Dreaming of Nanay's Delectable Foods

by Alex M. Castillo

Alex is from San Luis and is graduate of the University of the Philippines. He now works as the HR Manager of Guaranteed Marketing Services Inc., a service provider of local and multinational companies.

 

Nanay’s cooking flood my childhood memories.

From the simple meals composed of rice, paksiw, vegetable dishes to fiesta food and most especially the delicacies that were oh so yummy. When I’m homesick or stressed from work, I relive the happy anticipation of my childhood waiting for Nanay’s cooking.

Nanay with the help of my older sisters prepare these yummy foods either for the family’s consumption during fiestas, Christmas or New Year celebrations or simply to be sold around the village. I learned to cook some of them also when I was old enough to prepare them.

Rice and other local crops like sweet potato, cassava, banana and others are the main ingredients of these local delicacies. The other main ingredients are usually coconut and sugar. These are simple and easy to follow recipes that are mostly sweets.

Rice to the Occasion

Rice being the staple food of Pinoys is the most versatile among the local crops.  This is made into puto ligong or steamed rice cake and moron or rice rolls.  Puto ligong and moron come from the mixture of ground rice, coconut milk and sugar. For puto ligong, the mixture is left to “rise” for a few hours with fresh coconut sap locally called tuwak instead of baking soda. Moron on the other hand is rolled with banana leaves as wrapper.

Other delicacies made from rice are suman, nilanggang, bibingka and salukara.  Suman is made from glutinous rice, cooked, sweetened with sugar, rolled and wrapped in banana leaves like the moron.  If it is not wrapped, it is called biko.

Nilanggang on the other hand is ground rice mixture with shredded young coconut meat called lukaron.  Nilanggang is wrapped and steamed in cone-shaped banana leaves.

My version of bibingka is prepared similar to the nilanggang and puto ligong.  The mixture of ground rice and lukaron is left to “rise” for a few hours using fresh tuwak. The sugar is added to the mixture before it is cooked.  In an open fire, the pan is lined with banana leaves before the mixture is poured and then covered. The bibingka is turned over when the bottom part is done. The finished product is much like the pizza.

On the other hand, I learned how to cook the salukara from my Aunt.  It is so much like the hot cake but the mixture had shredded coconut.  Just like the puto ligong and bibingka, the mixture is also left to “rise” for a few hours using fresh tuwak.

One of my all time favorites is “pinilipig” or the “pinipig” made of roasted freshly harvested rice (not yet too ripe). While is still hot, the roasted rice are flattened by pounding so as to separate the husks.  The aroma of the fresh pinipig would make one’s mouth water.

The pinipig are pounded once more and then sifted to make it really fine. Finally the pinipig flour is cooked in sweetened buko juice and mixed with grated lukaron.

Sweet Potato

Sweet potato, locally called kamonte is also made into moron or iniraid. The process of cooking moron kamonte is similar to the rice moron. The sweet potatoes are grated, mixed with sweetened coconut milk and rolled with banana leaves. The rolls are then boiled or steamed until done. On the other hand, iniraid is prepared like the moron kamonte however these are steamed in tin cans covered with banana leaves or in pouches made of banana leaves.

Kinagingking is made of fried sweet potato strips much like French fries.  However instead of cooking the strips individually, these are “grouped” together with rice flour and water.

Molido is one of my favorites although it is labor intensive. It is made with mashed sweet potato, shredded old coconut and again, sugar.  The mixture is cooked in a pan, flattened in a square molder and cut into strips. To make it “special” add some peanut as topping before the mixture cools down.  It could last for a few days so it is a favorite pasalubong fare.

Versatile Cassava

Cassava is another local crop made into moron. The preparation is also similar to the rice and sweet potato moron with a twist: it has a filling made of chocolate. Cassava puto on the other hand is prepared just like the cassava moron with a filling made of sweetened shredded coconut called konserba. Cassava puto is steamed individually on homemade steamer made of tin can mounted on an earthen jar.

Jambol is fried cassava ball with konserba filling. It is usually sold by fours and skewered on broomstick. To make the jambol softer, the grated cassava is mixed with over ripe banana.

Mikin is also labor intensive because the process involves grating the cassava, sun drying (spread thinly on banana leaves) and finally frying.  The finished product is very thin and crispy with the top sprinkled with brown sugar.

Banana Split!

There are different kinds of banana produced locally but the most versatile is the kandaba. The ripe (not over ripe) kandaba is cut into half, slightly coated with ground rice and then fried.  This is called piniritos. Over ripe kandaba are made into baduya which are mashed, mixed with ground rice, a little water and deep fried.

All Together Now!

Cassava, sweet potato and banana are cooked together locally called kinaso-kaso or ginat-an.  The ingredients are cut into bite sizes and cooked in coconut milk, sugar and a pinch of salt. To make the sauce of kinaso-kaso thicker, grate some of the cassava and make into small balls just like small jambol.   The result: yummy!

Cassava and banana are also prepared into nilupak: boiled, mashed (or pounded) and sweetened with grated coconut. This is a better alternative merienda fare than just plain boiled cassava or banana.  Other cooking alternative for cassva is pinakro; simple boiled in coconut milk, sugar and a pinch of salt.

Wild and Poisonous

Inabaknon delicacies are not only made from locally planted crops. There are exotic and wild crops that are also a part of my childhood food trip.  One is the ba-ay a tuber harvested from a vine that grows in the wild. The tuber which is very fibrous is boiled and pound or cut into strips.  It is either eaten as is or sweetened with sugar and coconut milk. This is called inunaw.

Capul was used as a battleground during World War II. Naturally, my family evacuated into safer grounds and they could not tend to their crops for fear of being caught in the crossfire. 

According to Nanay, one wild tuber that helped them survived during the World War II was ad’dut. Ad’dut grows on hilly land and is similar in appearance to the commercial potatoes. The vine has thorns and it can be harvested when the leaves started to dry.

That means that the ad’dut is already mature. 

Ad’dut cannot be eaten fresh and if not prepared properly can be poisonous.  The tuber peeled and is sliced intro chips and undergo a “detoxification” process which would last for several days. The chips are put inside a straw sack, soaked in the water and then rinsed repeatedly over a few days.  When the water is clear, that means the ad’dut is ready.


The chips are then sun dried and then cooked in coconut milk and sugar.  Only experts know how to prepare ad’dut because as I have mentioned, improper preparation could be lethal.

Some of these local delicacies are also available in other parts of the Philippines but maybe prepared differently.  Some are even available in supermarkets like the puto and suman. So if I crave for Nanay’s cooking, I just appropriated it to those readily available. But nothing beats the home-cooked goodness especially if it is Nanay’s.