Suman

Glutinous rice part-cooked in coconut milk, wrapped in wilted banana leaves and boiled.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 600 g glutinous rice
• 600 ml coconut milk
• 100 g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 24 banana leaf pieces, about 20 cm square
• kitchen string

Method

1. WILT THE LEAVES OVER A FLAME FIRST. Pass each piece over a gas burner or dip it in boiling water for a few seconds until it darkens and goes limp and glossy. Raw banana leaf splits along its ribs the moment you fold it, and a split parcel fills with water and the rice is ruined.
2. Soak the rice 2 hours, then drain.
3. PART-COOK IT, do not cook it through. Rice, coconut milk, sugar and salt in a pan, stirred over a medium heat 10 to 12 minutes, until the milk is absorbed and the grains are swollen but still have a hard core. It finishes inside the parcel, and rice cooked soft now turns to paste later.
4. Spread it out on a tray to cool enough to handle.
5. Wipe each leaf with a little oil on the side the rice will touch.
6. Two heaped tablespoons along the middle of a leaf, shaped into a log. Fold the long sides over, then the ends under, and tie two parcels together back to back with string.
7. Pack them upright in a deep pan, pour boiling water over to cover, weight them with a plate and boil 1 hour. Floating parcels cook on one side only.
8. Lift one out and let it cool 5 minutes before opening -- opened hot, the rice has not set and comes away with the leaf.
9. They keep three days at room temperature in their leaves, which is most of the reason for wrapping them at all.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes