Biko

If you’re looking for delicious kakanin, go to Bulacan. You will never regret heading over there to grab those mouth-watering dainties.  When Nanay came home from market, she always have delicious goodies like  suman, halaya, morwekos, maja blanca, puto, kutsinta, sapin-sapin, cassava, bibingka, and biko among many others.  "Sarap sa almusal pati na sa meryenda.”

Biko is a Filipino recipe made from glutinous rice (Filipino term: malagkit), coconut milk and sugar.  It is best topped with what we called "latik" which can either be solid coconut curds (Northern part of the Philippines) or thick syrup of caramelized coconut milk (Visayan Region). Making latik may vary from one Filipino to another. I'm so glad my Nanay taught me how to make latik.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 1 hour

Servings: 10

Ingredients for Biko:

2 cups Glutinous Rice

4 cups Water

400 mL Coconut Milk

2 cups Brown Sugar

How to cook?

1. In a casserole with thick base, pour the washed glutinous rice and 4 cups of water. Allow it to boil. Turn down the heat after 15 minutes. Stir every 5 minutes to avoid sticking at the base of the casserole.  Keep cooking until the water is absorbed by the glutinous rice. (In some case, glutinous rice is cooked in a rice cooker to attain evenly cooked rice and transferred in a big casserole with the coconut milk and sugar mixture.)
2. Dissolve the brown sugar in coconut milk. Then add it to the cooked rice and mix until you achieved the desired thickness.

Traditionally, Biko is flattened evenly on banana leaves brushed with oil from latik. It is then cut into squares and top with latik. 

Related topic:

How to make the topping (latik)?