Yummy Biko on Good Friday

I made biko on Good Friday. I did not follow any recipe and made my own measurements. I was short of latik so I made two kakanin - biko and puto maya, lol! The cooked malagkit rice without the latik eventually turned puto maya, hahaha.



Here are the ingredients I used on my biko:

1 kilo malagkit rice
1 medium size coconut (grated)
3 cups water
1/4 kilo moscovado sugar (you may use brown sugar if you want a lighter color for your biko)
1 cup white (or brown) sugar
1 small box raisins

I was short of latik with this number so, the next time I'll do biko I'll have twice the number of coconut, sugar and water.

I also forgot to buy kalamansi and butong (young coconut). These are great additions to the contemporary biko. The kalamansi rind adds a certain kick to the flavor and the grated butong adds texture. This is how I normally prepare my biko - with raisins, kalamansi rind and butong.

Here's how to prepare the biko.

1. Put the grated coconut in a bowl and add water.
2. Squeeze out the gata (coconut milk) and set aside the coconut.
3. Set aside the gata. This will be used for making latik.
4. Measure malagkit rice to check the number of cups (1 kilo is approximately 7 cups).
4. Again mix the used coconut with water equal to the number of cups of the malagkit rice and squeeze out the gata (this is thinner than the first squeeze).
5. Wash the malagkit rice and pour in equal amount of the thin gata. Cook like you normally cook rice.

Preparing latik:
1. Boil the thick gata stirring regularly.
2. Add sugar when it boils.
3. If you would like your biko to have butong, you may now add the butong while it's boiling.
3. Stir until creamy. Add raisins.
4. If you have kalamansi rind, mix them before taking the latik out from the flame.

Mixing the biko!
1. Put a pan over a low flame.
2. Put a cup or two of latik.
3. Gradually put malagkit rice and mix thoroughly until you get the consistency that you want.
4. Alternately put latik and malagkit rice mixing them thoroughly. By doing these, you will be able to check if you got enough latik for the malagkit rice and maintain the consistency of the biko. If you have extra malagkit rice, you can still have it as puto maya just like what I did. This would be great with hot tsokolate!

Biko display!
Place the biko in a nice platter for a more presentable look. If you have extra latik, you may add them as toppings. You may also bake the biko in an oven until the top turns brown.