Spatula, Spoon and Saturday

Cookbook Challenge Week 19

Book: The Songs of Sapa by Luke Nguyen Theme: Rice Recipe: Aunty Eight’s Sweet Corn Pudding

Recently, there had a staff change in Spatula, Spoon and Saturday production. Tragically, my little Nikon Coolpix which I used to take all photos featured on this blog had met with a little tripod accident. And while it still functions perfectly, it no longer fits on the tripod. So to cut the long story short, Josh is now in charge of all home cooking photography. You may not see this straight away (beside this post) because I have a huge backlog of posts so chances are other than the Cookbook Challenge, they would probably be backlogs. But let’s face it, there’s a huge difference between my and Josh’s photography. It’s pretty obvious. Equipment difference for one, but he also studied photography properly. I’m still in charge of ‘styling’ (if you can even call it that) and any digital manipulation (which is mostly none, because I’m that lazy) and of course the random rambling text that you are now reading!

So enough about staff change, back to the Cookbook Challenge and we are now in Week 19 and I’m still behind of course. My mother-in-law Lyn has a fondness for anything coconut and because I have a few sweet corn on the cob, I figured I should kill three birds with one stone and make this recipe. Yes I realise the main hero of this recipe is sweet corn but really there are many many Southeast Asian desserts that are made from rice, this just happens to be one of them.

Dessert for four people

1. 3 corn-on-the-cob
2. 1/3 cup of sticky rice (also known as glutenous rice despite having zero gluten content)
3. 1/3 cup of sugar (I used raw sugar)
4. 1 cup of coconut milk, reserve 4 tbsp for topping
5. 1 fresh pandan leaf, cut into 1 inch squares
6. 2/3 cup of water
7. 1 tbsp of sesame seeds, toasted

De-cob the corn (is that a word?) but running a sharp knife along the corn cob to extract the kernels. Bring water to boil and add the sticky rice, chopped pandan leaf and the leftover cob. Bring to boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring constantly. Add more water if necessary but not too much as we will be adding the coconut milk later.

Fish out the pandan leaf and corn cobs, add the corn kernels and bring to boil again. Add sugar and stir until it dissolves. Add coconut milk and let it simmer on low heat for another 5-10 minutes until the sticky rice is completely soft and the corn kernels cooked through.

To serve, top each serving with a tablespoonful of coconut milk and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.