This is one of my favourite comfort foods growing up. I love eating it both warm and cold (with vanilla ice cream sometimes. Yum!).
The black rice is gives this dessert a really nice nutty flavor, and is also very healthy! That gives you licence to switch out your breakfast oatmeal for this tasty treat.
The rice is easy to get in Singapore. For those elsewhere, look out for black rice or black glutinous rice at your Asian/Thai grocer.
The sugar used in this recipe is gula melaka/gula jawa. This is a type of coconut palm sugar typically made in Malaysia or Indonesia. If this hard to find, try using the Filipino style palm sugar, or just regular brown sugar.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 1cup black rice
- 150gm gula melaka/jawa/brown sugar
- 6 to 8cups water
- 1/2tsp salt
- About 1.5 cup coconut milk
- 1 pandan leaf, knotted or 1 drop pandan essence (optional)
Method
- Rinse and soak rice overnight in cold/tap water.
- Pour away water, then add 6 cups of water to the rice. Add salt and pandan leaf too (if using essence, only add it once pudding is done cooking).
- Bring to a boil, then simmer for 1 to 1.5hrs. Be sure to stir occasionally, especially towards the end to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom and burning.
- While the rice is cooking, melt the gula in a pot with a bit (maybe 1/4cup?) of water. When fully liquefied, strain and pour into the rice. I do this because sometimes there are impurities in the gula. If using brown sugar, you can skip this step and just add it directly into the rice.
- Once the rice reaches a syrupy texture and the rice grains are tender (some will have burst), you’re done! Keep in mind then once it cools down it will thicken more so those who like to eat it cold, don’t over-reduce or else it will be gloopy.
- Serve with a swirl of coconut milk. You may choose to salt the coconut milk a little too if you like. If you are lazy, you can also just add all the coconut milk into the rice pot once it’s done cooking.
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