Tsampurado or champurrado in Spanish, is a sweet chocolate rice porridge in Philippine cuisine. It is traditionally made by boiling sticky rice with cocoa powder, giving it a distinctly brown color and usually with milk and sugar to make it taste sweeter. However, dry tsampurado mixes are prepared by just adding boiling water. It can be served hot or cold and with milk and sugar to taste. It is served usually at breakfast and sometimes together with salty dried fish locally known as tuyo.

The pudding becomes very thick and the lighter milk helps to “loosen” it. It’s almost like eating “chocolate oatmeal”. It can be eaten as a snack or dessert as well.

Its history can be traced back from Mexico. During the galleon trade between Mexico and the Philippines, there were Mexican traders who stayed in the Philippines and brought with them the knowledge of making tsampurado. Through the years, the recipe changed; Filipinos eventually found ways to make the Mexican champurrado a Philippine tsampurado by adding rice.

Ingredients:

8 tbsp. cocoa powder (or about 4 pieces tableya)

1 cup glutinous rice (malagkit)

½ cup sugar

3 ½ cups water

Condensed milk (optional)

Procedure:

1. Pour 2 ½ cups of water in a pot and bring it to a boil.
2. Put-in the glutinous rice and allow water to re-boil for a few minutes.
3. Dilute the cocoa powder in 1 cup warm water then pour-in the spot. Stir continuously.
4. Once the glutinous rice is cooked (about 12 to 18 minutes of cooking with constant stirring), add the sugar and cook for another 5 minutes or until the texture becomes thick.
5. Remove from the pot and place in a serving bowl.
6. Serve hot with a swirl of condensed milk on top.