Chef Cocoy Ventura's Ingkiwar recipe from Isabela

MANILA, Philippines — Kakanin! We all gravitate toward these native rice cakes because we grew up eating them for breakfast, merienda and, well, sometimes, dessert.

Different provinces have different versions of kakanin, because local ingredients are used in cooking them. Some of them are almost the same, differing only in one or two ingredients, cooking technique, or presentation, and call them by different names.

Take the Biko. That is what the Tagalogs call this native delicacy made with malagkit rice (glutinous rice), gata (coconut cream), and brown sugar, with latik on top. The Southern Tagalogs and Visayans call it Sinukmani. In Isabela and some parts of Ilocos, it goes by the name Ingkiwar.

So, when The Maya Kitchen recently featured a cooking class on Isabela cuisine, the featured chef, Chef Cocoy Ventura, naturally included ingkiwar on the lineup of recipes. Hailing from Isabela and despite his many accomplishments abroad, he still loves the cuisine of Isabela like no other.

Here is Chef Cocoy’s recipe of ingkiwar:

Ingkiwar

INGREDIENTS:

500 grams short-grain glutinous rice, precooked in ample water to almost dry

250 grams muscovado or dark brown sugar

cream of 8 pcs. coconut (*take and cook 300 ml. into latik with coconut oil, set aside)

Salt

PROCEDURE:

1.  In a large kawali (best if it's the same kawali where latik was made), heat remaining coconut cream, and bring to a gentle boil.

2.  Add sugar and dissolve in simmering coconut cream.

3.  Gradually stir in cooked glutinous rice. Add coconut oil, saving the latik for topping.

4.  Keep stirring until glutinous rice has absorbed the mixture and have plumped up a bit.

5.  Check sweetness and stir in a cut bit of salt to cut the sweetness and balance the flavors. Spoon over banana leaf-lined bilao.

6.  Smooth the top evenly and score grids as guide. Sprinkle latik on the grid evenly. Cool before serving.