"Food is symbolic of love when words are inadequate" - Alan D. Wolfelt
Hello and howdy food lovers. How are you today? I hope you are all doing fine and have a great day today. For today's blog, I will be sharing with you how we cook the famous hanging rice or "puso" in the Philippines.
Hanging rice or in Cebuano term "puso" are the most paired item we bring mostly in outings or any gatherings with our friends and families.
It is cooked in a triangular pouch made of woven coconut leaves which come in different sizes and forms.
To make hanging rice, one must have the talent and skills in weaving the hanging rice pouches so that it will be cooked properly. I don't have the talents and skills in making one for I do not know where to insert the patterns and I forgot easily the steps in making it. But fortunately, my parents were very much fond of making hanging rice on occasion for they believe that having this hanging rice will lessen the effort in cooking rice in the big cauldron and will spoil some of the cooked rice if not consumed immediately.
Unlike hanging rice, where you can have smaller pieces if you want to eat less. And if you want to eat more, you can get as many as you want as long as you can consume what you place on your plates.
And for today's blog, I documented my mother how prepared the hanging rice I bought during the Hive Orientation last July 29, 2023. I previously mentioned that I let my mother prepare the hanging rice for the activity.
STEPS IN COOKING THE HANGING RICE OR PUSO
🌾Firstly, you will get young coconut leaves from the coconut tree. Make sure that the coconut leaves are young so that they will just bend and not breakable easily.
🌾Next, you will create the desired design for your hanging rice. There are a lot of styles used by hanging rice makers. My mother usually makes the "kinasing style" which is shaped into a heart-like design.
🌾After making your desired hanging rice design, this time you will tightly close the pouches to ensure that the rice grains will not slip out.
🌾Next, you will now place a handful of rice grains inside the pouches. See to it that the rice grains will just be at the center portion or below so that the hanging rice will be cooked properly. If you will put more rice grains inside its pouches, the tendency, the rice grains will not be cooked.
🌾After placing rice grains, my mother usually groups the hanging rice into five or your desired number. This way, it will be easily placed into the boiling water, for easy counting.
🌾Next, in a big cauldron, place a half full of water and let it boil. When the water boils, this time you place the grouped hanging rice slowly. See to it that the water level inside the cauldron is above the level of hanging rice placed inside.
🌾After 20 to 30 minutes of continuous boiling, you can check if the hanging rice is cooked already. My mother explains that if no water droplets are dropping on hanging rice, it means it's cooked already but to make sure it's cooked, you can check it out and open it.
🌾Lastly, dip the cooked hanging rice in tap water and hang it until the water droplets will be out. This way, it will minimize the hanging rice and not spoil easily.
🌾Serve the hanging rice for any occasion. I brought the cooked hanging rice during the orientation and shared it with everybody during our lunchtime. 😊
Seeing my mother preparing the hanging rice is just so easy for her. I am so overwhelmed by how she prepared everything for every occasion we had.
I am so happy that she loves what she's doing. And with my help and my father's help as well, the preparations of the hanging rice take just a minute.
That's all for today's blog.
Have a nice day everyone!
Thank you for your time reading and upvoting my blog. Hope you enjoy it! See you on my next blog.