BINAKI or TAMALE

Growing up on the mountains of Bukidnon, there is always something i look forward to during the corn harvest season.

BINAKI (i translate it as "froglike") the word comes from "baki" which means "frog".
It may have been named due to it's look which loosely resembles that of a frog.

It was interesting that i was not very successful in finding a recipe that i can work with (although there were a few from other blog recipes). It always calls for young corn which i have to admit, is not very easy to come by and i want to see if i can use the canned corn i have on my pantry.
Then i can have binaki whenever i want it.

Yesterday, my good friends came over for a tamale cooking session.
Tamale is from Mexico and they use masa which i believe is fine ground corn. The mixture was very simple for our chicken mole tamale. White 2 lb masa, corn, half a stick of Crisco and about 3 cups of warm water.
Mixed with our hands until it went passed the tacky consistency to a more spreadable, thinner consistency.
We filled it up with the mole and chicken, wrapped it with the pre-soaked corn husks and steamed for an hour.
Alicia then showed us how to tap it and listen to how solid the sound is and pronounce it as COOKED!
Alicia is the wife of one of the brothers who owns our local Mexican Restaurant, Casa Rojas. Such a wonderful and beautiful lady!
I have really enjoyed spending time and getting to know her better.

From the experience i had in making tamales yesterday morning, i had the courage to finally try and make my own binaki.

Here's the recipe for those of you who want to give it a try.

Binaki or Sweet Tamale with Meat Filling

1 can cream style corn
yellow masa
1 can evaporated milk
2 cups sugar
1 T. baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 stick crisco
1 t. salt


_Mix the Crisco and sugar first.
-Mix in the eggs.
-Pour in the milk and the cream style corn.
-On a separate bowl mix the salt, masa and baking powder. (start with 2 1/2 cups of masa)
-Pour into the egg and corn mixture.

Now, if it is too wet, keep adding a little of masa until a consitency that you can work with is achieved. Not too wet but not too dry either. (If you want it creamier then make it a bit more wet.)

You should have already pre-soaked your husks in warm water.  Drain it and shake the excess water off.

We had some left over carnitas (meat filling for tamales) and so i used that to fill in some of the binaki before wrapping. Others i made without the filling.
Don't put too much mixture on the husks. I used a heaping tablespoonful each. Spread it  a bit and put the filling on top and then start wrapping.

Watch on youtube how to wrap tamales.
Usually the other end is open which is not the same as for binaki in the Philippines.
I did wrap it like the tamales though (one end open) and it was just fine.

I am not used to writing recipes so if you have any questions just let me know and i will help you through it :-)


Steam for an hour.