Pulut Tai Tai

This morning, I decided to soak up the glutinous rice. I soaked about 500gm for making Pulut Tai Tai, a Straits Chinese Wedding Speciality. In Penang, you can buy this Kueh in almost every stalls that sells kueh, and in the 'Ban San' (markets) in the mornings. Blue tints of this kueh comes from the Bunga Telang (Blue Pea flower) that is shaped a little like Morning Glory. This plant can be found in my mom's garden. The colour is very bright indigo and to use it, you pound it, add a little water and extract the colour from it. So far this is the only natural blue colour from plants that I know off.

But in Singapore, I have not seen anyone selling this version in the stalls that sell Nyonya Kuehs. Here they have a similar type call the Kueh Salat but it is steamed with Serikaya on the top layer.

Pulut Tai Tai is cut up glutinous rice and served with a spread of Nyonya Serikaya just like bread or sandwiches.

It has been a favourite of mine since I was very young and I especially love the Serikaya that my Tua Yee used to make, Hainanese version, thick as custard.

Recipe for Pulut Tai Tai

500gm Glutinous Rice
250gm Santan (Coconut Cream)
1 tbsp Sugar
1/3 tsp Salt
Blue Colouring (original recipe uses colour from Bunga Telang)

Pandan Leaves
Banana Leaves


Wash the Glutinous Rice in water, drain the impurities away. Soak 1/2 Glutinous Rice in water. Soak the rest in water and blue colouring in another bowl. Soaking should take about 4 hours.

Drain the Glutinous Rice from the water and blue coloured water. The tint of the colour should have been absorbed by the rice soaked in it. Lay your pandan leaves on the steamer dish. Spread out all the soaked glutinous rice on it evenly. Steam in rapid boiling water for about 15 minutes. Test by eating a bit of the glutinous rice. It should be a like al-dente pasta, cooked but firm to the bite.

After 15 minutes, add the santan that has been mixed with salt and sugar. Make sure you add the santan evenly to cover the rice. At the same time, use a chopsticks to fluff it so that it will be cooked evenly and not totally drenched in santan. When it is all evenly spread out, steam it for another 10 minutes. The glutinous rice should be cooked and soft and absorbed all the santan.

Prepare a pan and lay banana leaves at the bottom of the pan. Discard the pandan leaves and scoop the cooked rice into the pan and flatten the rice to compress it into the pan. If you have, you can use a kitchen tool that mashes potato. Another easy way is to use a similar sized pan and with the back of the pan, press the rice down.

After the rice is compressed and flat at the top, you may let it cool or might like to briefly steam it for another 5 minutes if your rice is not soft enough. Cool the rice and slice into desired thickness. Serve with Serikaya.




The Magic of Sushi Moulds
As I have many of those Japanese rice mould, I used one of it to shape some of my glutinous rice instead. With this bite sized portion, you can leave a bottle of kaya in a squeezable bottle for guests and your family. No mess.

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