Puto
Puto in banana leaf liner
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| Course | Dessert, breakfast |
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| Place of origin | Philippines |
| Serving temperature | hot, warm, or room temperature |
| Main ingredients | Rice |
| Variations | puto bumbong |
| 587 kcal | |
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Puto is a type of steamed rice cake usually served as snack or as accompaniment to savory dishes such as dinuguan or pancit in Philippine cuisine and believed to be derived from Indian puttu of Kerala origin. It is eaten as is or with butter and/or grated fresh coconut, or as an accompaniment to a number of savoury viands (most notably, dinuguan).
The most common shape of the putuhán or steamer used in making puto is round, ranging from 30 to 60 centimetres (12 to 24 in) in diameter and between 2 to 5 centimetres (0.79 to 1.97 in) deep. These steamers are rings made of either soldered sheet metal built around a perforated pan, or of thin strips of bent bamboo enclosing a flat basket of split bamboo slats (similar to a dim sum steamer basket). The cover is almost always conical to allow the condensing steam to drip along the perimeter instead of on the cakes.
A sheet of muslin (katsâ) is stretched over the steamer ring and the prepared rice batter poured directly on it; an alternative method uses banana leaf as a liner. The puto is then sold as large, thick cakes in flat baskets called bilao lined with banana leaf, either as whole loaves or sliced into smaller, lozenge-shaped individual portions.
The traditional method takes time, although most of it involves inactive waiting periods. The process spans three to four days from the initial rice soaking to taking the finished product out of the steamer.
Properly prepared puto imparts the slightly yeasty aroma of fermented rice batter with a light whiff of anise. It should be neither sticky nor dry and crumbly, but soft, moist, and with a fine, uniform grain. The essential flavour should be of freshly cooked rice, but it may be sweetened a bit if eaten by itself as a snack instead of as accompaniment to savoury dishes. Since most puto as cooked in the Tagalog-speaking regions may contain a small quantity of wood ash lye and are sometimes steamed and served on banana leaves, some puto aficionados seek these subtle flavours in well-made, traditional puto.
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Wikipedia