Passport & Plate - Tagalog Sticky Rice (Sinukmani)
Philippines | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 
flickr photos
Ingredients
4 cups of gluten rice
4 cups of premium brown sugar
4 cups of coconut milk
4 table spoons of margarine
How to prepare this recipeIt is important that all the ingredients are bought fresh from the market from trusted sellers.
Coconut Milk Preparation:
The recipe is a very simple one but all ingredients play a vital role in the over all quality of the end product. So all ingredients must be extracted from their exact source. Prepare two coconuts. To extract the coconut milk, take out the coconut meat using the "Pang Kadkad". Squeeze out the coconut milk from the shredded coconut milk to make 4 cups.
Gluten Rice:
Cook 4 cups of rice with 4 1/2 cups of water. Wait until the rice is cooked.
Boil the coconut milk by cooking it under a low fire. Stir the milk clockwise. Don't stop stirring as this will result in the coagulation of milk on the surface. Throughout the preparation of the dish, stir in only one direction.
Gradually add the brown sugar to the coconut milk. Continue stirring the milk. Wait until the coconut milk mixture reaches a viscous state then gradually add the rice to the mix of coconut milk and sugar.
Stir the rice until it is properly folded in the milk and sugar mixture. Stir a little more until the mixture is viscous enough.
Take the mixture out of the heat and place it in on the banana leaf spread out on the coconut leaf tray.
Spread out the margarine thinly on top of the gluten rice tray. Serve in square portions.
Enjoy.
The story behind this recipeThe Philippines is a rice eating country, so much so that we have learned to incorporate rice in all parts of a meal. But I think Sinukmani says so much about the Filipinos. Months are spent taking care fields to produce the best kind of rice.
When one has decided to prepare Sinukmani, they know that it is not an easy undertaking. So much of the dish relies on hard work put even just to prepare the ingredients. To extract the coconut milk, one must first choose for himself the best, open it in half and take out its flesh until the husks start to sing, signaling that the flesh has been extracted. One must squeeze out the coconut milk with their own hands.
Stirring the mixture of rice, sugar and coconut milk is no easy task. In the beginning it is easy, but once the rice and sugar and milk start to bond because of the heat, the mixture becomes so viscous until it is one solid block that’s difficult to take apart.
So much of this dish relies on consistency, intuition and feeling. That's why every sinukmani is different depending on who has prepared it.
It’s not the most extravagant dish, it’s mildly sweet and it's rich because of the coconut but that’s how it is with beautiful things. They don’t scream out, it calls you like a soothing melody.
And for me that's the beauty of sinukmani, it connects so much of the person who prepared the dish, to the person who is lucky enough to consume it. It is made with hard work and a whole lot of love. And that's what we get when we give and take sinukmani. To give and to take love, isn't that what eating really is for?
