one filipino dish a week

While in Danao, we were very fortunate that The Girl’s neighbor Manang Clarita is a really good cook. First, she showed us to make puso. Then one lovely afternoon she showed us how to make puto maya. Puto maya is one of those kakanin or what I call awesome rice dishes to stuff your face! It is cooked in a claypot steamer (above). Yes, that is a claypot… Nang Clarita’s claypot has been well seasoned. She told us that you can use a regular steamer but just make sure to do something about the holes because the regular steamers holes are too big. I’ll have to give this a shot and let you know what works for me.

To make puto maya you will need the following ingredients:

1/2 kilo pilit (sticky rice) and tapol (black rice)
3 cups coconut milk
1/4 kilo sugar (this was an approximation… the number seems really big to me but the little plastic bag of sugar did seem like it was about 2 cups worth)
1 tablespoon salt
3 inch piece of ginger sliced thinly sliced

To prepare the coconut milk mixture: boil coconut milk. Add sugar, salt & ginger. Reduce the liquid until it is rich and thick (espiso).

Soak the sticky rice for about 3 hours. In a steamer lined with cheesecloth pour the pre-soaked sticky rice and black rice. Cover until cooked. Once the rice is done sprinkle the coconut milk mixture and folding the rice inside the pot. Continue adding the coconut milk mixture until desired texture is achieved.

Let the rice cool down a little bit. Rip banana leaves into pieces about as wide as your palm.

Twist the leaves and create a small triangular pouch.

Scoop in the rice (remember to take the ginger out! which I obviously did not).

Fold the top flap and voila! Puto Maya!

This is a wonderful afternoon snack or breakfast. The puto maya tasted amazing! The ginger is the key to the ingredient list because it gives off that aroma and distinctive taste. Puto maya goes extremely well with Filipino hot chocolate!

Eat Filipino Food!