Binatog

Dried white corn soaked overnight and boiled until the kernels burst open, with fresh coconut.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 400 g dried white corn kernels
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 2 litres water
• 300 g freshly grated coconut
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons caster sugar, to serve

Method

1. BOILED UNTIL THE KERNELS BURST OPEN, which is the whole point and the thing that gives the dish its name. A kernel that has not burst is hard in the middle; one that has splits its skin and blooms into something soft and chewy. You are waiting for most of the pan to do this, not the first few.
2. Soak the dried corn in plenty of cold water overnight, at least 10 hours. Unsoaked, it needs three hours of boiling and splits unevenly.
3. Drain, then boil in the 2 litres of fresh water with the bicarbonate of soda. The soda softens the skins and is what lets them split; without it you can boil for hours and get nowhere.
4. Covered, at a steady boil, 1 hour to 1 hour 30. Top up with boiling water if it drops below the corn.
5. From 50 minutes, check every 10. When three-quarters of the kernels have opened, it is done. Past that they go to mush and the water goes starchy.
6. Drain well and rinse briefly -- the soda leaves a faint soapiness and a rinse takes it off.
7. Toss hot with the salt. Salt on the corn, sugar on the table: the coconut and sugar go on at the last moment, so each person gets fresh coconut rather than coconut that has been sitting in hot corn.
8. Serve in bowls with a heap of grated coconut on top and the sugar passed separately.

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