Native Desserts

I cooked two different Filipino treats the other day, saging con hielo and leche flan. I saw three pieces of over riped bananas of "saba" variety in my kitchen counter, so I cooked it for the afternoon snack. By the way, for those who don't know what is saging con hielo, it is a Filipino delicacy which can be served as snack. Saging is Tagalog for banana and con hielo is Spanish for "with ice", so literally, saging con hielo means banana with ice.


To make this special saging con hielo, I peeled the bananas and cooked in a small casserole with 1 cup of water, 2 spoons of brown sugar and half teaspoon of vanilla extracts. When it started boiling, I poured and mixed in a spoonful of tiny tapioca pearls, then covered it until cooked. This snack is served cold with a cup of crushed ice and 1/2 cup of condensed milk. Yummy!

Now, let's come to the leche flan, a famous Filipino dessert adapted from Spanish people, which is known as caramel custard in western countries. This is my first time to cook this sweet treat in my very own kitchen.. ever! I learned cooking this kind of stuff in my Food Trade subject in high school, but never attempted to make on my own. I thought, I need to come up with a recipe which will require whole eggs, not egg yolks alone, and less sugar or condensed milk.
Well, it's been a while and I just had my first try. I used 4 whole eggs, a small amount of sugar and condensed milk, evaporated milk, fresh milk and vanilla extract. The finish product was yummy enough for people who are strict with sugar intake. I am yet to improve this recipe, so the "how to" will be posted next time.



Happy New Year everyone!!!