''Kue putu'' or ''putu bambu'' is an Indonesian '' kue''. It is made of

rice flour Rice flour (also rice powder) is a form of flour made from finely milled rice. It is distinct from rice starch, which is usually produced by steeping rice in lye. Rice flour is a common substitute for wheat flour. It is also used as a thickening ...

called ''suji'' and coloured green with

pandan leaves ''Pandanus amaryllifolius'' is a tropical plant in the ''Pandanus'' (screwpine) genus, which is commonly known as pandan (; ). It has fragrant leaves which are used widely for flavouring in the cuisines of Southeast Asia and South Asia. Occurre ...

, filled with

palm sugar Palm sugar is a sweetener derived from any variety of palm tree. Palm sugar is sometimes qualified by the type of palm, as in coconut palm sugar. While sugars from different palms may have slightly different compositions, all are processed ...

, steamed in

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

tubes (hence the name), and served with desiccated

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the f ...

. This traditional bite-sized snack is commonly found in

maritime Southeast Asia Maritime Southeast Asia comprises the countries of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and East Timor. Maritime Southeast Asia is sometimes also referred to as Island Southeast Asia, Insular Southeast Asia or Oceanic Sout ...

, particularly in

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

, Indonesia, where it is called ''putu bumbung''. ''Kue putu'' is usually sold by street vendors and can be found in traditional markets, along with other ''kues''. ''Kue putu'' can also be found in the Netherlands due to its colonial ties with

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

Ingredients and cooking method

It consists of rice flour with green pandan leaf colouring, filled with ground palm sugar. This green coconut-rice flour ingredients with palm sugar filling is filled into bamboo tube container. Subsequently, the filled bamboo tubes are steamed upon a steam cooker with small holes opening to blow the hot steam. The cooked tubular cakes then pushed out from the bamboo tube container, and served with grated coconut.

Etymology and variations

In Javanese, ''bumbung'' means "bamboo" or "a hollow cylindrical object; a tube". As the dish began to spread across the country, the name was later translated to Indonesian ''putu bambu'' (bambu: "bamboo"). Hence the name, as it is made by filling a bamboo tube with the ingredients (see the above picture). Variations of ''kue putu'' are often in the shapes or fillings. ''Kue putu'' of different shapes with almost identical ingredients, fillings and recipes exist in Southeast Asia. The white-colored, flatter disc-shaped ''putu'' is called '' putu piring'' ( Malay for disc/plate ''putu'') and is more common in Malaysia,

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Ca ...

and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, while thicker and more round white- or green-coloured '' putu mangkok'' ( Indonesian for bowl ''putu'') is found more in Indonesia. In Singapore, however, ''putu mangkok'' is called ''

kueh tutu ''Putu piring'' is a round-shaped, traditional steamed rice flour ''kue'' or sweet snack filled with palm sugar. It is found in Singapore, Malaysia, and Southern Thailand under various names. It is usually made using stainless steel molds wit ...

''. Traditionally ''kue putu'' is filled with palm sugar. Today, however, there are several new variations using different fillings, such as

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec ci ...

or '' abon'' (beef floss).

Similar dishes

In the Philippines, '' puto'' is a generic name for any steamed rice cake. A type of ''puto'' very similar to ''kue putu'' is '' puto bumbong'' which is also cooked in bamboo tubes (''bumbong'' in

Tagalog Tagalog may refer to: Language * Tagalog language, a language spoken in the Philippines ** Old Tagalog, an archaic form of the language ** Batangas Tagalog, a dialect of the language * Tagalog script, the writing system historically used for Taga ...

). However ''puto bumbóng'' does not use pandan and is traditionally cooked as whole grains, rather than rice flour. It also uses a special purple variety of

glutinous rice Glutinous rice ('' Oryza sativa var. glutinosa''; also called sticky rice, sweet rice or waxy rice) is a type of rice grown mainly in Southeast and East Asia, and the northeastern regions of South Asia, which has opaque grains, very low amyl ...

called ''pirurutong'' which gives it a deep purple colour. In India (

, Tamil Nadu and

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO 15919, ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reor ...

) and Sri Lanka, a similar dish is known as '' puttu'' or ''pittu'', though the dessert variety is only predominant in Tamil Nadu.

References

External links

Kue Putu (Indonesian Bamboo Cake) Recipe

Kue Putu Recipe
{{Rice dishes Indonesian cuisine Kue Foods containing coconut Steamed foods Street food in Indonesia Malaysian snack foods

Ingredients and cooking method

Etymology and variations

Similar dishes

See also

References

External links