Pic A Day May #11 - Putu

All over Indonesia people make a living by going around on motorcycles, bicycles, or on foot to sell goods.  You can tell what they are selling just by the sound you hear as they go by your house.  Much like children learn the jingle of the ice cream truck and run outside with money in hand as soon as they hear it,  I tend to literally run outside as soon as I even faintly hear a high pitched whistle.

This is what I am drawn to by that high pitch but hollow whistle.  Putu! This man is filling my order for one portion of delicious putu as I stand beside him with the same excitement that a kid getting a suicide snowcone would stand beside the ice cream truck. 

This is how he makes it.  He starts with short sections of bamboo and  stuffs them  with a rice powder, next he puts a few pinches of palm sugar, and then a bit more rice powder.   Once he has stuffed one section of bamboo with "pure goodness" he puts it on a steamer to steam like in the picture above. This is when the magic happens.  The steam quickly cooks the rice powder on both sides of the palm sugar and at the same time slightly melts the palm sugar. So what you have left is essentially a short delicious palm sugar sweetened plug of rice!  Mmmmmm... nothing quite like it!

After your rice powder and palm sugar has been steamed, the whole delicious plug is pushed out of the bamboo and a good helping of fresh coconut is sprinkled on top!  The whole portion which consists of 6 pieces is wrapped up and then it is yours to enjoy! 

Now if reading this made you crave putu (like it did me) or at least want to try it then let us know when you are coming by and we will try to make sure you get some!