The Day After and Banana Leaves

As I am not accustomed to the effects of drinking, I usually try not to put myself through the torture for the next morning of the BDO Iron Chef night - can't say that for someone I know who felt sick from overeating and perhaps, overdrinking. *LOL*

Since the Croc Dundee team had decorated their stand with banana leaves, at the end of the night, I managed to convinced that giving me the banana leaves was a better idea than putting it in the bin. Call me 'kiam siap' as you may but it costs about AUD$2 for me to get 3 small pieces of banana leaves at the markets which also depends on the availability. But in payment, I was asked if I know how to make a sticky rice with coconut topping dessert. So this is the result. I hope this met the Joan's expectations.

Pulut Inti

Ingredients:
Banana Leaves
Glutinous rice
300gm glutinous rice
1 blade of pandan leave (aka screwpine leave)
pinch of salt
½ cup of coconut milk
3 tablespoons of water
Coconut topping
120gm gula melaka
50gm sugar
1 tbsp water
1 ½ cups freshly grated coconut

Method:

1. Wash the glutinous rice until water runs clear. Soak overnight. If you are time restricted, you don’t necessarily have to let the rice soak overnight as I have done.
2. Dissolve the salt in water.
3. Place banana leaves at the bottom of a steamer and place glutinous rice, water, knotted pandan leave and two teaspoons of coconut milk on top of banana leave and allow it to steam.
4. Moisturise the rice with the addition of coconut milk every so often until the coconut mulk is used up.
5. Allow rice to be steamed until soft.
6. Leave glutinous rice aside.
   
7. Bring to boil the gula melaka, sugar and water until the sugar partially dissolves.
8. Add grated coconut to the sugar and fry until the coconut has absorbed the dissolved sugar and becomes partially translucent.
9. Leave to cool.
10. Pour hot water over banana leaves to soften the leaves and to prevent it from splitting so easily.
11. Place two tablespoons of rice in the middle of a roughly 20cm x 10cm rectangular banana leaf, waxy & matt side up.
12. Using banana leaf, try to compact the rice together and then top it with the coconut mixture.
13. Wrap the longer dimensions of the leaf over the glutinous rice and tuck sides towards the bottom as pictured in the photograph.