Puto Bumbong

Puto Bumbong is synonym to Christmas and Simbang Gabi in particular to most Pinoy. At the start of Simbang Gabi or Midnight Mass which begin on December 16 till the Christmas eve, streets that lead to the Church are lined with peddlers of kakanin or native delicacies. These are usually rice cakes that are taken for early breakfast by Church goers, puto bumbong is the clear favorite probably because of the uniqueness on how it is prepared and cooked. The traditional puto bumbong is cooked or steamed in a specialy made steamer. The puto bumbong steamer is made out of tin or stainless sheet metal, It usually has three vent or holes on top in which bamboo tubes are attached. These bamboo tubes are filled with the galapong mixture, steam will pass thru the tubes thereby steam cooking the galapong mixture into a finger like and violet colored rice cake.

I have several queries on how to cook puto bumbong at home from overseas Pinoys. Not unless you have managed to own a puto bumbong steamer, making a homemade puto bumbong seems to be impossible. Not anymore, with my easy to make alternative puto bumbong steamer using cardboard and the ordinary sieve you can now enjoy puto bumbong anytime even overseas. Below are easy to follow photos on how to make an alternative steamer.

You can use your favorite puto bumbong recipe or use the recipe of my puto bumbong version. Since the steamer uses a small sieve, the shapes of the rice cake will not be finger like instead it is similar to inverted cup cakes but I assure you there is no difference when it comes to the taste.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup pirurutong, violet glutinous rice
1 cup white glutinous rice
1 stalk pandan leaves
margarine
muscovado sugar
grated fresh coconut
banana leaves

Cooking procedure:

Mix the 2 types of rice together, wash and rinse. In a big bowl place rice and cover with water up to 1” above the rice level and soak for overnight. Pour the soaked rice together with the soaking water in a big blender, blend/ground until smooth, or until the ground rice texture is similar to a fine sand. Pour the mixture on a large piece of muslin, katcha or cheese cloth twist the cloth and securely tie ends. Place on a colander and place onother colander over the ground mixture pouch. Put something heavy over the top colander to weight down and drain the unwanted liquid for at least 4 hours or when all the liquid has drain down. Remove the damp galapong mixture from the cloth and transfer into a big bowl, crumble the semi dried galapong to a uniform consistency. Pour water to the steaming pan, add in the pandan leaves and bring to a boil. Now place the steaming board over pan. Brush sieve with margarine and loosely fill with the galapong mixture up to the sieve neck. Place the filled sieve in the steamer vent/hole. Cover with the pan lid and steam for 1-2 minutes. Using a spoon carefully scoop out the rice cake and serve on banana leaves, topped with margarine, grated coconut and muscovado sugar.

See other Kakanin Merienda recipes: 

Turon na Saging
Turon, Fried Banana Roll 
Turon Tikoy and Fried Tikoy 
Cheesy Maruya, Fried Banana with Cheese 
Special Vigan Royal Bibingka 
Vigan Royal Bibingka Recipe 
Baked Biko Sapin Sapin Style 
Biko na Pirurutong 
Pirurutong na Biko with Coco Jam, Suman na Pirurutong 
Champorado with Pinipig and Pandan Milk 
Siopao Asado 
Pichi Pichi 
Palitaw, Dila-Dila 
Puto Special 
Baked Leche Flan