Cook Merienda With Me | #KwentongKusina

I am glad to stumble upon @yzamazing's blog yesterday and got me redirected to @hiveph's post about the blogging contest for July with the topic #KwentongKusina. It was perfect timing because I was actually going to blog about what I cooked for merienda yesterday.

For those who are not familiar with the term merienda, it is like English afternoon tea. It is basically an afternoon snack or meal for some.

On the contrary, I do not usually cook for my family, there are just times when I feel like cooking. I am not actually good at cooking and there are just a few dishes that I know how to cook. The majority are merienda dishes that I learned from my grandmother.

And so for this blog, I will make a step-by-step guide on how I cooked our yesterday's merienda --- Pinakru. It is a Bicolano food that uses bananas as the main ingredient, particularly the saging na saba.

For the ingredients, we will be needing the following:

1. Saging na saba
2. Coconut milk
3. Water
4. Salt

The ingredients already give you an idea that this is just a simple dish to cook.

Step 1: Peel the bananas and cut them into halves. By cutting it in half, it is guaranteed that the coconut milk will penetrate the banana while cooking and it will give it a creamy flavor.

Note: It is advisable that you use bananas that are not too ripe. It is best to use bananas that are just starting to ripen. We do not want to eat a mushy Pinakru.

Step 2: Prepare a basin where you will squeeze the coconut. Put an ample amount of hot water on the coconut for easy work in squeezing. It will also help to extract the milk from the coconut. Do not forget to strain it so that there will be no coconut meat in the dish.

Step 3: Put the coconut milk and banana slices in a casserole or in any kitchen equipment that has a deep form.

Step 4: Add a pinch of salt to balance the flavor.

Step 5: Set it on medium heat and cover it. Bring it to a boil and when it is already boiling, stir it so that every banana will get cooked right and that the bottom portion doesn't get overcooked.

Step 6: Lower the heat and cook for a couple of minutes and it is now ready to eat. The curdling of the coconut milk is an indication that is already cooked.

And that's it! You can now enjoy your Pinakru! Just a four-ingredient meal that is so easy to make.

As for me, I like to eat it with sugar because I like the sweetness and taste of the saltiness combination. Others eat it as it is.

If you're from the province, you may have a similar dish like this. Sometimes it is just the names that are different but the method of cooking are the same.

Would you try to make this at home? Let me know in the comments.

Tagging @carisdaneym and @khairro to join this contest!