Biko & Latik 101 – Everything You Need to Know

Biko, a quintessential Pinoy food best known as “kakanin” is a favorite of the piggery and the handsome hubby.

Kakanin is a ubiquitous Pinoy term that applies to any dessert or snack which has malagkit or sticky rice and gata or coconut cream which we have an abundance of in the archipelago.

No wonder we have various kakanin  in different regions in the country. Biko, Bibingkang Latik, Suman, Suman sa Lihiya, Sapin Sapin,  come to mind

My personal predilection for this dessert or snack took root while growing up in a small town called La Huerta in Paranaque. My paternal grandmother Inang Juana loves the palengke or the town market. That is her happy place where she shops for anything she fancies. Her Sunday sojourns after mass in a church a few steps away from the palengke, yields a cornucopia of kakanin  (rice cakes) and chichirya (junk food) she loves to spend on.

Inang Juana has long gone but not before passing on to me and her other apps  ( grandchildren) her penchant for malagkit and gata combo. To this day La Huerta remains my peg when it comes to delectable bibingkang pinipig, biko, cassava cake, palitaw, ginataang bilo bilo, etc.

A couple of days ago, I noted how my pantry has had that malagkit rice for quite some time and packs of  Coco Mama Coconut Cream too. 

I had this acute craving for BIKO and an itch to make it myself. Usually, when our 75-year-old Yaya of 25 years comes for a visit, she makes this Pinoy kakanin for us. This time around though, I had the hankering to create it by my lonesome under her watchful eyes of course.

BIKO OR SWEET STICKY RICE

Ingredients

7 cups of malagkit or sticky rice

6 cups of water

ginger

pandan leaves if available

salt

3 packs of 400 ml COCO MAMA Unang Piga Fresh Gata

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

Note : Do taste and adjust according to your preferred level of sweetness

Method

1. Cook the malagkit like you do your ordinary rice but with a 7:6 ratio ie 7 cups of malagkit to 6 cups water. Add a pinch of salt and  pandan leaves. Set aside.

2. In a big pan,  cook 3 packs of 400 ml Coco Mama Coconut Cream and 1 1/2 cups to 2 cups brown sugar. Simmer until thickened. Note that 1 pack of 400 ml Coco Mama is equivalent to 2 cups.

3. Add your cooked malagkit rice to the coconut cream and sugar mixture. Mix until the malagkit rice absorbs all the coconut cream mixture.  Rice should be sticky at this point but not wet.

4. Set aside

LATIK or COCONUT CREAM CURD

Ingredients

2 packs 400 ml Coco Mama Coconut Cream

Method

1. In a saucepan , pour 2 packs of Coco Mama Coconut Cream.

2. Let it boil.

3. Stir once. 

4. Then let it be for about 15 – 20 minutes or until you see the oil separates from the cream.

5. Wait until  the white cream disappears replaced by pale curds initially

6. Curds eventually turn brown as you roast it.

7. Separate the oil from the curds by using a strainer. 

8. Set the oil aside. You can use that for frying.

9. You can return the curds to the pan for further browning if you want.

Assembly

1.  Wipe the coconut oil ( from the latik) on the bottom of your pyrex dish.

2. Transfer the Biko to your pyrex and flatten it.

3. Garnish your biko with the latik

4. Serve and Enjoy !