Recipe Ginataang Bilo-Bilo (coconut milk dumplings)

Ellyn

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"Coconut milk dumplings" is not the official translation.

While "ginataang" in the Philippines refers to almost anything obviously cooked in coconut milk: fish in coconut milk, chili beef with coconut milk... Well, my family knows that when I'm craving ginataang--it's usually this particular dessert, a sweet and hearty stew that is easy to just boil together in a pot.

Ingredients
- balls of glutinous rice (make a dough out of glutinous rice flour, regular flour, and water to a ratio of 2:2:1 and about 1.5 cups to one part with a tablespoon of the whole mix to one ball)
- 2 cans coconut milk
- 1 can water
- 1 large sweet potato, cut into sections
- 3 large cooking bananas, cut into sections
- sago or tapioca pearls to preference
- sugar to taste
- extra glutinous rice to thicken to preference
- optional: jackfruit strips, aniseed

Directions
1. Combine 1 can of coconut milk with 1 can of water in a pot, let boil.
2. Add the glutinous rice balls to the boiling pot; when raw, they will sink to the bottom of the pot, when cooked they float to the top. Wait until they float to the top.
3. Add the sweet potato, boil until partially cooked. If you're going to put in anise, then do that now.
4. Add the large bananas.
5. Add the other can of coconut milk, tapioca pearls, sugar and jackfruit.
6. Boil on a low-medium fire until thick, if it doesn't become as thick as you like after 20 minutes of this then add extra glutinous rice.
7. Serve warm, or later after being refrigerated.
 
We just ate ginataan a few weeks ago and now I want to eat more because of this D:

The glutinous rice balls are the ones I can't resist, really. And sometimes, I couldn't stop the urge to experiment with all kinds of syrups to put in the ginataan for the sake of savoring the experience, haha.
 
Just last week I went to Robinson's Magnolia (in Quezon City) for the first time, and beside the grocery store in the UG level, there was this place that sold this and labeled it ginataan halo-halo. This confused me because I thought halo-halo was a frozen treat, so this should replace the condensed milk with coconut milk or something. But I guess it's really just another word for bilo-bilo. Learn something new every day!

I should just call it halo-bilo now.
 
When I read this post I began to crave for ginataang bilo bilo. This is really one of my favorite Philippine food and I can't resist myself to eat many of this kind of dessert if there is a chance it is available. I really miss this because I do love everything cook with coconut.<3
 
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