Nyonya Pulut Inti

My brother in-law gave us a packet of uncooked glutinous rice, specially brought back from Singapore.  He reckoned that it was of a high graded one.  As a matter of fact, we have never had any glutinous rice in the house ever since we shifted in 5 years back.  Besides, we have never cooked it either and certainly none of us knows how to exploit it.  So, whether it is high graded or low graded, it does not matter to us even a wee bit. Anyway, thanks to you, bro!

Not knowing what to do with it, my wife, again gave another of her brilliant suggestion.

"Why don't we make pulut inti!"  

"Yeer, so simple" was my only response.

Uninterested, I did not bother to ask her any further and just walked away.  After a few reminders, I finally gave in.  Hesitatingly, I googled search for the recipe and did a little bit of reading.  Little did I realize that I began to lurve and appreciate this classic Nyonya  kuih.

As a Melaka-born Baba, I used to eat this kuih when I was young.  It has been quite some time since my mom and tuah ee (aunt) last made this kuih.  As a kid (even till now), I did not quite crave for this delicacy simply because I was just too lazy to unwrap the banana leaf which would always make my fingers sticky and messy. 

Basically, pulut inti is made of steamed glutinous rice with coconut milk and eaten with dessicated coconut filling caramelized with palm sugar and it's all wrapped in a banana leaf.  "Pulut" means glutinous rice and "inti" means the filling.  The original version of pulut inti will have its pulut soaked with bunga telang (or Blue Pea flower in English) to give the rice a sweet pastel blue hue.  Since I had totally forgotten to hunt some, I would have to settle for the plain colorless rice.

 Bunga Telang (Blue pea flower)

Generally, I find making this legendary kuih so much fun and most importantly, it's so nyonya......

Pulut Inti Recipe
(I adapted this recipe from nyonya food -
http://nyonyafood.rasamalaysia.com)

A) The Pulut

15 dried Blue Pea Flowers
1/4 cup of hot water
300 g glutinous rice
230 g thick coconut milk
1/2 tsp salt

Method:

1. Soak blue pea flower in hot water for 15 minutes till water turn blue. Sieve the water out.
2. Soak the glutinous rice in blue pea flower overnight or about 6 hours.
3. Steam glutinous rice in steamer for about 25 minutes or till rice is soft.
4. Mix coconut milk and salt. Add into steamed glutinous rice and continue to steam for another 10 minutes.
5. Remove and leave to cool.
6. Serve with coconut filling.

 B) Coconut Filling
     150 g brown sugar / palm sugar
     3 Tbsp sugar
     1 pandan leave (knotted)
     1 grated coconut (white part only)
     80ml water
     1Tbsp cornflour mix with 1Tbsp water

Method:

1. Break the brown sugar/palm sugar into small pieces. Combine with the sugar, pandan leave and water. Cover over a medium flame until sugar dissolves.
2. Add in grated coconut and stir till fragrant.
3. Add conflour mixture and stir for 2 minutes. Leave to cool.

Hope you will like this recipe!

Happy Trying!!