Filipino ginataan dessert

For Filipino ginataan dessert, Vanjo Merano’s selected recipe is ginataang halo-halo, also called binignit. Sweet potato, purple yam and taro cook in coconut milk with plantains, ripe jackfruit, tapioca pearls and glutinous rice balls. Merano describes its components as soft and chewy.

Water is brought to a boil before half of the measured coconut milk is added. Once the pot boils again, the diced sweet potatoes, purple yam and taro roots simmer together.

The remaining coconut milk goes into the pot with granulated white sugar and the glutinous rice balls. Plantains are added next, followed by sliced ripe jackfruit.

Cooked small tapioca pearls are stirred in near the end, and the dessert simmers briefly before being transferred to a serving plate. The written recipe serves the finished mixture either hot or cold.

Merano explains that ginataan is a local name for foods cooked in coconut milk. This particular combination is both a dessert and a merienda food, eaten during the mid-afternoon snack; binignit is another name used in parts of the Philippines.