Binagol

Grated taro cooked to a stiff paste and baked back inside half a coconut shell.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (condensed milk).

Ingredients

• 1 kg giant taro, peeled and finely grated
• 400 ml coconut milk
• 200 g condensed milk
• 200 g caster sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 60 g butter
• 0.25 teaspoon salt
• 6 coconut shell halves, cleaned
• banana leaves and string, to cover

Method

1. BAKED BACK INSIDE HALF A COCONUT SHELL, which is the object and not a flourish. The shell holds the heat evenly and slowly, and the finished thing is eaten out of it with a spoon. Baked in a tin it is a taro pudding; baked in the shell it is this.
2. WEAR GLOVES to peel and grate the taro. Raw giant taro sap irritates the skin badly, and the irritation lasts hours.
3. Grate it finely. Coarse shreds stay fibrous however long it cooks.
4. Squeeze the grated taro in a cloth to get the loose water out, but do not wring it dry.
5. Taro, coconut milk, condensed milk, sugar, butter and salt into a wide heavy pan. Over a low heat, stirring without stopping, 30 to 35 minutes.
6. It thickens in stages and the last stage is the one you want: a stiff paste that comes away from the pan in one mass and holds the mark of the spoon.
7. Off the heat, beat the yolks in fast, one at a time. Off the heat matters -- dropped into the hot pan they scramble.
8. Pack the mixture into the shells, mounded slightly and smoothed with a wet spoon.
9. Cover each with a square of wilted banana leaf and tie it on with string round the rim.
10. Bake at 180C for 45 minutes, or steam them 1 hour. A skewer should come out clean and the surface should be set and faintly cracked at the edge.
11. Cool at least 1 hour before eating. Hot, it is a loose paste; cold, it slices.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes