Kutsinta or Cuchinta is one of the most famous Filipino rice cakes. It is a sweet bite size snack commonly confused with Puto. This is probably because of the method of cooking and the similarity of some ingredients.
Kutsinta is commonly serve during common Pinoy occasions like birthday parties, christenings, fiestas and of course, the holidays. It’s actually easy to do at home and worth learning how to make!
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 &1/4 cups water
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp lye (lihiya) water, for cooking
- grated fresh coconut
HOW TO COOK:
- Bring water and sugar to a boil. Let cool. Add to flour, stir until smooth. Add lye water (lihiya) and mix well.
- Boil some water in the steamer. Stir flour mixture to recombine.
- Fill greased small muffin pans 3/4 full with mixture. Steam for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool before removing from pans.
- Before refilling molds for a second batch, stir batter very well because the flour tends to settle at the bottom and may cause the kutsinta to be too soft or soggy on top. Do this before refilling each batch of molds.
- Loosen sides of molds with spatula before unmolding kutsinta onto plate. Serve with grated fresh coconut sprinkled on top. Do not substitute packaged coconut flakes for freshly grated coconut for this recipe.
- This recipe may also be steamed in an 8″ square casserole for 30-45 minutes, unmold onto serving plate and cut into squares or diamond shapes.
- Makes 10pcs of Kutsinta.
Colorless lye water for cooking (lihiya) is sold in small bottles in Asian food stores. It is used in suman sa lihiya which are usually wrapped in banana leaves and insapin-sapin, the multi-layered and muti-colored rice cake. Frozen banana leaves and even fresh ones are now available in Filipino food stores.
SOURCE: filipinorecipesite.com
IMAGE: mystylerecipe.net
Also try: Atchuete Kutsinta (Annatto Cuchinta)
