Cassava Suman
Ingredients
- 2 cups grated cassava
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup coconut milk
- ½ cup desiccated coconut or fresh young coconut meat
- banana leaves about 6 inches width for wrapping
Instructions
- If using frozen grated cassava, make sure to thaw and drain excess liquids using a sieve.
- For fresh young coconut meat, grate, shred, or finely chop it as per your preference.
- In a bowl, combine all the ingredients – grated cassava, brown sugar, coconut milk, and desiccated coconut. Mix the ingredients well.
- Wash the banana leaves with water and pat them dry. Make the leaves more pliable by quickly running them on top of your stove with the heat/fire on.
- Scoop two spoonfuls of the cassava mixture and place it near the edge of a banana leaf. Shape it into a log, then roll it towards the other end to enclose the filling. Fold both sides towards the middle to fully seal the delicious filling inside.
- Arrange the rolled Cassava Suman in the top layer of a steamer, ensuring that the folds are facing down to prevent them from opening during steaming.
- Steam the suman for 30-35 minutes.
- Once done, remove the cassava suman from the steamer and let it cool down. You can serve it either slightly warm or cold.
Details Behind My Cassava Suman Recipe
Cassava Suman Recipe – Before we get into what cassava suman is, let us understand what cassava is first. Cassava, also called kamoteng kahoy in the Philippines, is a starchy root grown in tropical regions. Widely used in cooking, it’s a key ingredient in various products like alcoholic beverages, noodles, bread, chips, cakes, and tapioca flour. There are two types: sweet cassava, safe after peeling and cooking, and bitter cassava, used for making flours and starches after more extensive processing.
Cassava suman is one of the many dishes you can make from the sweet variety. What is cassava suman? Cassava Suman is a dessert known by different names like ‘Sumang Kamoteng Kahoy’ and ‘Suman Balinghoy’ in the Philippines. Originally made with three basic ingredients. These ingredients are grated cassava, coconut milk, and sugar. Nowadays, there are more variations of the dish and some versions include coconut meat for extra flavor.
Additional Notes for my Cassava Suman Recipe
To get the best results, there are different tips and tricks for handling the ingredients. For this cassava suman recipe, use around 4 cups of grated cassava. If you’re using frozen cassava, thaw it completely and drain it before adding it to the recipe. For extra texture, mix grated coconut into the cassava. In addition to the ingredients, there is also a way to handle the banana leaves. To make banana leaves easier to fold, briefly pass them over high flames to soften. You can easily adjust the recipe by doubling or tripling it.
For storage, place the suman in resealable bags or airtight containers and freeze for up to three months. When ready to enjoy, reheat in the microwave for a few seconds to soften.
Similar Dishes to Cassava Suman
There are several desserts in Filipino cuisine that incorporate cassava. One similar dish to cassava suman is pichi pichi cassava. Pichi pichi cassava is a chewy dessert made mainly from cassava and topped with coconut flakes. You can use sugar and water or coconut juice to make it, and there’s also the option of adding shaved cheese as a topping.
Given that cassava suman falls under the suman category, you should also try other suman dishes. One dish you can try that is similar to cassava suman is suman malagkit. Suman malagkit is one of many suman variations. It is a glutinous rice snack partially cooked in sweetened coconut milk with a touch of salt. It is encased in banana leaves and boiled or steamed until it becomes soft and chewy.
Other Cassava Desserts
If you want to try other desserts that feature cassava, you should try cassava cake. Cassava cake is a dessert made with grated cassava, coconut milk, and condensed milk, topped with a delicious custard layer. You can also add cheese as an extra topping for a delightful variation. The cake belongs to the bibingka category of Filipino sweets. Depending on the amount of cassava used, the texture of the cake can vary.
Another option is cassava leche flan. Cassava leche flan is one of many variations of leche flan. Leche flan is a popular Filipino dessert, similar to Spanish flan de leche but made with condensed milk and additional egg yolks. It’s usually prepared by steaming in an oval-shaped tin mold called llanera over an open flame or stove top, though baking is also an option. What makes cassava leche flan stand out is that it is topped with crisp cassava and a caramel sauce.
Other Sticky Desserts
Do you want more desserts with stickiness and sweetness like cassava suman? There is a list of options to try. One of them is palitaw. Palitaw is a small, flat, sweet rice cake made from malagkit, which is the Filipino term for glutinous rice. In the past, this snack was made by grinding or pounding sticky rice, but nowadays, it’s easier, made by mixing rice flour and water into a dough, flattening it, and then boiling it.
For something even sweeter, you should try carioca. Carioca is a type of Filipino dessert recognized as a small sticky rice ball treat. It is typically ball-shaped but can also be elongated, pancake-shaped, or doughnut-shaped. It’s often enjoyed on a skewer. Other names for this treat include tinudok and bitsu-bitsu (or bicho-bicho), but don’t confuse the latter with the Chinese Filipino version of youtiao called bicho or bicho-bicho, made with regular flour.
Overall, there are plenty of simple, chewy, sweet desserts to try in Filipino cuisine. Furthermore, there are more than a few that feature sweet root vegetables as an ingredient. If you want something different, you should check out Sago at Gulaman or Binaki. For other rice cake desserts, you can try dishes like Tupig or Suman Moron.
