I first learned how to cook suman from Prof. Matilde Guzman Food Preparation class. I love the combination of mongo and coconut-flavored sweet sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup malagkit (glutinous rice)
1 cup mongo
1-1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups coco milk
coco cream from 1 grated coconut

Ingredients

1. Soak, grind, and drain malagkit in a muslin bag (sako sa harina) to get a mealy dough like that used for palitao.

2. Cook mongo in water until soft (and mushy). Drain the water. Use a colander. Set aside.

3. Prepare latik and oil from coco cream.

4. Boil coco milk and sugar until thick. Add cooked mongo and cook like Bukayo.

5. Combine this mixture with mealy malagkit thoroughly and wrap measured amounts in banana leaves (wilted by passing over an open flame).

6. Steam 30 minutes.

Notes

Sometimes, I didn’t have a steamer (or a double boiler or pasta pot with an elevated steamer top). So, I would get a metal rack (no plastic feet) and put it on top of a wok, line up the suman, fill the wok with water that didn’t touch the metal rack, and covered the wok. It worked!