Puto Bumbong

Puto bumbong is a popular Filipino delecasy, made with glutinous rice flour, ube flavour, cheese, grate coconut and condensed milk. Here’s a quick hack on how to make puto bumbong at home without needing bamboo tubes! Taste these sweet sticky purple rice cake at the comfort of your homes.

PUTO BUMBONG

Once you see some small bamboo chimneys along the road during the Christmas season, you’re most likely looking at puto bumbong.

This may be a bit embarrassing but eating some puto bumbong and bibingka after the mass was my greatest motivation on going to the simbang gabi when I was a child. I still can see my young self being excited and amazed while waiting for my puto bumbong to cook from those cute bamboo steamers. The waiting is not actually waiting since the puto bumbong are cooked within seconds. The tindera will smack the bamboo on a clean banana leaf and then boom! There goes my puto bumbong. I remember my very young and innocent self pronouncing it as “puto boomboom” in relation to the smacking of the bamboo tubes.

Puto bumbong is a Filipino steamed rice cake which is purple, sticky and resembles short logs. The word puto is the general Tagalog term for steamed rice cakes while the “bumbong” means bamboo tubes to where they are cooked. They are usually served in banana leaves and topped with a variety of toppings including grated coconut, muscovado, and sometimes, grated cheese or roasted sesame seeds. The puto bumbong is has a subtle taste of coconut and sugar which is why the toppings are really are of great use.

The unique way of cooking puto bumbong not only made is special but also popular. Puto bumbong is made with pirurutung and is cooked using lansungan. Pirurutung is the sticky purple rice which is the main ingredient of the puto bumbong. Lansungan or the bumbong ng kawayan is the small bamboo tubes used to cook this sticky treat.

If you’re planning to make some for selling, there are online shops which sells lansungan. But if you’re making just for personal consumption, this hack will let you be able to cook puto bumbong without the need for special equipments but preserve the authentic taste. Would you believe that you can make puto bumbong without lansungan or bamboo tubes? Follow the recipe below to know how!

HOW TO MAKE PUTO BUMBONG

If you’re like me who is always amazed while watching legit puto bumbong tinderas, making puto bumbong without lansungan is as quick as the original one! Instead of charcoal and bamboo tubes, prepare some aluminum foil and steamer.

Start by making a puto bumbong dough by mixing the glutinous rice flour, water and ube flavoring. Some people uses ube halaya and you can try that too. To have that gritty texture, grate the purple dough. To make sure that our puto bumbong will cook fast and enough, we will use aluminum foil. Wrap them with the same steps of making lumpia. Steam the puto bumbong for around 15 minutes and then it’s done.

It’s decorating time! With the abundance of topping choices, let’s put them all! Get a clean piece of banana leaf and plate your puto bumbong. Don’t forget to enjoy it with some hot tea or coffee!

Paano Magluto ng Puto Bumbong (TAGALOG)

MGA SANGKAP:

Para sa puto bumbong:

• 2 tasa ng glutinous rice flour
• ¾ tasa ng tubig
• ½ kutsara ng ube flavor/coloring

Toppings:

• ¼ cheese (grated)
• 1 tasa ng niyog (freshly grated)
• 300 mL condensed milk

PAANO LUTUIN:

1. Ilagay ang glutinous rice flour sa isang bowl. Sunod na ilagay ang tubig at ube flavoring. Haluing mabuti hanggang maging smooth na dough.
2. I-grate ang dough sa maliliit na piraso.
3. Maghanda ng aluminum foil at gupitin ito ng rectangles. I-brush ang ibabaw nito ng margarine.
4. Maglagay ng 2 – 3 kutsara ng grated dough sa foil at i-roll ito ng pahaba.
5. Ilipat ang rolls sa isang steamer. I-steam ang puto bumbong ng 12 hanggang 15 minuto.
6. Kumuha ng dahon ng saging at i-brush ng margarine. Alisin ang puto bumbong sa foil at ilipat sa dahon ng saging.
7. I-brush ang puto bumbong ng margarine at lagyan ng grated coconut, cheese at condensed milk.
8. Iserve ang puto bumbong kasama ng mainit na kape o tsaa. Enjoy!