Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Pandan infused coconut rice pudding

As noted previously, I *finally* got my hands on some delightfully fresh pandan leaves on the weekend. As one of my favourite flavours, I was eager to make a dessert that used these fragrant leaves. I needed a simple recipe that I could make with limited ingredients. I settled on a variation to my usual rice pudding (whereby I replaced one cup of milk with some light coconut milk and the pandan leaf took the usual spot of vanilla, cinnamon and citrus zest). To say I was amazed by the subtle and delicious flavour of this dish is perhaps an understatement. I think this one will be a definite "repeat offender" on my dessert repertoire. 


On a related but different note, in searching for a recipe using pandan leaf, I noticed that this delectable ingredient is not featured commonly on food blogs or recipe sites. Accordingly, I hope that this post gives others some ideas (and confidence) for cooking with it - it's well worth it! 

Pandan infused coconut rice pudding 


You can see that I used long grain rice in this recipe. While this is not typically optimal for rice puddings, it was all I had in the house and actually worked out much better than expected. 






Looks simple, right? I can tell you that it definitely was, but the combination of flavours most certainly boasts the wow factor! I'd be interested to know what other people like to make with pandan leaves. Next for me is a pandan sago pudding. I shall be reporting back on that little experiment shortly.

7 comments:

  1. Uh....I LOVE pandan! Have no idea where to find it or what to do with it, thought. But I'll happily eat anything containing it :) The smell is out of this world.

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  2. I know - it's absolutely delicious! Try an Asian grocery store - they're often stocked in the freezers there. It is pretty rare to see them fresh in Australia and I suspect the same would be the case for NZ...

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  3. Hey G looks good. Glad it worked out well. In the US and Canada they refer to pandan as 'screwpine leaves', some bloggers up north will have recipes featuring them. I think most recipes for pandan flavoured items will feature the extract because it's easier to get, but you can always make your own. I believe Poh has insturctions for that on her site somewhere.

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  4. You're a screwpine! :P
    Nah, good tip though...I shall Google and see what I find.
    While I find extract convenient, it never has my desired intensity of flavour - a vanilla bean and vanilla extract, for example, can't be compared. Mind you, they are handy to have in the pantry as a back-up.

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  5. Oh ps. SE Asians make sticky rice pudding. You should try getting your hands on some glutinous rice, and the method of cooking and result is very similar.

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  6. Pps. http://curiouslyravenous.blogspot.com/2007/10/pandan-panna-cotta.html

    I'd tried pandan panna cotta at a restaurant once and it was devine, have yet to try and make it though!

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  7. Oooh, nice one, V! Don't know about cooking with gelatin though - not normally my thing. It is rather tempting though...

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