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?

My experience with 'Nasi Impit'

Nasi Impit



Lontong

 Nasi impit and lontong are basically the same. They differ only in the manner they are made. I would presume the lontong was created by the Javanese using banana leaves to roll and compress the cooked rice instead of cooking in coconut leaves as done traditionally by the Malays. When it is cooked in packets of woven coconut leaves it is called ‘ketupat’. Traditional lontong comes wrapped in banana leaves in cylindrical shapes and are cut across in small pieces before they are eaten.


In this modern age, most of us do not know, (that includes me) how to weave the coconut leaves for making ketupat. It doesn’t help that we used another type of leaves known as the ‘daun palas’ to make our own version of ketupat using glutinous rice.

It did not surprise me when my sons found difficulty trying to make their own ‘nasi impit’ recently for ‘Eid’. You see Ikmal (in Bangalore, India) and Afif (in Sheffield, England) found that they had to prepare their own Eid meal as most of their friends had returned to Malaysia for the Eid celebrations. I remember my Mum has made the ‘nasi impit’ by cooking the rice in water, 3 to 4 times the volume of the rice. The cooked rice is then packed and wrapped while still hot in banana leaves, and then by the newspaper. The wrapped rice is compressed by placing it under the ‘batu giling’.

Batu Giling-Manual Spice Grinder

 (The latter was a sort of manual spice grinder consisting of a thick bed of oblong or rectangular carved river stone coupled with another stone used as a roller. It is the bigger stone that was placed on the wrapped rice).

During my early days as a student in England, being uncreative then, and trying to emulate my Mum’s method, I had used thick books to compress the cooked rice.

'Ready to Cook Mini Rice Cubes'

When the first ‘ready to make ketupat ‘were sold in the supermarkets, I bought a packet as a sample. I then tried to make my own version by placing the washed rice in a plastic bag and pricking small holes around it. After many trials and discouraging remarks from my husband I got the formula right and am now quite confident in making the plastic wrapped ‘ketupat’. In order to save on cooking gas, I soak the rice after placing in the pricked plastic bags for about 2 to 3 hours prior to cooking. Nowadays I add screw pine (pandan) leaves to give a little aroma to the 'ketupat'.

One has to be careful when using plastics in cooking as the plastics can leach and is said to be carcinogenic; though there are disputes on this. The type of plastic that is recommended is made from polyethylene. A thick version is used as the thinner ones will melt on heating. Other types of plastic which contains nitrates, carbonates, chlorates, styrene, etc are not recommended as they may produce poisonous substances when hot.

There is another way to prepare the ‘nasi impit’. This does not involve cooking in plastic bags. You only need to cook the washed rice in a rice cooker with a lot more water (3 to 4 times the volume of rice).Too little water makes it like normal rice and too much would make porridge out of it. Afif can attest to that!

After the rice is cooked, normally after about 2 hours, it is placed in a square dish and compressed using a spatula. The top is then covered with a thick plastic sheet and the rice is packed in using a clean tea- towel. You can place a heavy object on top and place the rice dish in the refrigerator. When overseas, it is better still if you can find a plastic bag which has an interlocking zipper. You can then place the cooked rice in it, prick the bag to make small holes and zip it; and voila, ‘nasi impit’ is so much easier to make.

You are reminded that it is important that you cool the rice first before you cut it into cubes with a sharp knife. Cutting it while still hot will spoil it and may break it to pieces.

Nasi Impit-Ready to Serve with a Variety of Gravies and Soups.



Nasi impit is served with soto soup, satay and satay sauce (or kuah kacang),kuah lodeh and rendang
See my earlier recipe for soto

See my earlier recipe for  nasi impit and kuah kacang (satay sauce)
See my earlier recipe for sayur lodeh
See my earlier recipe for rendang

Of Chinese New Year (CNY) Celebrations and Chinese Food

In Malaysia, we will be celebrating our third New Year next week, exactly one month after the Muslim New Year or Awal Muharram on 29th December, 2008 and the Gregorian New Year on January 1st.

I love the CNY season because we can get all the vegetables like arrowhead and lotus roots and the different types of dried mushrooms.The best part is the lokam.We have bought our third box of lokams now.

During the Hari Raya season, I often see all Malaysians, regardless of whether they fast or not in the month of Ramadhan, rushing to grab offers in the hypermarket. Similarly during the CNY festive period, everybody will be flooding the hypermarket aisles as if there is no tomorrow.The other day, I smiled to myself when I saw a Malay family of 4 trying CNY clothes for each of them. Well, they must be getting ready to join their Chinese friends during the CNY open house. Likewise, during Hari Raya shopping, I often see Chinese ladies trying on the Malay baju kurung or baju kebaya.

This year we have not had a single invitation to toss yee sang yet. Maybe because times are bad.

If you ask me which do I prefer, Chinese or Indian food? I would say, Chinese if it is halal. I remember during my visit to Los Angeles way back in 1999 with my husband, we were treated to a vegetarian dinner at a restaurant owned by a family of Chinese Muslims (from China).In Malaysia up until now, I have never set foot in a vegetarian Chinese restaurant.Vegetarian Indian yes, but not Chinese. The vegetarian meal I had in LA is still the best among the meals I had tasted. The other best meal is at the sushi bar also in LA. The latter was a small bar operated by a Japanese man. I do not know what made me eat the raw sushi and oysters.The wasabi went up to my ears.Somehow the Japanese fare in LA is not the same as the ones back home. Maybe the fish is different. It is not the normal salmon that we have here. And the fact that everything was prepared as we went along, unlike here,which is mostly pre-prepared.

The current trend nowadays is for Malays to open a Chinese restaurant and employ cooks trained by Chinese Muslim chefs. The popular Malaysian singer, Amy, of the rock group, Search, has opened one in Wangsa Link, a new neighbourhood in Wangsa Maju, KL. A friend of mine also opened a Chinese restaurant in Taman Melati Utama, not far from my house. I have yet to pay either restaurants a visit.

The Chinese fried rice is a favorite in Chinese dinners. Often it is served as the last course after a series of courses, when one is already too full to enjoy it.

During the last Hari Raya, I prepared Chinese fried rice for breakfast when a group of relatives visited us.

The recipe I used was as follows:
( You can use 1/3 of the ingredients if cooking for a smaller group)

Ingredients:

9 bowls of precooked rice from the night before.
600g prawns, shelled and deveined
500g diced chicken meat
300g mixed vegetables
6 eggs fried as omelette
4 eggs, beaten
3 tbsp garlic chopped and crushed
1 tbsp black pepper powder
10 tbsp cooking oil
100g butter for flavour

Mix A:

3 tsp Knorr chicken powder, (I use Knorr powder that does not have MSG)
2 tsp cornflour

Mix B:

3 tsp Knorr powder
1 tbsp black soya sauce
1 tbsp cooking oil

C: Garnish:
the omellette,cut into thin strips
some diced spring onions
some sliced red and green fresh chillies
some fried shallots

Method:

Marinate the prawns and chicken meat with A for 20 minutes.

Heat up the oil and butter in a wok and stir in garlic and cook till fragrant.Add marinated chicken and stir till cooked.Add mixed vegetables and fry for 2 minutes before adding the cooked rice and mixture B and black pepper powder.Fold in the beaten egg and mix well. Fry till the rice is dry. Taste. Add more seasoning if necessary.

Dish into serving dish, sprinkle C on top to garnish.

The rice is best eaten hot.

Tips:

• Avoid putting in too much pepper powder as too much will not make the rice tasty. You can also use white pepper if you like.
• Use less garlic if you don't like the garlic taste.

Nasi Beriani Johor

I picked up a recipe magazine at the Mamak store yesterday. I was attracted to the title "250 Juadah Enak Rumah Terbuka". As the festive season is just around the corner, I felt tempted to see what is new. I found a weird recipe putting strawberry jam in a fruit pickle. I prefer my pickles a bit sour not sweet, thank you.

