Recipe - Pulut inti

SINCE I had some glutinous rice left over from a recent recipe, I decided not to waste it. I used it for a sweet kuih that is rather common here – pulut inti.
What I like about making pulut inti is its simplicity. The ­ingredients are readily available from any supermarket or wet market.
It also helps if you have a ­pandan bush, as well as a blue pea flower bush in your garden to add a lovely blue shade to the rice.
You can omit the blue ­colouring if you wish, or ­substitute the natural ­colouring with blue food dye.
While this snack is ­simple enough to make, some early ­preparation is required, as you need to soak the rice overnight for it to cook more easily.
Pulut inti
Ingredients
» 300g glutinous rice
» 200ml coconut milk
» 20 blue pea flowers (bunga telang), 120ml water
» ½ tsp salt
» 3 pandan leaves
» 40ml water
» 50g gula Melaka
» 30g castor sugar, to taste
» ½ tsp salt
» 1 coconut, grated (about 200g white flesh only)
Method
1. Put the blue pea flowers in 120ml water to boil. Simmer for 5 minutes, strain and leave to cool.
2. Wash glutinous rice and divide into two portions.
3. Soak overnight one portion in plain water and the other portion in the blue-coloured water.
4. Discard the water used to soak the rice.
5. For each portion of glutinous rice, mix in ¼ tsp of salt and 100ml coconut milk. Stir to mix evenly.
6. Cut the pandan leaves into shorter strips and place them over the rice. Steam the rice for 30 minutes.
7. While rice is steaming, mix 40ml water, castor sugar and gula Melaka and bring to boil to dissolve the sugar.
8. Add the grated coconut to the sugar, and stir until the coconut is coated evenly with the sugar. Keep stirring until the mixture becomes less wet.
9. To serve, scoop one to two ­tablespoons each of white and blue rice onto a saucer, top with same amount of grated coconut.
10. You may also wrap the rice and coconut in a small piece of banana leaf, similar to how it is usually served in eateries, or packaged for sale by kuih-muih sellers.