I strongly recommend that you try making this dessert when you have time and gather enough ingredients, though there are only several items. This is one of my all time favourite desserts as it is simple to make and the taste is always wonderful. It is very healthy as well and I don’t have to worry about its fat or sugar content.
It is a kind of sweet soup with the combination of black glutinous rice with yogurt, and when you mix them together, you will have a purple sweet soup. I can have a cup of this soup at anytime of the day. The taste is a well-balanced sourness and sweetness. It’s interesting to chew the rice grains between your teeth. If you are good at recognizing tastes and flavors, you will feel the appearence of pandan essence in the soup as pandan leaves are added to the soup during cooking.
When cooking the rice, I like to let the sticky substances of the rice itself to slightly thicken the soup. Some people use either cornstarch or tapioca starch as thickening agent. I often prefer using tapioca starch.
Ingredients:
- 100g black glutinous rice
- 5 pandan leaves
- 4 cups water
- white sugar or rock sugar
- 2 tbs tapioca starch
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 cup plain yogurt (I prefer home-made yogurt)
Method:
- Wash the rice and pandan leaves well. Put them together with water in a large saucepan, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer until the rice grains are tender and chewy.
- Add sugar as much sweet as you like, but I prefer a medium sweet taste for this soup. Cook until all the sugar has dissolved.
- Whisk the tapioca starch with 1/4 cup water and gradually stir into the soup. Cook until heated through and the soup becomes thicker. Remove from the heat and discard the pandan leaves. Let the soup cool completely.
- Mix the cool black glutinous rice soup with yogurt and serve. You may alter the yogurt amount until you find our your most favorite combination.
Lauren on Wed, 23rd Sep 2009 4:44 am
Thanks for the recipe. This was my favorite way to end a hot night in Hanoi http://tinyurl.com/llda3r.
In the little snack shops there, there was a bowl of shaved ice to mix into the rice/yogurt, which helped you cool off as you snacked. Plus a indulgent drizzle of sweetened condensed milk. Perfection in a cup.
Kokotaru on Wed, 23rd Sep 2009 6:52 pm
Hi Lauren, I read one post on your site that reported your travel to Hanoi. I had to say wow for lots of information you shared there and many things are unknown even to local people. I’ve been away from Hanoi for 4 years while studying abroad and returned for short holidays only. I didn’t eat out much so I myself don’t know about all the recommended eating places. Just one information that I came across from your blog: I ate once at Pepperoni’s and I didn’t like the food there either after I had read about Italian food and practised making some dishes. But somehow, they are still doing a good business with more shops around Hanoi. That’s life in Hanoi with many things I can never know and explain why
Tu Le on Tue, 23rd Mar 2010 9:44 am
After reading this post, i really want to taste this dish again. When the summer comes to Hanoi, a cup of black glutinous rice with yogurt can refresh my mind and body. Unlike your cooking, my mother steam the black glutinous rice like steaming every other glutinous rice and after that put some sugar and yeast to the rice and store for one day. I think this dish is most delicious when the rice has a bit smell of alcohol and a mild sweet taste. For me, my mom is an expert in making this dish (Miss mom and Hanoi so much). Anyway, your cooking give me one more option of cooking this dish. Oh, where can i buy the black glutinous rice in Singapore?