The nasi beriani recipe and the accompanying dishes seems interesting. It is from the owners of a restaurant in Shah Alam. Below is my translation of the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 kg Basmathi rice
1.5 liter water
1/2 tsp beriani powder
3 stalks mint leaves
5 tabsp ghee
1/2 tin evaporated milk
1 tabsp vinegar
a dash of yellow colouring
salt
1 stock cube, chicken or beef flavour
To be fried:

3 star anise
2 stick cinnamon
6 cloves
6 cardamoms
1 large onion

Blended or grounded ingredients:

2 onions
5 cloves garlic
10 cm ginger

Method:

Wash the rice and soak for 10 minutes.Strain.
Heat ghee in a saucepan and add in all the frying ingredients.Stir until fragrant. Add in the grounded ingredients together with the beriani powder and mint leaves.Stir well.Add in water and let boil before adding the rice, evaporated milk mixed with vinegar, salt,and stock cube.I have deleted the sugar as I don' like sweet beriani rice. Stir the mixture. Close the saucepan with its lid and allow the rice to cook over a low heat. After the water has been absorbed and the rice dries, sprinkle in the colouring and stir the rice.

The recipe does not mention any garnishing. I would prefer if you add finely cut Chinese celery (daun sup), toasted cashew nuts and raisins as garnishing.

If the beriani does not cook well because of insufficient water, take it out of the saucepan and steam it in a steamer for 10 minutes.








'

Tomato Rice

Tomato Rice is normally eaten during Eid or any special occasions. it is popular in the Northern State of Kedah.

Ingredients:
1/2 tin evaporated milk
2 tins rice, washed and tossed
1 1/2 tins water
1cm ginger
3 onions
3 cloves garlic
3 cloves (cengkih)
3 star anise (bunga lawang)
3 cardamom seeds (pelaga)
1.5 cm cinnamon stick
1 sprig lemon grass ( serai)
2 screw-pine leaves (pandan)
1/2 tin tomato puree
3 tbsp ghee

Garnishing (Optional):
A handful of raisins
Some cashew nuts, toasted
Fresh cilantro (Chinese parsley or daun ketumbar), Chinese celery ( daun sop) and spring onions( daun bawang)- cut into 1 cm strips.


Heat the ghee in the saucepan or rice cooker. Fry the ginger, onions, garlic, pandan leaves and all the spices.
Add the water mixed with evaporated milk and let it come to the boil. Add the tomato puree and rice.
Stir occasionally until the water dries up. When the rice is nearly cooked, add in the raisins and leave with lid on till fully cooked. Serve the rice in a large plate. Sprinkle the garnishings, if preferred, before serving.

Nasi Lemak (Rice cooked with Coconut Milk)

Ikmal told me tonight that one of his friends prepared nasi lemak on Sunday and sold them for about RM5 equivalent. The nasi lemak was accompanied by a chicken dish.Wow!I thought.This budding doctor is also a budding entrepreneur.The poor boys who don't fancy learning to cook nasi lemak themselves will not hesitate to buy from this lady student.

Nasi lemak is a national breakfast favorite eaten with sambal, fried dried anchovies,a bit of sliced cucumbers, boiled egg and fried peanuts.The sambal is added with either anchovies, prawns or dried squids.Some people add chicken or beef rendang with their rice. Others may eat with fried fish, either fresh or salted.Zaty loves them with dried squid sambal.Ikmal loves a lot of cucumbers with them.(I will explain rendang in the next post as rendang is also normally eaten during feasts and Eid festivals.)

Here is how I make the nasi lemak.Some people put fenugreek, ginger, lemon grass or onion in their nasi lemak but I don't.

Ingredients

2 cups long grain rice
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups coconut milk (from 1/2 a grated coconut)
2 pandanus leaves, knotted

Wash rice until clean then drain. Put rice, and salt in a rice cooker. Pour coconut milk over the rice. (The level of the coconut milk should be 2cm above the level of the rice.) Cook rice until dry then use a wooden ladle to loosen the grains.

Sprinkle the rest of the coconut milk over the rice. Stir to distribute the milk evenly. Stand for 10 to 15 minutes to allow the rice to absorb the coconut milk. Keep rice warm before serving with other condiments.