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Looking at these beautiful pictures of Pulut Inti, a decadent Nyonya kuih, it suddenly dawned to me that I haven’t had pulut inti for the longest time. Pulut inti was my late grandmother’s favorite Nyonya kuih. When I was growing up, there was this Benggali/Punjabi kuih hawker (he would carry his kuih container on top of his turban) who came by our house every morning. Grandma always bought his pulut inti, wrapped nicely in a banana leaf parcel, with the filling (inti) exposed and unwrapped.
In the front yard of our house, grandma also grew a “bunga telang” plant—the key ingredient used to color the glutinous rice (sticky rice) to a natural blue. The bunga telang were plucked off the vine of the plant and let dry under the scorching hot sun in Penang for a few days. Then, my family rejoiced as it meant grandma would make pulut inti or pulut tai tai, another legendary Nyonya kuih served with kaya, or coconut and egg jam. Please welcome Siew Loon as the contributor again as she shares her pulut inti recipe, a special Nyonya kuih that probably brings lots of bygone memories to many of us.
Contributor: Ho Siew Loon
Pulut Inti has always been my daughter’s favorite and I took the opportunity of the long weekend (Hari Raya holidays in Malaysia) to make some. Cooking and wrapping the rice with banana leaves really remind me of my childhood days in Penang. Surprisingly, my 9-year old daughter picked up the wrapping skills very well and she wrapped most of it…
Pulut Inti is a popular sweet Nyonya Kuih. It is made of steamed glutinous rice with coconut milk and eaten with coconut filling. “Pulut” means glutinous rice and “Inti” means filling in Malay. Blue pea flower or “Bunga Telang“ in Malay is being used to color the rice. It gives the rice a very sweet natural “blue” color.
(Click Page 2 for Pulut Inti Recipe)
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OMG, thanks for posting this pulut inti recipe. It was my favourite Nyonya kuih too and haven’t had it for so long I almost forgot about it.
Ooh, I love this, remember it. Love all yummy desserts wrapped in banana leaf.
Nyonya kuih is a beautiful culinary art. It’s really a shame it doesn’t get noticed much on a global scale. Well, hopefully one day, through this blog. :)
Mouth watering pulut inti. One of my favorite desserts. I always love the blue color in the rice.
Can you tell me where I can get dried blue pea flowers even online sources? I live in NY…thx
Unfortunately, I don’t think you can get it here in the US. I am not sure, but most likely not.
hi sorry to be such a bother… i really want to make this for my mothers bday…i am very new at cooking so i have a few questions…when steaming the glutinous rice can i use a rice cooker? if so do i have to add water in order to steam it?…
oh yes, you can use rice cooker. You can add some water (about 10 Tbsp) to the soaked rice but make sure the water is not above the rice level. Cook like normal and add the coconut milk when the rice is cooked. Leave it in the cooker for another 10 mins. Reduce the coconut milk a bit if rice is too soft.
ok after further research i see how to steam it…but another question arose…when i steam it…do i wrap it still in the leaf? or steam the rice as a whole…cause i don’t get how to mix in the coconut milk and salt? plz help =(
You wrap it after steaming the rice. Please boil your banana leaves with boiling water for aboit 3 minutes to soften it.
wow.. it looks delicious..
Hi there. Nice & informative website. However, I like to defer with your statement that Pulut Inti is a part of Nyonya cuisines. I am quite sure the origin of Pulut Inti is from Kelantan, one of the East Coast states in Malaysia.
I’m really trilled to find pulut inti. Is there any substitute for blue pea flowers? I lived in US and you can’t get that here.
You can add in a bit of blue coloring or just cook it without the coloring.
It’s really a shame it doesn’t get noticed much on a global scale. Well, hopefully one day, through this blog
If it hadn’t been for your blog, I would never have known that those beautiful blue pea flowers overgrowth in my garden were used for colouring food. I dried so many and I am now running to soak the rice and make pulut inti. I cannot thank you enough. I am so sure very soon this will become a global delicacy, because traditional cusine needs to be saved and people over the world need to know about it. hanks.
Hi! I love most nyonya kuih. Using bliue coloring to replace the bunga telang won’t affect the aroma and taste? Is it easy to grow the flower? Thanks.
No it won’t.
Thank you so much for all the nonya kuih recipes! Now I’m all geared to make all the kuihs you have in your blog :D
I cannot find the flower. Can I replace it with pandan leave water instead ? But the colour will turn out green right ?
You can’t use pandan leave water. You can use blue coloring.
how much descisscated coconut should i use? they dun sell grated coconut in US…
Yes, they sell grated coconut in the US, in the frozen section.