Filipino Pasalubong and Other Novelty Items

Puto is a steamed rice cake popular in the Southeast Asian country of the Philippines. Steaming, a popular cooking method in this country along with boiling and roasting, was incorporated into Filipino cuisine and cooking by other Asian countries. Rice, the main ingredient in this dish, is an important staple for the Philippines. Rice is typically eaten in most meals and has been known to be featured in all types of sweet and savory Filipino dishes. Puto is usually eaten as a dessert, but can also be eaten for breakfast dipped into or paired with a cup of hot coffee or hot chocolate.

There are many variations to the recipe ranging from the type of rice used to the method in which the rice is prepared. In its traditional form, puto is of a plain white color. Adding certain common Filipino ingredients like ube and pandan (made from pandan leaves or Pandanus amaryllifolius slightly changes the flavor and completely changes the color of the finished product. Likewise, food coloring can be added to change the puto’s color but still keep its original flavor.

Most varieties often include the addition of coconut milk and this influences the flavor.

 Taste and texture

Although there are three common ways to cook puto, the taste and texture of each product should remain the same. Puto is not a rich, decadent dish. It tastes mostly like rice but slightly sweeter. Recipes that call for vanilla will produce an even sweeter puto, but traditionally it tastes similar to the almost bland southern cornbread.

Puto’s has a spongy and slightly fluffy texture. It is light and airy and biting into one feels like biting into a much firmer piece of Angel cake.

 Variations of Puto

Puto bumbong from a Carson, California bakery at a Los Angeles store in 2009

• Puto Bumbong - Traditionally made from a special variety of heirloom sticky or glutinous rice called Pirurutong which has a distinctly purple color, soaked in salted water and dried overnight and then poured into bumbong or bamboo tubes and then steamed until done or steam rises out of the bamboo tubes. It is served topped with butter or margarine and shredded coconut mixed with sugar.

• Puto Lanson - Puto found in Iloilo which is made of grated cassava, and is foamy when cooked.

• Puto Mamon - A puto mixture that does not include rice but combines egg yolk, salt and sugar. One mixture of milk and water and another of flour are alternately mixed into the yolk mixture. Egg whites are beaten and folded in before the mixture is poured into muffin cups and steamed for 15-20 min.

• Puto Malcohido - A variant of puto that is cooked specifically with plantain leaves underneath for the flavor.

• Puto Mejia - A puto mixture of glutinous rice soaked in water, drained and then poured into a steamer to steam for 30 minutes. This rice mixture is then combined with coconut milk, salt, sugar and ginger juice and placed back into the steamer for another 25 to 30 minutes.

• Puto-Pao - A hybrid of siopao (sweetmeat-filled dumpling) and puto. It uses the traditional puto recipe but incorporates a sweetmeat filling.

• Puto Seko - Is not at all like the other puto examples cited above. This is a crunchy, wheat-based snack rendered in small, bite-size pieces.

• Puto Reculiau - An strange variation from Argentina. In the province of Cordoba is very common find puto with fernet in the mix.

Suman is a rice cake originating from the Philippines. It is made from glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk, and often steamed in banana leaves. It is served wrapped in buli or buri palm (Corypha) leaves and usually eaten sprinkled with sugar.

Varieties

There are numerous varieties of suman, with almost every town or locality having its speciality. Some are described below

Suman sa Binuo - A rare variety of suman, the glutinous rice is soaked, milled, mixed with coconut milk and sugar, wr...

Tortoise-shell and silver salakot.

An ancient tradition recounts that the first Malay settlers in the archipelago purchased the valleys and plains of the Island of Panay in the Philippines from the native Aetas in exchange of a golden salakot and a very...