Tropical Cooking with Travel Man: 6th Main Dish - Pinangat or Boiled Coconut Patties

Boiled coconut patties can compete with the usual beef patties used as burgers or filling for bunny breads.

Bicolanos (the term for Filipinos in Bicol region where I live) are popular with Pinangat or Coconut Patties. The patties are made of ground tender coconut meat, usually mixed with shrimp meats or ground little crabs with ground onion, garlic and lemon grass boiled in coconut milk. It is usually coated with gabi or taro leaves. To make it enticing coconut milk gravy is also applied on top of every rectangular patty.

This hubber, continuing his pursuit on Tropical Cooking series made his first-ever coconut patties, although almost everyday, his neighbors are always hollering for the home-cooked coconut patties.

From the gathering of ingredients at his backyard until the adornment of coconut gravy atop the cooked batch of coconut patties,,,it's all documented.

It's up to you to adopt, innovate or link this on your network. Don't forget to acknowledge my effort.

Now let's cook.

Ingredients:

500 grams tender coconut meat, ground
ground spices (mix of garlic, onion, black pepper, lemon grass)
salt
small shrimp, smoked fish or crab meat, ground (optional)
selected gabi leaves
1 liter coconut milk for boiling
1/2 liter coconut milk for gravy
umami or monosodium glutamate for enhancer (optional)


Procedure:

1.Mix coconut ground meat with ground spices thoroughly and salt.
2.Fill two large gabi leaves with the mixture.
3.Fold gabi leaves in rectangular form, enclosing the filling.
4. Tie it with lemon grass leaves or banana bark.
5. Boil it in seasoned coconut milk for about 30 minutes or until done in medium fire.
6. When done, almost dry, put the coconut gravy (just cook it with salt and umami)
7. Serves eight.

Preparation: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

The distinct taste of lemon grass is what this boiled coconut patties differ from other prepared vegetable patties. It mixes lightly on the dish leaving a satisfied eater for another bite.

Lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) is an alternative spice if you don't have ginger in the kitchen. The aroma smells like lemon (or lemony) and has a gingery taste but not overwhelming or strong. It is a native spicy grass here in the Philippines. It is good for soups, curries and drinks. This is also a very good spice in other tropical dishes: like chicken in coconut milk, dried taro leaves in coconut milk, fish dishes among others.

Lemon grass is also made as fusion tea, a very good alternative for the usual tea and ginger ale.

In Mindanao, local farmers venture on planting hectares and hectares of lemon grass as it is bought by businessmen who are connected in the shampoo industry.

It has an anti-cancer properties that those who are afflicted with such fatal diseases are advised by herbalists to include lemon grass on their drinks.

Lemon grass has other species (54 of them) that are also popular in other Asian countries, especially India, in Africa and Latin America.