Recipes to Share: Chikalang

     If you happen to visit my hometown, Zamboanga City, after lunch you could smell the delicious scent of snacks or merienda, as we call it in our dialect, cooked at nearby stores and houses. These snacks are not the usual grocery-bought goods like biscuits or chips but these are snacks prepared and cooked from home and some people sell these just outside of their houses. Different snacks from glazed bananas (rebusao saging), puto (rice cakes with cheese), cassava balls, cuchinta (cassava cakes) and many more! Zamboangeños call these golosinas, while as a general term in Philippines for snacks or merienda made from natural staples. these are called kakanin. But one of my favorites is the Chikalang. This is a kind of snack that's so easy to make and you get to decide if you want it soft and chewy or semi-hard and crunchy. But be warned! When you are to fry these, make sure you put a cover for your wok because these things burst when heated. You don't want to end up like me, I had burns on my left elbow and left leg and still recovering from it. So don't tell me I did not tell you about this :)

     Here is the recipe and I hope you will enjoy making this!

Ingredients:

500g glutinous rice powder

water

spices of your choice

For the glaze:

2 cups white sugar

1/4 cup water

2 tsp vanilla extract

Procedure:

1. In a mixing bowl, add the glutinous rice powder then add some water. Do not add too much water because it might turn out watery. Take note that glutinous rice powder is not like flour because rice powder tend to be "loose" just like cornstarch and if you add water too much, it won't form into a dough.

2. Knead it until it forms into a soft dough. You could also add some spices if you want while kneading. Personally, I added some ground pepper and some Cinnamon to add that extra flavor.

3.When the dough is ready, get small portions of dough and form it into your desired shapes. The traditional shape for Chikalang is braided-like hotdogs. But in this recipe, as you can see on the picture, I just formed the dough into balls. When frying though, the shapes tend to change because it gets bloated.

4. Make sure you grease your tray for you to put your dough after shaping because you don't want it to stick on the tray when you are ready to cook.

5. Deep-fry the dough over medium heat until light brown. Put a cover on the wok because these dough tends to burst! If you want your Chikalang to be chewy, just until the dough turn slightly brown, you can remove it right away from the wok. But if you want it to be crunchy, fry until golden brown. Pat with kitchen towel to remove excess oil and set aside.

6. On a separate wok, add white sugar, water and vanilla extract. Continuously mixing, turning syrupy over low heat until it simmers. You can check if it is already caramelized by using your ladle and try dripping some of the syrup it on the sink. If it gets hard when you touch, then it is ready.

7. Add the fried dough into the caramelized syrup and continuously mix making sure it completely covers every fried dough. Mix until it forms tiny crystals or granules. Turn of the heat so that it won't burned.

~Enjoy! :)