When Eva Rose Washburn-Repollo thinks about the Filipino rice and coconut milk desserts of her childhood, she tears up. Memories of these treats, especially popular at Christmas, carry her back to a happy childhood in the village of TanJay on Negros Island in the Philippines.

Washburn-Repollo has been in Hawaii for 16 years and teaches in the School of Business and Communication at Chaminade University. A favorite class of hers is Intercultural Communication, in which she uses food as an example of sustainability.

“People use what they have around them,” she says. “Negros Island was sugar-producing, so maybe our desserts use more sugar, since it was easily available. Using banana leaves is sustainable, as it is an easily found container and when you discard it, it is friendly to the environment.”

One particular dessert, a rice cake wrapped in banana leaves, brings back thoughts of friends, family and neighbors.

On Sunday afternoons, she said, one neighbor would make delicious Bingkang Binisaya, what Visayans call “bingka” as a shortcut name and what Ilocanos call bibingka.

“After our afternoon siesta, we would get the warm bingka that the neighbor would cook over outside fires for our merienda (snack),” she remembers. “You could taste the flavor of grilled banana leaves in the dessert.”

These days bingka is made in the oven in a two-part process — first broiled, which creates a beautiful reddish-brown color, then baked. It emerges a warm, sweet, coconut-flavored pudding, slightly crunchy with pieces of rice grains.

In olden times, coconut wine was used to start fermentation, which caused the dessert to rise. This wine is too difficult to find outside the Philippines, however, so yeast fills in, proofed in warm water with a touch of sugar. Baking powder is also added to give the mixture height.

The traditional practice is to heat banana leaves over a grill to wrap the pudding.

But in Hawaii, Washburn- Repollo uses the microwave to soften the banana leaves so they conform to a muffin tin or special metal bingka mold.

A second dessert, Puto Maya, is a favorite of the Christmas season on Negros Island. Many vendors outside the church would sell it after Mass.

Puto Maya is made with purple or black rice, which is steamed together with sweet rice, called mochi rice in Hawaii.

Coconut milk and a large amount of freshly grated ginger provide seasoning.

The tasty dessert is wrapped in banana leaves in a distinctive cone shape.

“We would eat it with sweet mangoes and tableya — a pure chocolate and water drink. The sweet rice with sweet, ripe, sliced mangoes and chocolate drink means Christmas to me.”

Bingkang Binisaya ‘Bingka’ (Visayan Rice Cake)

• 2 cups raw short-grain rice
• 10 to 15 banana leaves, cut into 4-inch rounds
• 2 (13.5-ounce) cans coconut milk
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup fresh coconut wine (tuba) (substitute 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water with 1/4 teaspoon sugar)
• Small bingka tin molds (about 3-1/2-inches wide) or large muffin baking pan

Soak rice in water for an hour; drain and let dry.

Microwave each banana leaf 10 seconds. Cut into 4-inch rounds. Place in bingka molds or muffin pan cups.

In a saucepan over low-medium heat, simmer coconut milk until it reduces and becomes a sticky, smooth, syrupy consistency (called “latik” in Visayan), about 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and mix in brown sugar. Cool.

In bowl, mix dried rice and reduced coconut milk. Add salt, baking powder and eggs. Puree in a blender, working in small batches until just slightly grainy to the touch.

Add coconut wine or dissolved yeast; let rise 1 hour, covered with cheesecloth or banana leaves.

Pour mixture into molds, approximately 3/4 cup per mold, leaving room for rice cake to rise. Broil on high heat 15 to 20 minutes (watch closely and check the oven every few minutes) until top turns reddish-brown and cracks appear.

Lower oven setting to 350 degrees and bake 30 minutes.

Serve warm if possible, unwrapping just before eating. Makes 10 to 15 pieces.

———

Puto Maya (Purple Steamed Rice Dessert)

• 1/2 cup raw black rice (also called purple rice, sold in Chinatown or Thai and Filipino markets)
• 1 -1/2 cups raw sweet rice (mochi rice)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1/4 cup roughly grated ginger
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• 10 to 12 banana leaves, cut into 4-by-7-inch strips

Soak black rice in water 3 hours. Soak sweet rice in water 2 hours. Drain both types of rice and mix together.

Set up a double boiler or steamer and bring water to boil in bottom half. Place rice in top half and steam 20-25 minutes, until cooked. Stir regularly so rice cooks evenly.

In a large bowl, combine sugar, coconut milk, ginger and salt. Mix in cooked rice. Return mixture to steamer and cook another 17 to 20 minutes.

Form banana leaf strips into cones. Fill each cone with rice mixture. Fold the end of the strip to cover the bottom of the cone. Serve warm if possible, unwrapping each cone to produce a triangular rice cake. Good served with sliced mangoes. Serves 10 to 12.

Nutritional information unavailable.

Lynette Lo Tom, author of “The Chinese Kitchen,” is fascinated by old-fashioned foods. Contact her at 275-3004 or via instagram at brightlightcookery. Nutritional analysis by Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S.