ON THE MENU: Bibingka with Ervin Lopez

Ervin Lopez a freelance cook, professional eater, and culinary student at Laney College taught our students how to make a Filipino street food snack – Bibingka. Bibingka is a traditional Filipino dessert and street food usually made for the Christmas season. Bibingka has a mysterious origin that, to this day seems to still be unsolved. Some say it was the fusion between Portuguese explorers such as Ferdinand Magellan and native Filipino ingredients and food that led to the present day Bibingka. The flame for Ervin’s passion to make Filipino dishes grew when he visited his hometown of San Quintin, Pangasinan in Northern Luzon, Philippines. He fell in love with the landscape and the strong relationship food has with family in the Philippines. Back to the Bibingka. These aren’t your everyday spongey coconut cakes, Ervin makes a Bibingka cupcake filled with cream cheese and salted duck eggs! In his class with the Guardian Scholars of San Francisco State University and Skyline College last March, he showed our students how to make this treat to tie in perfectly with our class theme of Food, Family, and Ethnicity.  

Follow Ervin on Instagram @ervinbakesbibingka if you are interested in ordering some for yourself!

RECIPE: makes 20-24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 2.25 cups Mochiko Rice Flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 13.5 oz of coconut milk
• 5 large eggs
• 2 Tbsp. of baking powder
• ½ tsp. of salt
• 20-24 6” diameter banana leaf circles
• ½ cup toasted coconut flakes

OPTIONAL:

• 2 cups cream cheese
• 3 salted eggs cut into 8ths

 

The Process:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
• Get seperate bowls and mix dry ingredients together along with the wet ingredients
• on an open fire, run each banana leaf circle over the fire until soft and moldable and line a cupcake tray with the banana leaves carefully
• add 1 tablespoon of cream cheese and/or salted egg into each mold with batter
• pour 1/3 cup of batter into each mold lined with a banana leaf
• bake for 15-20 minutes or a toothpick comes out dry
• let them cool on a rack