Ginataang Halo-Halo

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend doing something you love! My family and I had a great one! The weather was perfect and we had an awesome camping trip with our friends at Cedar Hill State Park which is about 50 miles away from our place. This was where we had our first camping with our DFW circle of friends, and we thought of going back just so we could explore the place, which we failed to do the last time since it was only an overnight camping. 

I could say we all had a blast! We had our friend's 25th birthday celebration...the boys went fishing...the girls help the kids do some crafts(bracelet and kite making)...and the kids got to watch a reptile show. Though Ryan, Clarise & I suffered much from sneezing, runny nose and itchy eyes because of allergies, the fun, the great food, and camaraderie with good friends made it all worthwhile.  

We've been doing spring and fall camping since 2009, and we're really enjoying it. I guess much more than the thrill of being able to experience nature and sleeping in a tent away from the comforts of our own home, it's being able to spend some quality, distraction-free, time together as a family and having the chance to bond with those closest to us that make us love camping! We truly find camping to be a great way to enjoy the outdoors while building good relationships...and we're definitely doing it again! :)


This dessert that I'm sharing with you today is one of the stars last Friday night. We had chocolate and peanut butter cake, cupcakes and cake pops as well as apple and cherry cup pies, but this Filipino favorite was a hit!

This is called Ginataang Halo-Halo which simply means Mixed Ingredients in Coconut Milk. It is basically a mixture of different tubers like sweet potato, purple yam, and taro root as well as other ingredients like Saba bananas, jackfruit, tapioca pearls, and glutinous rice balls. All I could find was yellow sweet potato so my ginataang halo-halo wasn't colorful as it should be...but it was tasty of course!

In the Philippines, Ginataang Halo-Halo is served not only as dessert but also as meryenda (mid-afternoon snack). As dessert, it is served cold, and as snack, it is usually served warm. This has been my favorite since childhood, and I love it with lots of glutinous rice balls and tapioca pearls! 

For those who love coconut milk, this is definitely for you...


Ingredients:
*Serves 20 
  • 3 *19oz. cans coconut cream
  • 4 cups water
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 1 cup small tapioca pearls (I prefer small tapioca pearls because they cook a lot faster)
  • 1 cup jackfruit, cut into strips (I used canned)
  • 3 pcs. Saba bananas, peeled, cut lengthwise then sliced
  • 3 cups kamote (sweet potatoes), peeled and cubed
  • 2 cups glutinous rice flour mixed with 1 cup water to form a dough
Procedure:
1. Scoop about ½ Tbsp of dough then mold into a small ball. Place on a slightly greased plate. Repeat until there's no more dough. Set aside. 
2. In a big pot, pour in coconut cream, water and sugar. Cook while stirring until sugar is dissolved.
3. Add tapioca pearls. Simmer with frequent stirring for 20 minutes or until tapioca pearls are almost tender and transparent.
4. Add kamote and simmer for 10 minutes or until cooked.
5. Add dough balls, banana and jackfruit. Keep cooking until dough balls are all floating.
6. Remove from heat. Allow to cool down. Serve as dessert.

16 comments:

  1. Glad you had a great weekend. Love the photos and recipe. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. lovely party this dessert looks wonderful

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  3. Good food and great friends , what more could you ask for ? :) The ginataang mix mix :D looks yum !

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  4. I have not gone camping since my school days. Glad to hear youf family enjoys it.

    I know I will enjoy this dessert as it is very similar to the Malaysian Bubur Cha Cha, a favorite of mine :)

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  5. good looking ginataang halo halo. you made me crave for it. i want some now tina! can you send some my way? haha!
    glad you guys had fun... im not into camping but looking how much fun you had made me think why not? right?

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  6. Looks like everyone had a great time and wonderful dessert!

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  7. Ooooh I love halo halo! This looks so refreshing!

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  8. Wow, that's a huge group of friends! So fun :) Thks for sharing this wonderful recipe too!

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  9. Thats a great time with wonderful friends enjoying the lovely dessert you did. We do have something similar over here, you know Asian desserts sometimes are so strongly blended from country to country.

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  10. @Biren: The name Bubur Cha Cha sounds so interesting! :)
    @Malou: You should try going camping! Doing it with your family and close friends will make you love it!
    @Lindsey: Just in case you've mistaken this for the summer treat halo-halo, this is a different one! But you can find that halo-halo here: http://www.pinaycookingcorner.com/2011/06/halo-halo-mixed-fruits-and-beans-in.html

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  11. I love this idea, Tina! Coconut milk and tapioca pearls..yummy!! By the way great photos, looks like it was so much fun!!

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  12. Oh, I can imagine the aroma of the coconut cream being boiled. This is indeed a favorite meryenda, minandal, or even himagas o kaya Noche Buena. I don't care when, I'll eat it. Haha! Thank you, Tina! :)

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  13. It does look great.I think I have tried something liek thsi but never made it before;)

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  14. Your dish reminds me of a similar recipe I saw on one of the TV channels but yours is far superior to that!! I will surely try this one :)

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  15. that ginataang looks amazing! I have never heard of it of course until now but I do love coconut milk and the tapioca balls in it sound so delightful!

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  16. Looks like all of you had great fun! ;)
    This dessert is just like a mixture of our Bobo Chacha dessert (sweet potato + taro + tapioca flour cubes in coconut milk) and Honeydew Sago dessert (honeydew balls + lots of tapioca pearl in coconut milk)! Must be very very yummy! I must try this! lol ;P

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