Maritime Southeast Asia · Volume 51, The Black Broth, the Sultanate and a Cuisine the Rest of the Philippines Forgot

Pastil, and the Maranao pater

Name: Pastil, and the Maranao pater
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: Serves 8
Cuisine: The Moro South, Mindanao and Sulu
Ingredients: 1 kg chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on; 4 shallots, finely chopped; 6 cloves garlic, minced; 120 ml soy sauce; 2 g turmeric; to taste oil, salt, black pepper; 500 g white rice; 100 g glutinous rice; 780 ml water; as available banana leaf, for wrapping; to serve cucumber, tomato and boiled egg, to serve

Cotabato and the Pulangi river; Lake Lanao

Pastil, steamed rice and dry-sautéed shredded chicken wrapped in banana leaf, the Maguindanaon and Maranao breakfast: a cylinder of banana leaf half unwrapped on a wooden board, revealing bright turmeric-yellow rice topped with a dark, dry-sautéed strip of shredded chicken running along its length.

An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.

Time: 1 hour 15

Researched: 6 sources cited
Reviewed: Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
Cooked: Not yet cooked and reported

Cotabato and the Pulangi river, Maguindanaon; Lake Lanao, Maranao. A cheap, portable, everyday breakfast across Muslim Mindanao, now eaten by Christians in the region too. The Maranao version, pater, swaps plain rice for turmeric-tinted kuning rice.

As tradition built it

Serves 8. Prep 20 minutes, cook 55 minutes, total 1 hour 15 minutes.

Ingredients

For the kagikit

1 kg chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on
4 shallots, finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
120 ml soy sauce
2 g turmeric
to taste oil, salt, black pepper

For the rice

500 g white rice
100 g glutinous rice
780 ml water
as available banana leaf, for wrapping
to serve cucumber, tomato and boiled egg, to serve

Method

Rinse the rice and cook with the water until done.
Brown the chicken thighs in oil, add 350ml water, bring to the boil, then simmer covered 20 to 25 minutes until easily shredded.
Shred the chicken. Sauté the garlic and shallots, add the shredded chicken and turmeric, stir 1 minute.
Pour in the soy sauce and black pepper, stirring constantly over medium heat 5 minutes, adding a little of the reserved cooking liquid for moisture. Season with salt.
Pass the banana leaf briefly over a flame until shiny on both sides.
Lay about a cup of rice on the leaf, top with about half a cup of the kagikit, roll into a thick cylinder and seal.
Serve with sliced cucumber, tomato and boiled egg.

Notes

For pater, cook the rice with the turmeric method used for piaparan's coating above, rather than leaving it plain.

What a modern chef changes

The same leaf, charred over direct heat rather than a stovetop flame

Rung 4

Method

Sous vide the chicken thighs at a controlled temperature for a cleaner, more even shred than a rolling simmer produces, before finishing the kagikit exactly as traditional.
Char the banana leaf briefly over direct Big Green Egg heat rather than a stovetop flame, transferring more smoke aroma into the parcel as it steams.
Press the rice into a precise cylinder with a mould before wrapping, for a cleaner plated cross-section that still echoes the traditional hand-rolled log.

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