Back when I was a kid, we go to Tarlac every summer and Christmas to spend a few days with our grandparents. Those days were gone. A few years ago, my grandmother and the whole family moved near our house from the military camp in Tarlac. Apparently, the land was sold and will be developed as a golf course.

I remember my lola made the best lomi and sampelot (ginataang bilo-bilo). She and my Tita Ester also make a bunch of palitaw for merienda on random days for me and my cousins. We're about 18 kids running around the house on summers. Imagine how noisy that is, and how hungry we were after playing under the sun. My grandmother passed away five years ago. I still miss her until today.

Yesterday, I thought of making palitaw at home for Jeff and my in-laws. We had some leftover glutinous rice flour from the ginataang bilo-bilo last week, so I thought of using that.

Okay, so here's a very simple recipe that you can follow to make palitaw. This will only take less than an hour to prepare. This makes about four dozens or 48 pieces. I made 45 pieces out of my mixture because Jeff made some very big pieces. Hehe.

Ingredients:
500g glutinous rice flour
2 1/2 cups water
1 niyog, grated (I know it's coconut but I don't want you to confuse it to buko hehe)
2 tsbps sesame seed
4 tsbps white sugar

Steps:
1. Pour the glutinous rice flour in a large bowl. My lola used the real malagkit grains that she soaked in water, and then she'll bring it to the market to grind. My mom used to do that too. Nowadays, we have the instant malagkit powder that is readily available in the supermarket. My mom sells this in our store in the public market and as far as I know, it sells for less than P40. I was surprised when I asked my mother-in-law to buy in Shopwise and it was more than P80.




2. Put 2 1/2 cups water to the flour and mix until it becomes dough-like.




3. Start making your palitaw shapes. Get about a tablespoon of the mixture and make an egg-like shape. Then press it using your thumb. Sprinkle some flour in a wide plate before you put your palitaw there.





4. Boil water in a deep pot. Put in your raw palitaws when it boils. Jeff and I realized that the raw palitaw sticks to the plate, so we just made our palitaw and dunk it directly to the boiling water. When the palitaw floats, it's already cooked. You can pull it out of the water, drain it and put it in another plate.



5. Heat another pan and cook the sesame seeds until brown. DO NOT PUT OIL. Just brown the sesame seeds and put aside.



6. Now prepare the grated coconut. Make sure that you buy the young coconut, not the old and dry one. Put it in a bowl, add the browned sesame seeds, and sugar.





Mix the coconut mixture. Add more sugar according to your taste. Now put the mixture to your palitaw and start eating! This goes well with hot coffee or soda. Enjoy your merienda!



*All photos are taken using my iPhone 5, edited using Snapseed, and watermarked using eZy Watermark.