Biko Rice Cake Reinvented

The biko is our national kakanin. The most basic of our rice cakes, you can find it in any street corner and or brought to you by your friendly vendor, still plying the streets, the old fashioned way. It is filling enough for a snack, but can also be dessert, depending on the preparation.  On our streets, there isn’t much variation on the biko. It is familiar, accessible and does not need much to improve it, but it has always been a challenge to me as a pastry chef to reinterpret the familiar. The elements are all still there, I just added a twist to it that I hope you will make you see the biko in a new light. ▄

Photography by MICHAEL ANTHONY SAGARAN

Chocolate Biko Cake

• 1kg of glutinous rice
• 3 big coconuts (dilute the second extraction with 1.5 liters of coconut water)
• 750g of brown sugar
• 1 cup of cocoa powder

1. Combine the sticky rice and 2nd extract of coconut milk in a rice cooker and cook until
   the rice is ready.
2. In a wok (you can use non-stick pan for better handling), combine the coconut milk with
   cocoa powder and sugar. Cook over low heat until the texture becomes thick. Stir constantly.
3. Once the rice is cooked and the coconut milk-sugar mixture is thick enough, add the cooked rice in the coconut milk, cocoa and sugar mixture then mix well. Continue cooking until all the liquid evaporates and very sticky that you can form a ball.
4. Place the cooked biko on top of a banana leaf, then spread the mixture. You can just
   wait for this cool and then slice it.
5. You can also put whipping cream on top and strawberry fruits for presentation.

You can easily do other variations:

Ube-Macapuno
Take out cocoa powder, change brown sugar to white sugar and add 500g of long string coconut meat (the one used for salad) into the sugar and coconut milk mixture.

For Langka Biko Cake
Take out cocoa powder then add 500g of combined shredded fresh and ripe langka.

For Buko Panda Biko cake
Boil the glutinous rice with pandan leaves. Instead of the cocoa powder, substitute white sugar instead of brown sugar then add 500g of long strip coconut meat into the sugar and coconut milk mixture.

For Banana Biko Cake
Instead of the cocoa powder, add 1 tbsp cinnamon powder and 250g of mashed riped banana to the mixture.

Photography by MICHAEL ANTHONY SAGARAN

Coconut Milk Ube Panna Cotta

I always though coconut milk makes for an excellent panna cotta. In fact our native maja mais and tibok-tibok are versions of panna cotta in themselves. Coconut milk is richer than milk and cream and a flavor that recalls the romance of the tropics.

• 300g milk
• 300g pure coconut milk
• 125g sugar
• 1-2 tbsp ube extract
• 3 envelope (1 1/2 tbsps) of gelatine powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine milk and coconut milk in a saucepan then mix the gelatine powder. Bring to boil over low heat and add sugar, vanilla extract and ube flavoring. Pour into your molds. Chill for 2-5 hours or until the panna cotta is well set (the ideal panna cotta must jiggle).