October 2, 2006

Filipino Kakanin (Snacks)

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The Filipino word kakanin comes from kanin (rice), it also means to eat, hence kakanin. Kakanin are typically made of various forms (whole grain, powdered, soaked in water then ground) of regular rice and glutinous or sticky rice usually combined with coconut milk and sugar, some with salt. They are baked, boiled, and steamed, almost always using banana leaves to line pans and to wrap small bundles called suman. There is a variety of suman names and preparations depending on the region but the nationally known and eaten all over the Philippines is the suman sa lihiya (with lye). It is wrapped in banana leaves and boiled in pairs for 40 minutes and served with muscovado sugar and coconut milk sauce/syrup. A very versatile rice dish is the champorado, it is sweet simmered in water, sugar, a pinch of salt and cocoa powder. It is a breakfast food for most Filipinos but I eat it any time of the day. Champorado is eaten just like any cereals, with milk. There is a restaurant in Manila that serves a tweaked champorado using white chocolate instead of cocoa powder. I made both and served it in one bowl, eliminating the need to add milk to the dark chocolate champorado, they go well together. I call it champorado yin yang.


I also made both white and ube (purple yam) puto - sweet steamed rice muffins, and the Visayan moron (what a strange name), first photo, chocolate and white twists made with both regular and glutinous rice, half has cocoa powder, the other half has chopped roasted peanuts. I never had moron before and read about it in several Filipino blogs. I got the recipe from the The Little Kakanin Book by Gene Gonzalez of Cafe Ysabel in Manila. The preparation was simple and I had all the ingredients, let's just say it will never be a favorite, I still prefer the ones I ate all my life, the one with lye, although I don't put lye in my suman. Hot white and purple yam puto with lots of butter, I'll have them everyday, if possible, yummy.


Bibingka, a baked rice flour cake is a national favorite during Christmas season but is now consumed any day and anytime of the year in restaurants. My favorite is topped with salted eggs and sliced white cheese.
For puto recipes click here


There are many more kakanin that I still have to make and will post them soon if I am able to make them successfully: palitaw, pichi-pichi, piaya, guinatan halo-halo, sapin-sapin, cuchinta, mache (similar to mochi)...I'm getting a little ambitious here.

Recipes
Suman sa Moron
Puto
Bibingka
Kuchinta
Sapin-Sapin
Palitaw

9 comments:

Uberathlete said...

Great photos! Just wondering, does the puto recipe use baking powder or is it naturally fermented?

Oggi said...

Thanks. Yes, I used baking powder.

Anonymous said...

hi, ive been trying different puto recipes for my husband.. =) can you share the one you used for the one in the picture? it looks like the fluffy one that his looking for..

thanks! =)

great site by the way!

Oggi said...

Hi Jane
I am not sure if this is the recipe I used for this batch
1 C coconut milk
1 C water
2 C rice flour (not sweet rice)
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¾ C sugar
Mix well and pour into puto molds lined with banana leaves. Steam for 20 minutes.

I will be making puto next week using a different recipe. You might want to check that out.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I've been searching for an ube puto recipe. Would you share yours?

Thanks!

Susie

Oggi said...

Hi Susie

It's been a year since I made ube puto. I don't recall which recipe I used either for this one or the last. I was not so happy with the one for this post and the other I will look in my recipe files. I will try to make a new batch and will post the recipe as soon as I can.

Anonymous said...

wow, im stunned to find your ube puto, it looks so delish, i was wandering can u post the recipy for putopao, its my fave and i want to cook it for my family, pls, pls post it... more power and thank you very much....kaye

Oggi said...

Kaye, I've never heard of puto pao. It piqued my interest and looked for the recipe. I made some a few weeks ago which I love BTW but since I'm on a break from this blog I won't be able to post the result any time soon. Thanks for the tip though.:)

Anonymous said...

do you all know how to cook puto maya

plzz reply at my yahoo mail
Vince_DARKUS@yahoo.com

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