Eleanor Ford

Black rice pudding with salted coconut cream

banner

Preparation info

  • Difficulty

    Medium

  • Serves

    4

Appears in

Fire Islands: Recipes from Indonesia

Fire Islands

By Eleanor Ford

Published 2019

  • About

Glossy black grains of rice stuck to our daughter’s baby cheeks has become a familiar sight as she so loves this inky pudding. Any Asian supermarket should sell black rice from either Indonesia or Thailand. It is packed with nutrients and has a great nuttiness, but needs long soaking to soften the fibre-packed hulls before cooking. I like the rice not too sweet (do add more palm sugar if you’d prefer) and a luscious topping of salty coconut cream provides the perfect unctuous contrast.

Ingredients

  • 200 g (1 cup) black glutinous rice
  • 2 pandan leaves, bruised and knotted, or 1 cinnamon/cassia stick
  • 40 g (¼ cup) dark palm sugar (gula jawa), shaved
  • 100 ml (scant ½ cup) best-quality coconut cream
  • pinch of salt

Method

Wash the rice well in several changes of water, picking out any grit or husks. Leave to soak in cold water overnight.

Drain the water and wash the rice again. Put in a pan with 800 ml (3¼ cups) water and the pandan leaves. Bubble uncovered over a medium heat for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until you have a soft, porridge-like rice pudding. Depending on your rice, it may need more water and longer cooking for the grains to yield.

Discard the pandan leaves and stir in the palm sugar. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring, for a final 5 minutes. Leave to cool to room temperature.

Mix a pinch of salt into the coconut cream and serve in a jug to drizzle cool white over inky black.

© 2019 All rights reserved. Published by Murdoch Books.