This Thai glutinous rice dessert is a great introduction to the subtle flavours of Thai sweets. It also offers great fun making it too!
My childhood memory
As a child, I love frequenting the food markets with my mum. Not only that she buys everything she thinks was needed to feed a family of 5, but she also buys ANYTHING that’s not a real necessity for the meal. Munchies for the road, pre-dinner nibbles, post-dinner palate cleanser, dessert to have now, dessert to have later and anything in between. I’ve never had a sweet tooth and neither is my mum, but she would always pop by this Thai dessert place to get our sugar fix.
When my mum first brought me to the stall, I remembered feeling intrigued by these beautiful copper pots (very traditional in Thai dessert-making) which host the colourful, floating little jewels.
So when homesickness strikes, I guess the best cure for it is for me to play pretend that I’m still being comforted by the flavours of home away from home. It’s the kind of dessert that I look forward to making just as much as eating it.
What are Thai desserts?
Many of the Thai desserts will feature coconut as a star ingredient, mainly because of its abundance. We use coconut at every stages of its life. From coconut milk, derived from the grated aged coconut flesh to the use of the young coconut meat themselves. We even serve them in coconut shells! So nothing really goes to waste. For coconut water, we’ve also found ways to preserve them by turning it into sugar. Similar to how you would make maple syrup, coconut sugar is made by simmering down coconut water until the sugar is concentrated. These are formed into blocks that are widely used in both dessert and savoury dishes to season the dish with a bit of sweetness.
Unlike the western countries, the wheat crop is not widely grown in many Southeast Asian countries therefore desserts over in Asia will not typically have the same texture profile. Rice, and its many forms, are often used in cuisine. Glutinous rice flour, in particular, is featured in many desserts.
Have fun with your glutinous rice Thai dessert
Step 1: Choose your colouring
By this, I mean what sort of nature colouring do you have. I recently bought a beautiful Delica pumpkin from Natoora which was perfect to make yellow coloured little jewels. I also had a butterfly pea which gives a beautiful blue/violet colour. For pink, I’ve gone for beetroot. I’ve spiked this one with a little rose water which I found makes it really beautiful.
Although not used in this recipe, you can also use purple potatoes (obviously for purple), pandan for green, taro is also traditionally used for off-white. There are really all sorts of things you can try here.
Step 2: Infusing coconut sauce
The original recipe will call for pandan which is a vanilla replacement in Southeast Asia. Another funky ingredient is to use smoked coconut milk. But I’ve gone with a less traditional combo which I thought works – lemongrass.
Step 3: Flavouring your coconut sauce
The thing about Thai dessert that I vibe with is that the sharpness from the sugar, really isn’t that sharp and it all comes down to the type of sugar that’s used. Coconut sugar or palm sugar is generally made in a much simpler method – the juice from the fruit is boiled and hence concentrated with sweetness. Therefore, I think the purity of this speaks for itself. It’s somewhat got a roundness to it that blends beautifully with anything you flavour it with. My point is, to use these over the cane sugar granules. At the end of the day, if you don’t have access to either coconut sugar or palm sugar, cane sugar also works 🙂
Step 4: Poaching eggs in syrup (optional)
Simply poach the egg just like how you would make a breakfast poached egg. A few tips I always find work is to stir the poaching liquid in one direction, to create a whirlpool, this way it makes it easier for the while to hold. Also, always use a fresh egg for the same reason. The egg white holds themselves better when they’re fresh.
Thai Glutinous Rice Dessert with Coconut Sauce
Ingredients
Colourful Jewels
- 150 g Glutinous rice flour
- 40 g Steamed and mashed pumpkin
- 6 butterfly pea flowers (dried or fresh)
- 2 tsp Grated red beetroot
Coconut Sauce
- 500 g coconut milk
- 2 tbsp coconut sugar
- 2 tsp caster sugar
- 2 Stalks fresh lemongrass
Poached Egg
- 2 Whole Medium eggs
- 500 g water
- 150 g caster sugar
Instructions
Making the colourful jewels – for blue:
- Weigh out the glutinous rice flour to 50g and place in a bowl, soak the butterfly pea flower with 40g of warm water for about 5 minutes until the liquid turns deep blue.
- Slowly add the liquid into the bowl of rice flour whilst kneading until the flour comes together into a dough.
Making the colourful jewels – for pink:
- Add the grated beetroot into a 40g of water then slowly add to a bowl of 50g of glutinous rice flour
- Constantly knead until the flour comes together into a dough ball
Making the colourful jewels – for yellow:
- Add the mashed pumpkin into a bowl of 60g of glutinous rice flour and knead until the flour comes together into a dough ball
- Add a bit of water if needed as you knead if the mixture is too dry
Assembling the dessert
- With each colour, take a tiny bit of the dough and form them into small balls with your fingers. I like them small so I recommend a diameter of 1cm. They can be left out to dry without covering.
- Make the coconut sauce by simmering the coconut milk in low-medium heat. To the pot, add lemongrass and Pandan leaves that have been tied into a knot. Leave the sauce to infuse for at least 20 minutes.
- Make the syrup by dissolving sugar in the water and bring to simmer then poach the egg in the syrup. Fish out the egg and set aside.
- Next, we'll cook the glutinous rice balls by first removing the herbs from the coconut sauce and turn up the heat to medium.
- Then add the colourful glutinous rice balls to cook in the coconut sauce. They will float as soon as they're cooked, this should take about 2-3 minutes depending on the size of the balls.
- To serve, make sure it's warm then dish out the glutinous rice balls with coconut and place the sweet poached egg on top.
Make it your own
I really believe that the best part about cooking is the ability to really make a recipe your own. So go have some fun and please share your creations with me if you’ve taken any inspiration from this recipe. I love to see them 💛
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