Champorado: Sweet Chocolate Rice Pudding

Champorado is made by cooking sticky rice with cocoa powder. Milk and sugar are added later to taste. I grew up eating hot Champorado on cold rainy days as a snack, dessert or, if I was lucky, for breakfast. It's like eating chocolate oatmeal - what kid or adult who wouldn't want that first thing in the morning?

Sometimes my Mom would add tuyo (salty-dried fish) on the side as a tasty contrast to the sweet rice pudding. It may seem odd to combine these flavours together but I love it!

Did you know: Champorado or Champpurado was introduced to Filipinos by Mexican traders during the Galleon Spice Trade 1600s-1800s. It was originally and still is a chocolate drink in Mexico but eventually, Filipinos found a way to turn this drink into a meal by adding rice and more specifically – sticky rice.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup glutenous rice (rinsed)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1 1/4 cup coconut milk or whole milk
pinch of salt

Did you know: Rinsing rice before cooking helps to remove excess starch and allows the rice to cook more evenly.

Preparation:
1. Place rinsed rice to saucepan set on medium heat. Add coconut milk and stir constantly.
2. Dilute the unsweetened cocoa with boiling water to remove all cocoa clumps.
2. When rice begins to absorb the milk and becomes a bit translucent, reduce the heat to low. Then add diluted cocoa, sugar and salt. Cook until rice is tender the serve immediately with a drizzle of more coconut milk with a side of tuyo.

Try this: Instead of tuyo, try crispy bacon or breakfast sausage instead.