Champorado

Not long ago, I was reading an article by an anthropologist/food historian about food from the New World, and he mentioned that one of his favorite chocolate dishes was champorado from the Philippines. Maybe a week later, at an LTH event, Cathy2 mentioned liking champorado.

I figured that the proximity of the two comments about a food I had never tried was a sign that I needed to start looking for a recipe. Well, recipes were not hard to find, but about the same time I began my search, I was at Unimart, perusing the Filippino delicacies, and I happened upon a package of Champ-O-Rado, a packaged mix for making champorado. I figured it would be the perfect way to sample this dish first, because even though packaged is not as good as homemade, I had nothing to compare the dish to, so would not know if a recipe I found was remotely authentic.

Champorado is generally described as a rice pudding, at least on Internet posts where recipes can be found, and that's what it looks like on the box of Champ-O-Rado. However, following the instructions faithfully, I ended up with something that was more like chocolate soup with rice in it. However, the consistency is not so far removed from Chinese rice gruel that I'm not certain that this is wrong -- but I'm also not certain that it's right.

So, do we have any champorado fanciers out there who can shed some light on this? Is it supposed to be like Chinese rice gruel, or is it supposed to be like rice pudding? Which of the myriad influences on Filippino cooking is most responsbile for this dish, Europe or Asia?

Any insight would be appreciated.

Cynthia wrote:Maybe a week later, at an LTH event, Cathy2 mentioned liking champorado.

Cynthia,

I don't believe I've had champorado, though it sounds very good. I am, however, a fan of champurrado, think hot chocolate thickened with masa, to which Cathy may have been referring.

Enjoy,
Gary

Champurrado is one of my favorite early mornng Maxwell Street beverages (especially in the winter), and I don't believe it should be as thick as "Chinese gruel" (meaning, I think, congee)...at least, not the Mexican version. The Filipino version might very well be thicker.

I had always thought the Mexican version was a variation on atole, a pre-Contact drink, and what may have happened is that the beverage was originally developed in the New World (using corn, chocolate and sometimes chilies) and then transported to other Spanish colonies (and modified accordingly, using the available starches, so rice was used in the Phillipines rather than corn).

Hammond

This is one of those things that got dragged around the world by the Spanish -- like adobo. Yes, in much of Mexico and in Spain it's champurrado, but in the Philippines (or at least on their web sites and grocery stores, as well as in the book I was reading) it's champorado. It is possible that just having read about the Filippino rice pudding, I simply assumed that Cathy2 was talking about the same thing. However, though the book and most recipes say rice pudding and the packaged mix for Filippino champorado says gruel, the product I got seems to be a bit more like the beverage you've described -- though thickened with rice, rather than masa.

Maybe I'll just head over to Filippiniana and ask them -- unless someone on LTH pops up with a report from their stay in the Philippines.

Thanks.

wow. that's something i haven't heard around my house since i was a kid. my mom or grandma would make this during the cold chicago winter. from what i remember, it was very much on the thick and sweet side. when me and my brother were too resistant for oatmeal, we would get this instead.

When I was a kid in the Philippines We used to get that for breakfast. The consistency sound right. Sometimes there would be a over easy egg in it.

I make this dish occasionally... Basically rice, sugar, cocoa powder, and milk. I remember it from my childhood being really thick, although milk can be used to thin it out if it's been sitting out for a while.

I prefer mine to be the consistency of slightly mushy risotto.

Thanks for the input. I had expected kind of thick, and was surprised by the "hot cocoa with rice" version produced by the packaged mix. Maybe I'll just go ahead and make the recipe from scratch, now that I have input about the consistency.