STEAMED CAKE WITH SALTED EGGS

This steamed cake is a native Philippine cake known as puto. The addition of salted eggs and cheese makes it a special puto. It always makes an appearance at Filipino parties because it is eaten together with noodle dishes instead of bread. The original recipe calls for uncooked rice grains which is soaked then ground together to make a batter. Although there are a variety of ready ground rice available in the shops, my experimentations with them has failed to produce the puto that I intended to make. There are a lot of recipes for wheat flour puto and all of them are very different from each other. This recipe I used is a steamed cake recipe (a Chinese one) which I revised to make it more like puto. Salted eggs and cheese injects a salty tang into the sweetish dough. I was satisfied with the outcome. I think my husband was too, because he ate most of it.



Ingredients:



3 eggs

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 c. melted butter

1 1/4 c. plain flour

2 1/2 tsps. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 c. milk

1 salted duck egg

strips of cheddar cheese



Method:



Prepare a steamer or wok with a trivet at the bottom. Pour some water to reach just before the trivet level and bring to a boil. Beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until thick. Blend in the melted butter and milk. Sift the flour together with the baking soda and baking powder and fold into the mixture. Pour into an 9" diameter pan or dish lined with baking paper. Arrange the salted egg slices on top of the batter. Steam for 20 minutes on high heat in the pre-heated steamer or wok. Make sure the water doesn't reach the bottom of the pan when it boils nor dry out during the steaming process. When done, arrange strips of cheese on top of the puto and return to the steamer just until the cheese melts. The salted eggs will sink a little into the batter when done. I have added extra egg slices just for decoration.





SALTED DUCK EGGS