Cooking Glutinous Rice (Pulut)

I loved 'pulut' as a child. In fact everyone in the family loved 'pulut'. We, Northerners eat 'pulut' for breakfast, 'pulut' with durians and 'ketupat pulut' during festivals and feasts.Nowadays, I have to go slow on the 'pulut' due to health reasons. I do not cook sweet dishes, cakes or biscuits anymore because there is no demand as the children are all away from home.

When my children were small, I used to cook a lot of pulut dishes. As I had 'inherited' my late Mother -in -law's steamer, I had experimented a lot of steaming recipes with it before I graduated to a larger steamer. The steamer has remained in my home ever since.

We enjoyed 'pulut serimuka', a steamed dessert with creamy pulut as the bottom layer and a sweet green custard on top.Sometimes I adapted it with a top layer made from yellow corn custard instead of the green screw pine flavour. I also made 'pulut pisang ' by using half a banana as filling and then wrapping it in banana leaves before steaming it, just like my own Mum used to do. For a savoury 'pulut', I remember making 'pulut panggang' ('pulut' with a mild spicy hot filling consisting of salted dried shrimp and coconut wrapped in banana leaves and grilled over charcoal or cooked in an oven)  for my daughter's Canteen Day at school. We would sell the 'pulut panggang' and donate the entire takings to the school.

The latest 'pulut' was the 'pulut kuning' I cooked during my second daughter's engagement in August 2009.

My eldest daughter, Nurul had been trying to cook 'pulut' but sometimes, it turned sticky or soggy. You see, 'pulut' rice has more water compared to normal rice. To cook 'pulut' without turning soggy, you need to fill the water or coconut milk up to the level of the rice, before you steam it. Please note that when cooking normal rice, the volume of water is equal or slightly more than the volume of rice. But in the case of pulut, the water volume is less. I have successfully made 'lopis' which I shared with my neighbour; as you make nasi impit, by adjusting the the volume of rice placed in a small cylindrical plastic bag. {'Lopis' is another 'pulut' dish eaten with sweet gula melaka (palm sugar) and scraped coconut}.

Perhaps the traditional method of preparing normal 'pulut', or 'pulut kuning' (yellow glutinous rice or 'nasi kunyit' as popularly known in my home State), is to presoak it in cold water overnight  in a covered pot and adding a few pieces of tamarind (asam keping). In this method, the rice will definitely not be soggy. You add enough turmeric powder to the water to colour the rice when you want to cook 'nasi kunyit'. I do not suggest you use a plastic bowl for fear of staining it yellow with the turmeric. Otherwise, if you want the normal 'pulut', you omit the turmeric powder.

 Steaming the Rice

Fill the lower part of the steamer with cold water and place it on the cooking stove. Light the fire to heat the water. Meanwhile, cut a piece of banana leaf, wipe it clean and place it in the upper steamer. You can use a fine wire meshed strainer if you cannot find any banana leaves.Using this method would ensure that the rice is evenly cooked.

Drain the 'pulut rice' and place it on the banana leaf or the metal strainer in the upper steamer. Cook for about 15 minutes to half an hour depending on the amount of rice being cooked. When the rice is cooked, add salted coconut milk, a little at a time and stir and mix well to ensure that the coconut milk is evenly applied. Continue steaming for a few more minutes. Add more coconut milk if the rice appears dry.

I hope this tips are enough for Nurul to prepare her 'pulut' when she wants to. I will try to post specific recipes from my recipe book later. Meanwhile, why not try this rolled glutinous rice with rendang?

Time to Exercise

All sorts of goodies

Home cooked Nasi Lemak wrapped in banana leaves

Desserts





corn fritters with shrimps in the background and banana chips in front.



