Homemade Tinapung

Tinapung is one of my favorite Kadazandusun desserts that my mom and I used to cook. Since I got a fresh banana leaf, I just want to share the recipe with you because it is very easy to cook and delicious. Here is the list of ingredients…

• Banana Leaf – 1 leaf
• Cassava or Yuca – 3
• Sugar – 1/4 cup
• Salt – 1 table spoon
• Flake Coconut (Optional)
• Banana (Optional)

First, you cut the banana leaf into approximately 8 x 8 inches and make sure you clean it throughly with water. After that, peel cassava skin off and wash.

Then grind cassava and add coconut flake, one table spoon of salt and sugar into the bowl, and mix well. If you like rice, pound it till it becomes powdery.

Place a good amount of mixture onto the back side of a banana leaf. Fold the banana leaf and make it as tight as possible, but be careful, sometimes it will tear.

Place and stack tightly Tinapung into a pan and pour hot water. It prevents them from opening up. And boil them for 30 mins. After they are cooked, let them cool down, and place them in the fridge. You can eat it just cooked or chilled. The taste is very subtle, there is little sweetness from cassava and bitterness from the leaf. The texture is sticky when it’s hot/warm, like Mochi. But it is firm and chewy when it’s cold. Coconut flake has nice accent texture. I like it when chilled. My hubby likes it with little bit warm, he found adding brown sugar makes it tastier. Smell from the leaf is amazing, especially the next day 🙂