Biko for Dummies

Biko is one of the most common delicacies Filipinos prepare at any occasion.  We prepare "biko" during birthdays, baptism, Holy Week, fiestas, Noche Buena (that midnight feast on Christmas Eve).   When I was younger, I found making 'biko' really tedious.  So I never really attempted to make "biko"  by myself.  Sometimes, I would just order ready-cooked biko or get them from tiangge or food fairs.  It is less hassle and easy to serve.  There is no need for me to go to the market and buy ingredients like glutinous rice, brown sugar, and coconut.    

Biko can be really difficult to prepare if done in the traditional way.  First, you need  to buy coconut and grate it so that you can squeeze the coconut milk.  It can be messy to do.  However, if you are not the lazy type and have time to really prepare it the traditional way, you can do it traditionally.   It will make the experience really very  genuine for you.  The advantages of doing it traditionally is that you can use the left-over coconut milk and 'sapal' for natural hair vitamins and hot oil.   

After getting the milk, we put it in a pan to be heated and stir sugar in until the mixture becomes sticky.  This is the tricky part, because to make it sticky in the right consistency, you need to stir the mixture constantly. Stirring is necessary to prevent the mixture from getting burned and tasting rather awful. 

Once the mixture have turned into the right consistency, you can put in it the cooked glutinous rice or 'malagkit.'  

I have discovered how to make biko the easy way.  All you need is to buy a kilo of 'malagkit' or glutinous rice.  Some people prefer the 'malagkit' that is colored purple.  After cooking the malagkit, set it aside or let it cool down.  

If you have a jar of coconut jam just lying around you can use that in this procedure. This is the alternative to the fresh coconut milk and sugar mixture.  Pour some coco jam in the cooked 'malagkit' and combine or mix thoroughly until the coco jam is absorbed by the 'malagkit' and the result will be like that of the 'biko' seen sold in markets.  

You'll see that the result is almost the same as 'biko' cooked the old-fashioned way.   The only difference is that, cooking biko this way is less messy and more instantaneous.    

There are many coco jams sold in groceries.  I think using coco jams in making biko is the wisest way to utilize coco jams that are often very sweet and are often just left lying around.  

Making biko this way is the easiest and no-sweat method.  Who would have thought that cooking "biko" can be easy as pie?