Sahog!

One of the three great desserts I enjoyed in the Philippines, Sahog is the one I got least often. (The other two were halo halo, which you can get just about any place, and buko salad, which I got a lot of in the Philippines, but have never had again since returning).

This is really easy. Take about a cup of sweet dessert rice (called malagkit in the Philippines), and cook it according to directions. While that's going on, in a seperate saucepan, take a 14 oz. can of coconut milk, and warm it over a medium heat. Add brown sugar... lots of brown sugar. And vanilla - not too much (I usually do a teaspoon or so). Stir. And Stir. And Stir some more. You want that to thicken up until it coats your spoon, the thicker the better. It'll take about 1/2 hour. Be careful, you don't want it to burn. Once the rice is cooked, and the coconut milk has now formed a nice syrup, combine the rice and the syrup. Serve warm.

This doesn't look like much. The first time I served it here in the States was to a couple of missionaries we had over for dinner. (The poor missionaries - constant guinea pigs for my cooking experiments - I had to make sure it worked before doing it in the PILP auction). I served it up, and the missionaries kind of stared at it for a minute. I was crushed. I'd obviously done it wrong. I turned back to the pot to dish some up for Reeta when I heard a soft "Oh my gosh!" behind me. It was a huge hit.