TAMALES (Filipino Version)

I've just finished the Daring Cooks' January 2012 challenge which was Mexican Tamales, finding ingredients for which was a challenge in itself. Aside from the filling, I don't think I'd be making it again.
Here in the Philippines, we have our own version of Tamales which uses toasted rice flour. Much like the Mexican Tamales, it is also wrapped, steamed and encases a filling. My sister and I were thinking that it was highly possible before the advent of sliced bread and zip lock, this was how they made lunch-to-go in our great-grandparents' time :)

When I was a little girl, I remember eating Tamales and not liking it but when I grew up and developed a more (hopefully) discriminating palette, I rediscovered and liked it. It wasn't something I thought of making myself because my mother found someone who sold delicious tamales. When my mother got sick and eventually passed away last year, I sort of forgot all about it until the aforementioned Daring Cooks' challenge this month. I looked at several recipes and found that this is the one I liked best...

TAMALES
Banana Leaves (washed, wiped and passed over fire to make them easier to fold)
3 1/2 cups Rice Flour
4 Tablespoons Peanut butter (creamy)
5 cups Coconut milk (soak freshly grated coconut in 5 cups hot water, wrap in cheesecloth and squeeze, set aside liquid)
1/2 cup Annatto water (soak annatto seeds in 1/2 cup hot water for 30 minutes, strain and set aside liquid)
Filling:
Chorizo Bilbao, sliced into rings
Hard-boiled eggs, sliced into rings
Ham and/or Bacon
(Cooked shrimps can also be used, the filling can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be)

Combine rice flour, coconut milk, sugar and peanut butter, mix well. Divide in half and cook one half over medium heat until mixture comes together and thickens, this will take about 15 minutes. Set aside. Cook the other half and mix in the annatto water, coloring the mixture and cook until it comes together and thickens like the other half. Set aside, you will have two mixtures, one is light colored and the other one is yellowish. Cut 4 inch strips of banana leaves and spread with the light colored mixture, arrange the filling and cover with the other yellowish mixture. Wrap carefully with the banana leaves and repeat until mixture and filling is used up. Steam for 40 minutes.

*I usually eat Tamales at room temperature. This keeps well in the refrigerator for about 3 days.

And there you have it, the Filipino version of Tamales!