Express Palitaw
Palitaw·(pah-lee-TAW)
Merienda & The After-School Hustle
When the four o'clock school bus brakes screech in an American suburb, the craving for the after-school comfort of the motherland hits hard. Palitaw—literally translated as "to float"—is the quintessential Filipino merienda, a beautifully elemental sweet rice dumpling traditionally made from overnight-soaked, stone-ground sticky rice. For the busy diaspora kitchen, high-quality sweet rice flour flawlessly replicates that soft, chewy bite of home in exactly ten minutes. Bathed in rich, mature coconut and dusted with toasted sesame and sugar at the absolute last second, it is an unembellished, perfect taste of a Manila afternoon.
Before you start
Thaw and squeeze the frozen coconut.
Freezing ruptures the cell walls of the coconut meat, releasing excess water. You must place the completely thawed coconut in a fine-mesh strainer and gently press it dry, or it will turn your dumplings into a soggy mess.
Ingredients
- glutinous rice flour2 cup
- water3/4 cup
- frozen grated coconut1 1/2 cup
- granulated white sugar1/2 cup
- white sesame seeds1/4 cup
Method
- 01
Toast the sesame seeds to a golden brown.
Place a dry skillet over medium-low heat and toast the sesame seeds until they are light golden and smell wonderfully nutty, about 2 to 3 minutes. Immediately transfer them to a small bowl to cool, then mix them thoroughly with the granulated sugar and set aside.
- 02
Prepare the coconut station and the boiling water.
Spread the thawed, squeezed grated coconut onto a wide, shallow plate. Meanwhile, fill a wide pot with about 3 to 4 inches of water and bring it to a rolling boil over medium-high heat.
- 03
Knead the sweet rice dough.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the glutinous rice flour with three-quarters of a cup of water. Mix with your hands until it forms a smooth, pliable dough that pulls cleanly from the sides of the bowl. If it feels dry or crumbly, add the remaining water a single tablespoon at a time.
- 04
Shape and flatten the dumplings.
Pinch off pieces of dough about the size of a golf ball, roughly one and a half tablespoons each. Roll them smooth between your palms, then gently press them flat to form oval discs about a quarter-inch thick.
- 05
Boil the dumplings until they float.
Carefully drop the flattened discs into the boiling water in small batches so you don't lower the water temperature. Wait two to three minutes; when the starch gelatinizes, the dumplings will magically float to the surface. Let them bob there for another 30 to 45 seconds to ensure the very center is perfectly chewy.
- 06
Coat the dumplings in coconut and serve immediately.
Scoop the floating dumplings out with a slotted spoon, letting the excess water drip off for just a second—you want a little residual moisture to act as glue. Drop them immediately into the grated coconut, turning gently to coat both sides. Serve them warm with the sesame-sugar mixture in a separate bowl, to be generously spooned over the top right before taking a bite.
Notes
Sourcing the right coconut is completely non-negotiable.
Avoid American sweetened flaked baking coconut at all costs. Frozen grated mature coconut from the freezer aisle of an Asian market is the only acceptable substitute for fresh niyog.
Do not substitute regular rice flour.
It must be glutinous or sweet rice flour (like Mochiko or Erawan). Regular white rice flour lacks the necessary starch structure and will yield a hard, gritty, inedible puck.
Never pre-sugar the palitaw.
If you sprinkle the sesame-sugar mixture onto the warm, moist dumplings while they sit on the platter, it will rapidly melt into an unappealing, weeping syrup. The sugar must hit the rice cake at the table.
From Cook Filipino in America.