the mixture into a greased 9x13" baking pan.
(Sorry, this is a bad picture as the sauce looks more orange in color than dark brown. I guess I have to blame the lighting).

4) Pour the latik on top and smooth it out.
5) Bake in a pre-heated 350 degrees oven for 45 minutes.
6) Let cool before slicing.

HOW TO MAKE THE TOPPING (LATIK):
1) In a non-stick pot, combine the coconut cream and the brown sugar.
2) Boil, stirring often, until thick but of spreadable consistency.