Suman sa Lihiya and Suman Malagkit (Filipino)

My boyfriend's mom is filipina and she keeps on (in a nice way) pushing me to cook more Filipino food, because she says that Filipino in Montreal are lazy and they'd rather pay a caterer to get Siao Pao (steamed buns) and Filipino treats than making it.  Yesterday we went to help her at her part time office cleaning job and the whole hour drive she kept on talking to me about this dessert called suman.  I'm guessing suman is how they call all glutinous rice treats, or maybe glutinous rice treats cooked in banana leaves.  She suggested me to make Suman Malagkit, because her brothers and sisters prefer this one so I could sell it to them on special occasions, but herself, she prefers Suman sa Lihiya.

Suman sa Lihiya is made with soaked glutinous rice soaked in water, drained and mixed only with lye water (lihiya), rolled in banana leaves in a special (hassle to make) fashion and tied two by two, then boiled for an hour and a half.  You can top it with brown or palm sugar and coconut (which I was too lazy to defrost). The lye water instantly makes the rice yellowish, and once cooked in banana leaves it turns green. I thought I wouldn't like it because the rice isn't sweetened but with just a little sugar on top it tastes divine!

Recipe I used from Pinoy Cooking:

http://www.pinoycookingrecipes.com/suman-sa-lihiya.html

Suman Malagkit, on the other hand, is dried rice cooked with coconut milk, sugar and salt, until it becomes really sticky (the rice is still hard at this stage).  Then the mixture is placed in banana leaves and steamed 45 minutes.  UPDATE: Steam an hour and a half, 45 minutes is far from enough!

Recipe here:

http://www.pinoycookingrecipes.com/suman-malagkit.html

Sorry for the bad quality of the pictures, I was too tired to make a nice arrangement on the table and there's not much light on my counter under the cupboards.  Maybe I should buy one of those neon to hang under there...  Maybe I'll take nicer pictures when my boyfriend tries it with me.

I also slow-simmered some Thit Kho Tau for supper (will post tomorrow) and I only have two big burners (like most stoves) so all this cooking kept me busy from 10:30am to 3:30pm. Now I'm gonna relax before my mom-in-law comes pick us up to help her again, and she can sample my Suman!