Pulut Tai Tai ( Blue Glutinous Rice Cakes )

Since I was going to have only a few more days left in Malaysia, I decided to attempt one of my favourite Kuih of all the time, Pulut Tai Tai. It is pretty much glutinous rice cakes that has been infused with the natural blue of the Bunga Telang and finished with a topping of Kaya/Coconut Jam.



Since I was able to find the flower in my neighbourhood, I decided to give it a try. I won't be able to attempt this using the natural dye of this flower once I am in Australia. I would have to resort to food colouring which I really don't like. The flower not only gives out a natural dye but also extra flavouring that normal food colouring in a bottle doesn't.

After reading through multiple blogs and listening to friends of mine and my mom's, I finally decided that it was time to put all of the hours of research into action.

Here are the photo's of my first attempt.





 

Pulut Tai Tai

inspired from : My Kitchen Snippets

Ingredients

500 g of Glutinous Rice

300 gram of Coconut Milk

2 Tbsp of Sugar

1/4 tsp of salt

1/4 cup of Blue Pea Flower Juices ( Use about 20-25 Blue Pea Flowers  and half cup of hot water )

4-5 Pandan Leaves ( optional - for steaming )

1 ) Wash and soak the glutinous rice overnight.

2 ) With the flowers, use only the petals so cut off the bud of the flowers. Then soak 20-25 flowers worth of petals in hot water for 15 minutes. Stirring it occasionally. ( Do this on the day itself )

3 ) Once flowers are done soaking, with your hands, group them into your hands and squeeze them till the flowers are drained of their colour. The flower may still look blue. Repeat the process till you retrieved as much blue dye.

4 ) In the microwave warm the coconut milk, sugar and salt.

5 ) Drain the Glutinous Rice, then add the coconut milk mixture to it and mix it around.

6 ) Pour the coconut milk infused glutinous rice into a pan. Even out the glutinous rice till it is evenly spread out. Tie a knot with each Pandan leaves and place it on top of the pan

7 ) Make sure the water is boiling for the steaming process, then place the pan in the steamer to be steamed for 10- 15 minutes. The glutinous rice should be half done.

8 ) Remove the pan from the steamer after it seems that it is half done. Then drop spoonful of the blue dye into the glutinous rice till your satisfied with the colour of the glutinous rice.

9 ) Finish the steaming process by steaming for another 15 minutes. Let it cool once it is done and serve with some Kaya on the top.

Personal Notes

1 ) *The recipe below hasn't been fully tested* - Instead of spooning the colouring half way steaming it, I poured the blue colour dye in before the steaming process in step 6.

2 ) The reason you cut off the bud is because it gives off an unpleasant taste in the dye.

3 ) You may use fresh or dry blue pea flower depending on what is available to you

4) The measurement of the blue dye juices is only an estimate. The amount of water poured into the coconut mixture MUST be controlled or else it will dilute the taste of the coconut milk mixture, rendering it to taste bland. So if you prefer very dark blue glutinous rice, use less water and more flowers. Or if you want a lighter shade, use less flowers. *I will be republish another if I get a chance to attempt  this again with the flowers to get an exact measurement of the amount of juices* 

The other websites I have seen so far hasn't given exact measurements so if your brave enough, trial and error is the way. But after my first experience, 1/4 cups of the dye should be right. The thickness of the blue dye means that you probably need not use the full 1/4 cup.

I hope you enjoyed this post  and it is time for me to check in for my flight to Melbourne! I will continue my blog once I have settled in about a few days. There will be much more nice things to come on The Pastry Dream!

Let me know if any of you tried it and are successful  =)

R.Deou