Puto bumbong recipe

 Puto bumbong is a type of Filipino purple rice cake which is prepared by steaming ground purple rice mixture inside a bamboo tube. The tube is referred to as “bumbong ng kawayan” in Filipino. This might have been the reason why this was named as such.

Puto bumbong has been associated with the Christmas season because it is mostly sold outside the church during the traditional simbang gabi. The puto bumbong vendor can be observed steaming a powdered concoction inside a bamboo tube using an odd shaped steamer. The steamed rice cake is then placed on a piece of pre-cut banana leaf and then topped with margarine (or butter), freshly grated coconut, and muscovado sugar.

This puto bumbong recipe is the best that we can come-up with when trying to capture the good old traditional puto bumbong back in the days, when the vendors were not yet using purple yam (ube) as an alternative ingredient.

Ingredients

• ▢1 1/3 cups sticky purple rice
• ▢1 1/3 cups glutinous white rice malagkit
• ▢2/3 cup long grain purple rice
• ▢6 cups water for soaking the rice
• ▢3/4 cups muscovado sugar
• ▢1 1/2 cups freshly grated coconut
• ▢1/2 cup softened butter

Instructions

• Combine all types of rice in a large mixing bowl. Pour water. Soak for 2 days.
• Drain the water by pouring the contents of the bowl into a large sieve.
• Put the soaked rice in a large food processor. Start to grind the rice until it becomes very fine. Note: It took me around 10 minutes to achieve this consistency.
• Fill your puto bumbong steamer with water halfway through. Apply heat and then let the water boil.
• Meanwhile, fill each bumbong (bamboo tube) with powdered rice. Note: Do not compress the rice so that steam can pass easily.
• Once the water starts to boil rapidly, arrange each bamboo tube on the steamer. Continue to cook until steam comes out of the tube.
• Remove the tube from the steamer. Arrange the contents over a piece of banana leaf. Spread butter all over and then top with freshly grated coconut and muscovado sugar.
• Serve. Share and enjoy!