Monthly Archives: May 2019

Puto or Filipino Steamed Rice Cake

Fluffy puto

Puto is a famous traditional snack from the Philippines. It is a sweet steamed rice cake traditionally made from slightly fermented dough. I have been wanting to do it for a while but was worried that I might fail. But this week, I finally gathered my courage and tried it out. Turns out, I was quite pleased with the results.

So these are the things you need to make the Dough: rice flour, distilled water and a clean covered clear jar. I started the fermentation last Monday night ( May 20). Weigh out 10g of rice flour and 10g of water, put it into the jar, mix thoroughly, then cover the jar. Leave it overnight at room temperature which is about 25-27 degree celsius.

The next morning which for me was Tuesday May 21, about 12 hours after the last time you made the paste. Add another 20g rice flour and 20g water, mixed thoroughly with the paste. This is called ‘feeding, and it helps to make the yeast stronger’. Cover and set aside at room temperature 25-27 degree celsius.

At night, after 12 hours from the last feeding, I discarded half of the mixture, leaving only 30g. Discarding is to limit the quantity of your paste unless you intend to make a huge batch. Now with this 30g, add 30g of rice flour and 30g of water. Mix thoroughly then set aside and leave it overnight at room temperature at 25-27 degree celsius.

The following morning which was Wednesday May 22, you should see visible signs of fermentation, like bubbles. Look at the sides of your jar, you should also be able to see a few bubbles. Feed the fermented paste with 90g water and 90g rice flour. You should end up with a total of 270g. As you mix, you can begin to feel that the paste becomes sort of airy. After 8 hours you should be able to see more bubbles, especially when you look at the sides of the jar. It may not rise too much as the yeast are not very active yet, however it has sufficient strength to make Puto. Now it is time to prepare the ingredients!

Ingredients

  • 230g Fermented Rice Flour mixture
  • 10g double acting baking powder
  • 45g fine Sugar
  • 2g coconut extract

Mix all the ingredients gently using a whisk. You have to preserve as much of the air in the batter. Transfer the mixture to oiled tins. Use coconut oil. Then steam immediately on high heat.

My tins are a bit tall, so the steaming time was about 25 minutes. Please adjust accordingly if you’re using smaller tins. You can use a skewer to poke a hole through the center and check if it comes out clean. This means that the Puto is ready. At the last 5 minutes of steaming you may want to add slices of cheese on top.

Can you see the tiny air bubbles that still remains after steaming??
Fluffiness in every bite
Jiggly Jiggly like Jello

Hope you will enjoy the recipe! Hasta La Vista.

Braised Pork In Dark Soy Sauce with Leeks

Braised Pork In Dark Soy Sauce

This dish is quite common in my mom’s kitchen. Her’s was made particularly with lots of patience and love and I’ll tell you why. When she added leeks to her braised pork, she would shred them ever so thinly. During those times, she did not have any tools for shredding, so she had to manually use knife for this rods and lengthy process. I never thought that it would be so much work until I was doing it myself. It has always been one of my favourite dishes, but I never tried to learn it when she was still alive, primarily I did not have the interest to learn, thinking that my mom will always prepare it for me anyway. Sadly she passed away in 2003. It was sudden. When she left, I started to crave all the things that she had cooked for me, So slowly one by one, I try to recreate the dishes she made. I am glad to say that I was able to make it the same way as she did, it might not be 100 percent but quite close. This dish also became my children’s favourite.

Ingredients

  • 3 Big bunch of leeks
  • 1000g pork shoulder cut into cube
  • 125g Chinese cooking wine or huatiaojiu
  • 90g Superior Soysauce or Jiangqing
  • 55g Light soy sauce
  • 33g Dark soy sauce
  • 5g salt
  • 12g sugar
  • 6 hard boiled eggs
  • 1 pack tofu puff ( optional)
  • 2 packs fried gluten (optional)

First , clean your leeks leaf by leaf. Remove all the dirt and put it into the strainer.

Shred the leeks into thinner strips. I used to use scissors as well but was lucky to find a multi-blade cutter at Daiso and it was quite useful for me.

My children are quite sensitive to spring onion taste, but they love leeks, because their first encounter with leeks was cooked in this way so i’m sure your children will love this dish too.

Now heat up your Wok until it is hot, drizzle 3 tbs of oil, then sauté your leeks until soften, set it aside.

Using the same wok, put in all your meat cubes. Sauté it for about 3-4 minutes.

Pork Shoulder

Now add in the sautéed leeks, pour 1400ml of water, add in all the seasonings. When it starts to boil, add your hard boiled eggs, tofu puffs and fried gluten. Cover your wok and let it simmer at low fire until the meat becomes tender, this will take about an hour to an hour and a half. Turn up the heat a bit high to reduce the liquid as to your liking. You may use your thermal pot or slow cooker to cook this dish too.

This dish is best serve with a bowl of steaming hot rice. Yum!!

  • Like the tofu puff, this fried gluten also absorbs a lot of sauce. It’s saucy explosion of flavours with every bite!
These leeks that goes well with a scoop of rice.

Hope you will enjoy this recipe! Til my next post. Hasta La Vista!

1 2 3 … 8
Blog at WordPress.com.