Ginataang saba

Saba and sago in sweet coconut milk, with the sago cooked apart so it does not cloud the pot.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 10 saba bananas, in thick slices
• 800 ml coconut milk
• 120 g caster sugar
• 100 g small sago pearls
• 150 g ripe jackfruit, in strips
• 1 pandan leaf, knotted
• 0.25 teaspoon salt

Method

1. COOK THE SAGO IN SEPARATE WATER AND RINSE IT. Sago boiled in the coconut milk sheds enough starch to turn the whole pot into a cloudy glue, and nothing takes that back out. Cooked apart and rinsed, the pearls stay distinct and the milk stays loose.
2. This is the difference from the binignit on this site, which is a thicker, denser mixture with taro and purple yam in it. This one is meant to be a thin sweet soup with pieces in it.
3. Sago into plenty of boiling water, stirred once, boiled 15 minutes, then off the heat and covered 15 minutes until every pearl is clear through with no white dot. Rinse cold and hold it in a little water.
4. Use firm saba, yellow with some black. Very ripe ones collapse within ten minutes and the pot becomes a purée.
5. Simmer 500 ml of the coconut milk with the sugar, salt and pandan for 5 minutes.
6. Bananas in, in a single layer if the pan allows. 10 minutes at a gentle simmer, uncovered, without stirring -- tilt and spoon the milk over them instead.
7. Jackfruit in, 3 minutes. It is already sweet and soft and only needs warming.
8. Remaining 300 ml of coconut milk in, heat right down, 5 minutes at a bare shiver so it does not split.
9. Sago in at the very end, folded through, and the pandan taken out.
10. Good hot. Thickens considerably as it cools, so loosen it with a little coconut milk if you reheat it.

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