the holidays are mostly over, but i've still got a healthy cache of duman in my freezer. duman is a seasonal rice product that is a specialty of the province of pampanga, where my family is from. the harvesting season coincides with the beginning of the christmas holiday season, which is why these rice "flakes" are often considered a special holiday food; it is also quite laborious to produce, and therefore expensive, which adds to its specialness. cousin karen has the most extensive posts on duman (some of which are also the best food blog posts ever written, imo), so i leave it to her, and leave it to you to check them out.
there are several ways to enjoy duman, but probably the most popular is to sprinkle some into a cup of thick hot chocolate, tsokolate, made with the local filipino chocolate, tablea--a mix of crushed native cacao beans and peanuts which form a thick paste, and are sold in solidified tablet or ball form. the chocolate drink is made with milk--if you are lucky, carabao milk (evaporated milk is a popular substitute)--brought to a boil and the tablea is melted and whisked into the hot liquid until thick and frothy (i will save that for another post).
the past few weeks i have indulged all too frequently in a version of this duman with tsokolate, made with tablea, but with a half-milk, half-water mix, and an decadent square or two of valrhona carre jivara thrown in. the carre jivara is their milk chocolate blend, which works well with the cruder, bitter local chocolate, and lends just enough milkiness for me, and a little vanilla note. i like it very thick, so a little goes a long way; also, when you sprinkle the duman over the chocolate, it takes quite awhile to sink to the bottom, where they swell up like turgid torpedoes, creating an earthy, velvet sludge of slightly nutty, slightly chewy rice enrobed in deep, dark chocolate. like an insanely luxurious chocolate rice pudding, or champorado. ah, but what is holiday food about besides indulgence anyway?
13 comments:
1/05/2007 05:15:00 PM
S,
Hope you had a wonderful New Years! Have you seen this in Hawaii before? It sure looks/sounds good! It's been really cool and windy the last couple of days and this looks like it would be comforting.
1/05/2007 05:41:00 PM
Seems a little bit like Vietnamese green rice--com xanh--which has a chewy texture.
1/05/2007 09:19:00 PM
hi reid! i haven't seen it in honolulu. i can send you the chocolate but the duman doesn't travel well. you can get pinipig there which is the toasted stuff--almost as good!
hi preya--yes! it's the same stuff. except i think in vietnam and in thailand they use it for savoury recipes. do you know any? i'm interested in trying some.
1/05/2007 11:19:00 PM
Hi Santos--many people just eat it plain, as a snack, but you can eat it with fruit too; it's also cooked into savory rice cakes. Your way of using it seems so interesting to me! That chocolate looks heavenly.
1/06/2007 03:03:00 AM
Wow, that is something I have never heard of. Very interesting. Thanks for the links. The chocolate looks oh so wonderful in the Totoro cup:)
1/06/2007 12:32:00 PM
hello preya, thanks for the information. i am going to look for those savoury rice cakes, they sounds intriguing.
hi acornbud--the cup is a little large considering how rich the chocolate is, but then again, maybe not. :) and totoro, you can't beat that.
schatzli! hello, happy new year, you busy woman. you can make a good approximation of the philippine-style chocolate with cocoa, sugar, and cornstarch in milk--thickens up quickly, very little work, quite tasty.
1/07/2007 08:58:00 PM
Happy new year Santos! You've just given me another yet-to-tried food to lust after this year.
1/09/2007 10:53:00 AM
hi eggy! long time no see! have a great new year.
1/09/2007 05:36:00 PM
yeah duman!
just to add a divine distinction, a kilo of duman from a pampanga farmer is about 1,600.00 pesos. (about 33 US$).
comparing cost, a kilo of a plain, store bought, regular, boring rice here is just 25.00 pesos.
duman is really extraordinary.
hmm... you are really lucky to get a good serving of this glorious green grain.
1/10/2007 01:13:00 PM
Happy New Year Santos. I've not heard of duman but now I'm on a quest to learn more.
1/11/2007 01:20:00 AM
tommmyyy--holy crack, i've got $66 worth of duman in my freezer? sheesh. at least i'm using good chocolate with it!
hi barbara, lovely to hear from you. i only know duman as it is the philippines, but i'd like to know more about it in other asian countries myself.
1/15/2007 11:48:00 PM
I have to say, I was very dubious abotu the chocolate/rice idea until you got right to the end of yuor post and wrote the line about chocolatey rice pudding - and then my eyes lit up with understanding ;-) This sounds awesome - thanks for posting it.
1/18/2007 01:25:00 AM
hello jeanne! i can see your doubts, as i think the first time i heard of rice pudding, i was dubious as well. but as we know now, it's a lovely combination.
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