Giddy Tigers

My husband and I really love nyonya food, but doesn’t everybody, now?  And on top of that love, we, of course, always reserve a special place in our tummies for the sinfully rich and sweet nyonya desserts that completes every nyonya meal. 

Everybody has their favorite nyonya dessert.  Some swear by the colorful bubur cha cha, some totally adore the sago pudding.  For me, it’s definitely hands-down the thick black glutinous rice porridge, otherwise fondly known as bee koh moy in Hokkien.

I picked up a packet of the black glutinous rice in Pekan Rabu, Alor Star a few weeks back at the amazingly cheap price of RM2.50 each (actually it was RM5 for 2), with the intention of attempting to cook this dessert, but only got to it yesterday.

The daun pandan was imported from Ipoh; my parents brought it from their own daun pandan plant when they visited last week.  So we had bee koh moy for dessert last night, with some left over for today 🙂

Here’s my recipe for bee koh moy, surprisingly easy to make! 🙂

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of black glutinous rice (I bought mine from Pekan Rabu), should be about 2 cups.
• Enough water to cook (I used about the same amount of water to cook porridge)
• 3-5 screwpine leaves (daun pandan), knotted
• Sugar to taste (I used about 6 – 7 heaping teaspoons)
• Dried longan, rinsed and soaked for 30 minutes 
• Coconut milk
• 1 tsp of salt added to the Coconut milk and mixed well

Method:

1. Wash and rinse the black glutinous rice well, till water is clear.
2. Put rice into slow cooker and add sufficient water to cover the rice, as if you were cooking porridge.  You can use a regular cooking pot and cook over the stove too, but you’d have to frequently check that the bee koh moy doesn’t run out of water and burn.
3. Place knotted daun pandan into the slow cooker, and cook on AUTO for at least 5 hours.
4. Add the sugar and stir.  Add more or less sugar according to taste preference.
5. Add the longan and cook for 1 hour.
6. Serve bee koh moy  with salted coconut milk.

I didn’t know the *trick* was to use salted coconut milk, till I read about it in recipes.  That certainly added to the sinfulness of this dessert.

Have you tasted this before?  It’s crunchy, slightly sweet…and VERY addictive.  It’s my yummy blast for my childhood past.  My Mum and Grandma used to get it for me from Alor Star when I was a little girl, and while I was making a short visit to the Pekan Rabu in Alor Star 2 days ago, I saw this being sold, and I knew I had to get it.

I don’t even know what it’s called, really…but it’s certainly yummy!  Ahhh….*bliss*