Puto Pao (Steamed Rice Cake with Pork Filling)

Puto Pao is steamed rice cake with pork filling.  I’ve made puto pao a couple of times already and believe me, they’ve gotten very good reviews from family and friends. That only goes to show how well loved I truly am!  Hahaha!

The pork filling I use is the same one I use for my barbecued pork siopao (Steamed Pork Bun). I know of at least two friends who are waiting for my puto pao recipe.  In case you’ve been looking for the recipe yourself in a cooking /food web directory, you can take a little break now.   Without further ado, here’s the recipe…

Pork Filling

1/2 T oil

1/4 cup diced onions

1 T hoisin sauce

1 T catsup

3/4 T sugar

1/2 T oyster sauce

1/8 t garlic powder

1/4 c water

1/2 T cornstarch dissolved in 1 T water

3/4 C diced cooked barbecued pork

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a wok/pan, heat the oil then add the onions.  Cook in high head for about half a minute.

2.  Add all the other ingrediencts, except cornstarch and barbecued pork.  Allow to cook for another minute.

3.  Add the cornstarch to thicken the sauce.  Then mix in the diced cooked pork.  Set aside and cool.

Puto Pao

3 C all purpose flour

2 C sugar

2 eggs

2 1/2 C milk

1/2 lb butter, melted

2 T baking powder

pork filling

DIRECTIONS:

1. Line the puto molds or individual silicon muffin cups with cupcake liners or cut banana leaves.

2. In a bowl, mix all the ingredients together, except the pork filling, until smooth.

3. Fill 1/4 of the molds/cups with the puto batter. Then carefully put a teaspoon of the pork filling at the center of the batter.

4. Add more puto batter in the molds/cups until it is 3/4 full.

5. Place the puto molds in a steamer. Cover it with a wet towel before putting on the steamer cover.

6. Steam for approximately 10-15 minutes.

For the cooked barbecued pork that is called for in the pork filling, what I do is I marinate the diced pork with Chinese barbecue sauce/marinade and leave it in the fridge for at least an hour.  Then I stir-fry the pork.  I’m lucky I found a Chinese barbecue sauce at the Asian supermarket which leaves the pork tasting like the roast pork from a Chinese restaurant.

Add food color to the puto batter if you want a nice colored puto pao.   Puto pao is white…usually.  The ones in the photos are pink because I served these at a pink food party.