Pulut Tai Tai

On one fine snowy day,
Ping decided to make something more M'sian for the MSU Malaysian Student Organization Welcoming Party (to greet the new comers...Ping feels so old...it's been 6 years since Ping was one of the new comers), Thaipusam celebration and early Chinese New Year celebration. The atmosphere is totally not like Thaipusam or CNY. Ping wasn't in the mood to make anything 'Chinese' either. Instead, Ping decided to make pulut tai tai. Had a craving for pulut.

Went to Oriental Mart to get glutinous rice (pulut/chu bi) but Ping couldn't find it!!!! Then after looking around and asking the auntie there, Ping found out that it is actually called 'Sweet Rice'. The next thing that Ping need to get is coloring and gula melaka. The closest thing to gula melaka they had is gula jawa or palm sugar. Since gula melaka is also made of palm, Ping decided to get the palm sugar. The gula jawa is packed and wrapped in paper so Ping couldn't see what it's like. Palm sugar look sort of like gula melaka but much lighter and softer. You can break it easily, unlike gula melaka.
The first thing Ping had to do was to soak the glutinous rice in water. Since it was pretty late by the time Ping got home, decided to soak it overnight instead of the 3-4 hours as suggested by Amy Beh. Turned out to be fine. This morning, Ping steamed the rice with coconut milk and pandan extract. That was the only coloring that Ping could find. Others are more for jelly coloring. Ping was thinking of blue when she wanted to make the pulut. But the only time we could get the blue coloring is from 'bunga telang' (Clitoria ternatea). Have yet to see this flower here in Michigan. They don't have it frozen at Oriental Mart either. Unfortunately, the pandan extract is too 'cheng' (diluted) so the color is very pale. The pandan fragrant is pretty strong though. But it also don't have a strong pandan taste. Maybe it would have been better if Ping only used the extract but Ping wanted the coconut milk to make it more 'lemak' so can't add too much extract otherwise Ping's pulut become 'pulut moi'.

Once the rice is cooked and cooling, Ping started melting the palm sugar. The coconut shaving was then added once the syrup is boiling. Initially, the sugar syrup looks very pale, unlike the dark gula melaka. So Ping added more palm sugar, which unfortunately, not only darkens the syrup but Ping's coconut shaving all caramelized into a lump of hard coconut candy. Then Ping realized that she should not boil until the liquid dries out. That would leave only the sugar, which will harden when it cools down. So Ping has to make do with a light brown coconut shavings.
Here's the final product....yum yum!