I have stock photos of some recipes that I made this summer; one of the is this glutinous rice cake cooked in coconut milk with palm sugar or wajik. This diamond-shaped cake is known as “wajik” in Bahasa Indonesia because it refers to the shape of it, and it’s traditionally made with lots of palm sugar to get the dark brown color. Screwpine/pandanus leaves are essential to get the right aroma for this dessert, but a little vanilla extract for substitution would be acceptable. Mine was a little light in color because I used half palm sugar and half dark brown sugar to see if the wajik differed in taste. So taste wise it was still delicious surprisingly!
Wajik
Serves 4-6
½ lb. glutinous rice
1 cup coconut milk
¾ cup palm sugar, or dark brown sugar
1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1-2 screwpine/pandanus leaf, tied to knots; or ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Wash and rinse the glutinous rice. Soak in plenty of water overnight at room temperature.
Drain the rice and place in a shallow heatproof dish. Steam rice over rapidly boiled water for 20 minutes or just until cooked. Have ready another shallow heatproof dish, greased lightly with cooking oil on bottom and sides.
Put coconut milk, sugars, salt, and screwpine/pandanus leaves in a wok. Heat the mixture to almost boiling over medium heat (the edges will start to bubble); stirring constantly to dissolve the sugars. Do not boil completely because the coconut milk will curdle.
Lower the heat, and add the steamed rice. Stir constantly until mixture is thick and sticky. This process will take about 5-8 minutes, and the mixture should be quite gooey. Turn mixture out onto the prepared dish. Allow to cool and harden, then cut with oiled knife into diamond shapes or serving-sized pieces.
