Puto Bumbong is a steamed purple rice cake from the Philippines. It is usually available throughout the Christmas season. It’s a steamed rice cake known as Puto.
The term is a combination of two words: bumbong or bombong (“bamboo tube”) and Tagalog puto (steamed rice cakes). Occasionally, the names are misspelled as puto bongbong or puto bungbong.
Puto bumbong is usually made by thoroughly immersing the rice grains in water (traditionally salted water) and soaking them overnight. It has a slightly acidic fermented aftertaste as a result. The mixture is then drained (squeeze out water by placing something heavy on top). The next morning, the mixture is packed densely into bamboo tubes and cooked. In traditional variants, coconut oil is used to grease the walls of the bamboo tubes; in more contemporary versions, butter or margarine is usually used. While whole grain rice is boiled in most cases, there are other variations where the rice is crushed either before or after it is soaked.
Once prepared, the cylindrical rice cake is served on banana leaves, covered with additional butter or margarine, and sprinkled with grated coconut and muscovado sugar (or simply brown sugar or white sugar with or without sesame seeds). Some people topped their puto bumbong with condensed milk (a substitute for sugar), cheese, or even leche flan.
There are several variations when it comes to puto bumbong preparations, depending on the materials you have on hand. These days, they use conventional food steamers or metal cylinders. In these versions, it typically took the form of tiny balls or lengthy, suman-like neural tubes. In some variations, purple yam flour (also known as ube flour) was utilized. Due to their taste and popularity, restaurants have even adapted similar dishes to provide their patrons, such as empanadas, pancakes, cakes, and ice cream varieties.
There are other versions of puto bumbong that are available all year in the provinces of Batangas and Pampanga; these are called putong sulot and are made of white glutinous rice.
If you happen to be in Indonesia, don’t worry because they have a similar dessert known as Kue putu, which is frequently coloured green due to the addition of pandan leaves for additional flavour and aroma.
Puttu or pittu is a similar dessert in India and Sri Lanka.
Enjoy the puto bungbong and bibingka at your table this Christmas with your loved ones, no matter where you are. You can enjoy it after church or just to enjoy the chilly weather while listening to relaxing Christmas music.
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