In Malaysia, like everywhere else, Muslims fast in the whole month of Ramadhan. When Ramadhan ends , Muslims rejoice when Syawal begins. In most parts of the world, Eidul Fitr is celebrated for only one day and at most 2 days of Syawal; but in Malaysia, especially in Kuala Lumpur, Eid goes on for another whole month. More often than not, Syawal means putting back the weight you lost in Ramadhan!Now that Syawal has left us, it is time to get back on track. By track I mean the jogging track..or the treadmill for some.

Ikmal trying to compensate for the food he has consumed

My greatgrandparents

My maternal great grandparents: Hj Mohd Zainuddin Mohd Senawi & Hjh Pok Rafeah binti Ishak

The pictures on the wall in my greatgrandparents' home I visited recently, make me want to dedicate my present blog post to them. I do not have pictures taken with them but certain memories of them linger in my mind.

My great grandfather was a very friendly man who loves to joke with his grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.He was soft spoken and I never heard him shout at anyone.He lived to a grand age of 106 when he passed away  of old age in 1984. He was the oldest retired government pensioner at the time of his death.

My greatgrandfather never rode a bicycle, nor a motor cycle nor take the bus. His two legs took him wherever he wanted to go; to the mosque  which was about 3km from his house and to our house which was about 6 km away. I remember every Friday he would be knocking on our door early in the morning after he has visited his father's and brother's graves which were behind our house.

Greatgrandfather liked to tease me when I wore trousers when I visited him. In those days, only boys wore trousers!

When I was a little girl, he must have been over 80 years old. I remember him sweeping the garden of fallen leaves and burning  them.Open burning wasn't an issue then.I didn't see him then as an old man because he was very active.

His daily diet consisted of mutton soup with bread. He did not take rice but loved the 'roti jala' (sort of meshed pancake) eaten with curry. I also remember him eating 'maa'jun' (made from spices) to maintain his health.

Greatgrandfather used to shave his head. That was long before the current trend when young men would shave their heads. I remember how he loved to lie on my lap knowing how ticklish I would be.

Hj Mohd Zainuddin had 13 children with his one wife, Pok Rafeah. My grandmother was the eldest. He married her off to his brother's son and they in turn had 11 children, of whom my mother was the eldest.

The day I left to further my studies in the UK he was there to pray for my safety during my journey overseas. He lived to see his great-great granddaughters (piut) -my two elder daughters- before he died.

My great grandmother was a very fair woman while her husband was very dark. Whenever I visited, I used to play with her 'gobek'. The 'gobek' was a tool used to blend the betel nut, tobacco and lime (kapur) before being folded in the betel leaf and chewed. It was normal for old ladies to chew betel leaves in those days. Since my grandmother did not carry on with this tradition, I enjoyed playing with the gobek everytime I visited my greatgrandparents. I only pounded and chewed the betel nut, though, as I did not like to get my teeth all red from chewing the whole concoction.

The day I started school, I went to school from my great grandparents' house and not from my grandmother's house where I lived. I remember my greatgrandma saying, 'you will study hard and be as clever as your granduncle', her youngest child; who went to England and graduated as a lawyer at the age of 21.

Greatgrandma was the one who called the shots when I wanted to get married in 1977. I was the first 'cicit' (greatgrandchild) to do so. The term used was 'melangkah bendul' as I was getting married before my elder sister.It created quite a fuss then. After the 'akad nikah' (solemnization of marriage vows) my great grandma said, ' I am relieved now that you have someone to look after you in the land far away from us all' I was relieved too that she had blessed my marriage.

Greatgrandma passed away in May 1979 before I finished my studies in the summer of 1979. She missed seeing her first great-greatgranddaughter by only a few months. 

My only regret was that I was too busy that I did not visit her on the last day before I returned to England to continue my studies after my wedding. When I returned 2 years later, she was gone. Nowadays, I make it a point to try to visit old folks especially  those whose health are failing and seek their forgiveness before it was too late.

 AlFatihah for my 'Tok Nek Wan and Tok Nek Pok'. May Allah place their souls among the righteous and among those whom He loves.