I love guinataang halo-halo dessert. It ranks high on my most favorite desserts/snacks. My grandmother always makes it for me whenever she’s around in the Philippines or when I’m back in the US. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to learn how to make this dessert from her. I just remembered how to make the sticky rice flour balls (bilo bilo) when I helped her one time. Since I have lots of time in my hands right now, I decided to try making guinataang halo-halo. I researched the recipe online and from there tried to wing it.

Ginataang halo-halo in English is described as tropical fruits and root crops stewed in cococnut milk or halo-halo in cocount milk. I went to the wet market to get my ingredients ready and conveniently got everything except the jackfruit which they said was out of season so I won’t be able to find it anywhere. Here are the ingredients. I’m not going to put measurement because I did everything by estimate and I overestimated.

  • Galapong (sticky rice flour) – comes in a big plastic package so 1 package is enough. I was only able to consume 1/4 of the package.
  • Coconut milk – bought coconut shavings and squeeze the juice out of it. One coconut is not enough for me because I had lots of ingredients put in the pot. I should have had 2 coconut shaved.
  • 1 Sweet potato, kamote – diced to make 2 cups (depending on serving size)
  • 1 taro, gabi – diced to make 2 cup (depending on serving size)
  • 1 yam, ube – diced to make 2 cups (depending on serving size)
  • 6 pcs pandan leaves – the more leaves the sweeter the smell. Buy the fresh one. My pandan was kind of wilted and dried so the pandan smell didn’t come through.
  • Tapioca, sago – I bought the small uncooked ones. It’s better to buy a medium sized tapioca and cooked already (just so you don’t have to complicate the cooking by cooking the tapioca too).
  • Jackfruit, langka – 2 cups, cooked. I believed this is the secret ingredient to make the dessert yummier. But unfortunately I wasn’t able to buy it.
  • Banana, saba – diced to make 2 cups.
  • 1 cup sugar – to taste

Procedure:

  1. To make the galapong: spread galapong flour on a plate and pour a small amount of water to make it sticky (just like making a doughball). Roll into a ball and set aside. Make a lot depending on the serving size.
  2. To make the coconut milk – place the shaving into a strainer, on top of a bowl. Pour one cup of water over the shavings. By lumps, squeeze the shaving and set it aside. After all the shavings have been wrung, set aside the coconut milk. Get another bowl to place under the strainer. Place the shaving again into the strainer. Pour 3-4 cups of water over the shaving and repeat again the process of squeezing them. The milk on this 2nd bowl will be used to boil your other ingredients.
  3. With the pot of coconut milk, put in the sweet potato, taro and yam. If you bought uncooked tapioca, put it into the pot too. Make sure you stir the pot occasionally to prevent the tapioca from sticking to each other instead of forming individual balls. When the pot is boiling, turn the fire down to simmer. Test if the ingredients are cooked – usually 10 minutes.
  4. When the other ingredients are about cooked, put in the banana, pandan leaves, galapong balls (bilo bilo), and jackfruit. Simmer the mixture, uncovered and shake the pot occasionally. I don’t use a ladle to stir the pot rather I just lift the pot and shake it vigorously in order to avoid mashing the ingredients.
  5. Pour in 1 cup of sugar and stir the pot again. When the galapong balls have surfaced and all the ingredients are cooked, turn off the stove. Serve into bowls.

After a huge mess in the kitchen, I made a passable guinataang halo-halo – not nearly as delicious as my grandma’s though. The next time I’ll do it again, I will just put the ingredients that I would love to eat in the dessert. I’ll skip out the taro and just put a little bit of the sweet potato. I’ll make sure there’s a lot of bilo bilo, banana and jackfruit. I will cook the tapioca separately because the tapioca made my ginataan very viscous instead of soupy. And I will reduce my serving size by buying an adequate sized/quantity of ingredients. Because I made a pot that will last us a month! If there are leftovers, you can put it in the refrigerator and nuke it to warm when you want to eat it.

Happy cooking!

Related posts:

  1. GINATAANG SABA as I know it
  2. Make your own tapioca pearl shake
  3. Dutch Apple Cake recipe
  4. So Easy Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
  5. The 20 Unhealthiest Drinks in America