Taro and Purple Glutinous Rice Pudding

I had my last wisdom tooth extracted recently and could only eat soft food for quite a while. Well, better do it when you are young otherwise it takes longer time to recover. In this case, I have been thinking food that needs not much biting and chewing.

Beside western food culture, Southeast Asian food culture also gave quite a lot of influence to Cantonese food. Taro, purple glutinous rice, and coconut are the three most common ingredients in Southeast Asian dessert. They are healthy and tasty with natural sweetness, can be easily obtained everywhere in most of the Asian grocery stores or even any supermarkets.

This dessert can be served warm or you could chill them in fridge, serve cold.

Serve 4

Ingredients –
Taro, 200g;
Purple glutinous rice, 3/4 cup;
Coconut milk, 200ml;
Canned fruit. Well, fresh mango is much better but I can’t eat it now but I strongly recommend fresh mango;
Sugar, brown sugar;
Unsalted butter;
Coconut floss.

How to do –
1. Cook the rice first. Purple glutinous rice washed. In a soup pot, put in the rice and 4 to 6 cups of water. Lid on, bring to boil, then simmer in medium low heat for one hour. Glutinous rice needs a bit more time to cook. Stir and check constantly till the rice congee becomes thick and sticky. Season with 5tbsp of brown sugar;

2. Taro peeled, cut into big chunk, and steam in high heat till it’s cooked. Or you could poach it in water like how you cook potato. Check with a folk;

3. Mash the taro. Add a little unsalted butter\cream\milk so that the mash is smooth. Season with 1tbsp of sugar;

4. In a small sauce pot, put in the coconut milk. Dissolve 1 and a half tbsp of cornstarch with a little water. Mix with the coconut milk. Heat the mixture in medium heat, keep stirring and bring to boil, till it turns thick and smooth;

5. Cool down everything a little;

6. Now let’s start layering. I would prefer more purple rice. Mashed taro at the bottom, press tightly; then purple rice; coconut milk on top;

7. Choose fruit you prefer, or just use a can of fruit cocktail like me. But as I said, fresh mango is the best. A pinch of coconut floss or flake would be lovely;

8. Use a long spoon to crave everything from the bottom.