From the recipe collection
Molabola
Palo’s meatless Holy Week delicacy of tiny glutinous-rice balls slowly stirred in sweet coconut milk scented with ginger.
- Prep time
- 45 min
- Cook time
- 45–60 min
- Yield
- 8
Get everything ready
Ingredients
Tick ingredients as you prepare.
Method
- Add water gradually to the glutinous rice flour, kneading until the dough is firm enough to roll but soft enough to press without cracking.
- Pinch off very small pieces and roll them into pea- to marble-size balls. Keep them in a single layer under a damp cloth while you finish shaping the batch.
- Pour the coconut milk into a wide heavy pot. Add sugar, salt, pandan if using, and the cloth-wrapped ginger.
- Bring to a gentle simmer, stirring from the bottom so the coconut does not scorch.
- Add the rice balls in handfuls, stirring continuously but gently so they remain separate. Maintain small bubbles rather than a rolling boil.
- Cook for 20–30 minutes, until the balls are soft and chewy throughout and the coconut milk has thickened.
- Add jackfruit during the final 5 minutes if using.
- Remove the ginger bundle and pandan. Taste, then rest for 10 minutes; molabola should be spoonable and creamy, not stiff like a rice cake.
