When I tell people I’m half Filipino I usually get one of three reactions:

1) Seriously, are you sure you’re not Mexican?

2) I totally knew you were Filipno, you totally look like one! (LIARS, if you thought I was Filipino you would’ve guessed that, not Mexican)

and the most popular

3) Oh, I looooooooove Lumpia!!!!

This is all in good spirit and all but it’s kind of a duh.  Of course you love Lumpia.  What’s not to love about Lumpia? The problem begins when they want you to be bringing Lumpia over to their house and whatnot. While Lumpia is not hard to make it does require deep frying and I’m just too lazy for that.  I mean if I’m going to go to all the trouble of deep-frying I’m not going to share that goodness with others.  I’m going to shovel that straight into my Wilipina stomach.

All of this is to say I felt like the best way to deflect the Lumpia requests might be to learn how to make some easy yet delicious Filipino dish.  Enter my Auntie Eleanor’s Bibingka.

Bibingka is a coconut/rice based desert and Auntie Eleanor’s is the bomb.  Actually she’s an awesome cook so everything she makes is the bomb.  Her house is like a shrine to delicious food.  I feel like fainting when I walk through the door the smell is so intoxicating.  Best of all she is your typical Filipina Auntie.  There’s no “hello” at her house, she greets you with “eat, eat, eat!” and then throws you at the buffet.  She is the good-kind of Filipina lady that will actually bring lumpia to your potluck and because she’s a better person/cook than me she’ll bring some Bibingka too.  Here’s her recipe.  I beg you to find other people to share this with you will be sick if you eat it all.

There are only four ingredients for Bibingka which is awesome in itself. The ingredients are: Sweet Rice, Cream of Coconut, Banana Leaves and Brown Sugar.

Line your pan with banana leaves. This is optional but Auntie E says it imparts a good flavor. Also if you jack up your Bibingka it will help greatly with clean up.

Put some rice in the pan. I dumped in about half the bag. Then pour in the cream of counut until it covers the rice and then a little more. You are going to cook the rice in the cream of coconut so make sure there is enough liquid. Also make sure you mix the cream of coco in a bowl before you pour it in the pan because it separates into liquid and solid. Feel free to lick your fingers now. I certainly did. When you are done licking your fingers you should trim the banana leaves flush with the pan and cover it with foil. Stick the thing in the oven at 350 and check it at 50 minutes or so. Keep checking until the rice looks cooked. It took my oven about 60 minutes to get this part done.

Mix one can of coconut with 1/3 cup brown sugar. Mix it until the sugar dissolves and then pour half of it over your Bibinka. Stick it back in the oven under the broiler until all the liquid is absorbed. Then repeat with the second half. When it's all crispy looking on top kind of like some kind of tropical creme brulee you are good to go.

This is what mine looked like at the end. Quite frankly it was only a moderate success, delicious but not quite right. The whole top of your Bibingka should resemble the edges of mine. There should not be extra stuff swirling around on top. My Dad said "It's not carmelized enough but I'll eat it" If we're being honest though, coming from him that's almost like a compliment. He did help eat a chunk of it though so it couldn't have been too off!

Now you are ready my friends.  Go forth and make Bibingka.  Then invite me over!!!!!

Note:  The first time I tried to make this it was an epic fail.  EPIC.  So I warn you.  Do not cook this in a toaster oven.  It won’t work and digging rock-hard rice and caramelized coconut out of your pan will not be fun.