Kue putu

Not to be confused withPiutu.

Kue putu

Kue Putu, filled with palm sugar and served with desiccated coconut.
Alternative names	Putu bambu, putu bumbung
Type	Sweet dumpling
Course	Dessert, snack
Place of origin	Indonesia
Region or state	East Java
Serving temperature	Warm or room temperature
Main ingredients	Rice flour,palm sugar, coconut
Similar dishes	Puttu,puto,puto bumbong,kueh tutu,mache
Media: Kue putu

Kue putuorputu bambuis anIndonesiankue.It is made ofrice flourcalledsujiand coloured green withpandan leaves,filled withpalm sugar,steamed inbambootubes (hence the name), and served with desiccatedcoconut.This traditional bite-sized snack is commonly found inmaritime Southeast Asia,particularly inJava,Indonesia, where it is calledputu bumbung. Kue putuis usually sold by street vendors and can be found in traditional markets, along with otherkues. Kue putucan also be found in the Netherlands due to its colonial ties withIndonesia.

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.

Kue putu

Bamboo tube being filled with rice flour

Filled bamboo tube

Kue putubeing steamed

Cookedputupushed out from the bamboo tube

Kue putu,often sold withklepon

This set of images shows the process ofkue putumaking inIndonesia.

Etymology and variations

Singaporeankueh tutuor also calledputu mangkokin Indonesia

In Javanese,bumbungmeans "bamboo" or "a hollow cylindrical object; a tube". As the dish began to spread across the country, the name was later translated to Indonesianputu bambu(bambu: "bamboo" ). Hence the name, as it is made by filling a bamboo tube with the ingredients (see the above picture).

Putu bambupipes in a steamer

Variations ofkue putuare often in the shapes or fillings.Kue putuof different shapes with almost identical ingredients, fillings and recipes exist in Southeast Asia.

The white-colored, flatter disc-shapedputuis calledputu piring(Malayfor disc/plateputu) and is more common in Malaysia,KeralaandSri Lanka,while thicker and more round white- or green-colouredputu mangkok(Indonesianfor bowlputu) is found more in Indonesia. In Singapore, however,putu mangkokis calledkueh tutu.

Traditionallykue putuis filled with palm sugar. Today, however, there are several new variations using different fillings, such aschocolateorabon(beef floss).

Similar dishes

In the Philippines,putorefers to a class of pastries made by steaming rice. A type ofputovery similar tokue putuisputo bumbóng,which is also cooked in bamboo tubes (Tagalog:bumbóng). However,puto bumbóngdoes not use pandan and is traditionally cooked from whole grains, rather than rice flour. It also uses a special, purple variety ofglutinous ricecalledpirurutóngwhich gives it a deep, purple colour (nowadays achieved withfood dye).

In India (Kerala,Tamil Nadu andKarnataka) and Sri Lanka, a similar dish is known asputtuorpittu,though the dessert variety is only predominant in Tamil Nadu.

See also

• Puttu
• Puto
• Kueh tutu
• Kue
• Klepon
• Kue lapis
• Getuk
• List of steamed foods

External links

• Kue Putu (Indonesian Bamboo Cake) Recipe
• Kue Putu Recipe