Landang

Starch scalded and worked into pearls by hand, which is the entire preparation.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 400 g tapioca starch
• 250 ml boiling water
• 1 pinch salt
• 3 tablespoons tapioca starch, for dusting

Method

1. THE WORKING IS THE DISH. Landang is not an ingredient you buy and add: it is starch scalded into a dough and rolled into pearls, and a page that said "add landang" would be telling you nothing.
2. Put the starch and salt in a bowl and pour the BOILING water over about two thirds of it, stirring hard with a spoon. Scalding part of the starch is what makes the dough hold together; cold water gives you powder that will not bind.
3. As soon as it is cool enough, bring in the dry starch and knead to a smooth, stiff, putty-like dough. Add boiling water a teaspoon at a time if it cracks.
4. Roll ropes the thickness of a pencil, cut into 1 cm pieces and roll each between your palms into a pearl. Dust with the extra starch so they do not stick.
5. Boil in plenty of water for 12 to 15 minutes, until translucent all the way to the centre. A white dot in the middle means raw starch.
6. Lift into cold water to stop them, then drain. Use the same day -- they harden in the fridge.
7. They go into a binignit or a ginataan, where they stay chewy rather than dissolving.

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.

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