momcooks.dadcooks.

a traditional Filipino coconut based snack with fresh plantain and sweet potato, also with yam, tapioca pearls and sticky rounded sweet rice flour. comforting. served warm or cold.

...it never ceases to amaze me how my first born, Samantha has adapted our very own Filipino palate for anything rice cakes or any Filipino dessert or snack, just like this Ginataang halo-halo or plantain and sweet potato in coconut milk. having spent half of her life out of the country, it's somehow comforting to see her eat our delicacies and actually crave for it and request for this and that every so often. that being said, leaves me to making them as close to how my own mom used to make them. Sundays back home, back then...means afternoon snacking on a plethora of hearty and carb-high food such as this Ginatan, biko, banana Q, kamote Q, kalamay, puto, kutsinta and so much more delicious sweets! and this will be my goal from now on...make Pinoy snacks at least once on a Sunday afternoon!

HALO-HALO translated in English.  HALO  is to mix while HALO-HALO is a mixture.  In this case it's a mixture of fruits. i think this must be the Filipino version of the fruit salad, but with coconut milk instead of whipped cream.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup diced sweet potatoes

1 cup diced plantains

3 tablespoons water

1 cup sweet rice powder (sold in Oriental stores)

1/4 cup tapioca (quick-cooking type)

1 cup preserved jackfruit (also in Oriental stores, sadly i didn't have this at this time), cut into strip

1/2 cup plus another 1/2 cup sugar [i use white to make the cream as white as possible instead of brown, and/or Splenda for a healthier option]

1 1/2-2 cups coconut milk, [fresh is better if it's available, not in my case, so i used 1 1/2 cans + 1/2 can for garnish just before serving]

HOW-TO

In a medium casserole, bring the water and coconut milk to a boil. Add 1/4 cup sugar and simmer in medium-high heat. Add sweet potatoes and plantains and simmer until half done. Add 3 tablespoons water to sweet rice powder. Take a little of the mixture at a time and form into balls the size of the cubed plantains and sweet potato. Drop balls into the simmering mixture. Add cooked tapioca, 1/4 cup sugar and jackfruit. Stir and cook for 5 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

and this is how my late mama does it...pure and immaculately white! i'm guessing i get a ♥♥♥♥ out of ♥♥♥♥♥ on this though due to the bilo-bilo that turned out kinda tough inside...wrong type of rice powder, i guess. next time!:) An entry to Lasang Pinoy, Sundays---COCONUT!