This weekend, try out Putu Piring – Malaysian steamed palm sugar rice cake
Forbes and Lonely Planet has named this wonderful destination in Malaysia as one of Asia’s and World’s Top Travel Destinations. Malacca’s tourism is booming and is gaining popularity among the globetrotters and foodies alike.
The streets of Melaka/Malacca are filled with the wonderful aromas of steamed rice flour and gula melaka (Palm sugar), coming out from many of the small eateries which sells the signature dish, Putu Piring. The round-shaped sweet snack is filled with palm sugar and grated coconut. This is a must try dish when you are in Malaysia. Here’s the recipe for the soul filling putu piring, which is much similar to the South Indian ‘Puttu’…
Ingredients
3 cups of rice flour
salt to taste
water to mix the flour
1 cup grated coconut
1 cup grated palm sugar
6-7 pandan leaves
2-3 banana leaves
1-2 tablespoons of oil
Method of Preparation
Fry the rice flour for about 5-6 minutes till it gets a nice aroma. Allow it to cool.
Mix hot water with salt and pandan leaves and let it rest for sometime allowing the pandan leaves juice to be extracted.
Pour the solution to the rice flour and mix it well and add a little oil to the flour.
Place a steamer on the stove and once the steamer is heated up, place the putu piring mould on it.
Take the mould and put some flour mix to it first. Then add palm sugar and top it with another layer of flour
Lightly press the flour into the mould and place a piece of clean muslin/cotton cloth over it.
Turn over, and tap the mould to release the shaped rice flour onto the cloth.
Steam this for about 2 minutes.
Once you remove it from the steamer, open the muslin cloth, top the putu piring with grated coconut, place a piece of banana leaf, place onto a plate and remove the cloth. You have to be very careful when removing the cloth as it may alter the shape of the putu piring.