A Family Heirloom Recipe

Bringhe is an old party favorite among many families in Arayat. The procedure and ingredients are more or less the same from house to house, with variations only in the amount of coconut milk and water used and the cooking time. Some prefer a dry bringhe where the rice can easily be broken up with a fork, but our family prefers a bringhe where the rice sticks to both plate and palate. My grandmother’s version uses chorizo as an added ingredient, and substitutes chile leaves for local turmeric as food coloring (the chile leaves are scraped on a sieve over the coconut milk). With my grandmother gone, local turmeric has become the standard, without the canned chorizos. Either way, the glutinous rice mixture must be stirred slowly and constantly over medium fire, until the grains are translucent, before covering it with banana leaves for steaming. This guarantees a bolder taste to the otherwise mild flavoring of the bringhe.