Recipe: Pulut Tai Tai (Nyonya blue steamed glutinous rice)

We bought some glutinous rice for making lo mai gai 糯米雞, a type of savoury steamed glutinous rice dish commonly found in dim sum restaurants. We had some leftover rice after that, so we decided to try our hand at making Pulut Tai Tai, a popular Nyonya dessert/snack.

Pulut Tai Tai is made using steamed glutinous rice and is usually coloured blue using food colouring or natural colouring from blue pea flowers. Luckily for us, we had an abundance of blue pea flowers growing in our garden, however for our first try the blue colour was not too prominent, hence in the recipe below I have doubled the amount of blue pea flower you should use.

Pulut Tai Tai

Blue pea flower, also known as bunga telang in Malay is easy to grow and the flowers are said to have a holistic quality to them. They are usually dried (under the sun) and can be stored until required. Of course, you can also just pluck and use them fresh. To extract the colour, I usually boil them in a small amount of water for about 5 minutes to release the colours from the flower.

Pulut Tai Tai is usually served with kaya, however it is also good eaten on its own. The best pulut tai tai I've eaten was from Malacca, which is what I'm trying to recreate in my own kitchen. The glutinous rice is first soaked for 4 hours, then steamed with thin coconut milk and blue coloring until soft. Once cooked, thick coconut milk is mixed in to create a dessert which is sweet and rich with every mouthful.

Pulut Tai Tai (Nyonya blue steamed glutinous rice)
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
350g glutinous rice, soaked for 4 hours
1/2 cup thick coconut
1 cup thin coconut milk
1 tsp salt
3tbsp sugar
20-25 blue pea flower (bunga telang)

1. Over low heat, boil the blue pea flower with 1-2 tbsp of water for 5-10 minutes for the blue colouring.

2. Mix the thin coconut milk with salt, then pour in the blue colouring and mix well. Pour the glutinous rice into a flat tray and pour over the thin coconut milk mixture. Steam over high heat for 20-25 minutes, or until the rice is soft.

3. In the meantime, heat the thick coconut milk and sugar over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Once the rice is ready, pour over the thick coconut milk mixture and stir using a chopstick until well combined.

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