Pulut Kuning Birthday Cake (Golden Turmeric Rice Cake)
A delicious Pulut Kuning cake with a subtle coconut fragrance and layered with spicy, mouth-watering meat rendang.
Ingredients
INGREDIENTS
- Pulut Kuning Rice
- 500 g glutinous rice (washed)
- 2 dried tamarind slices
- 1½ tsp ground turmeric
- 800 ml water
- ½ tsp salt
- 100 ml coconut milk
- 2 pandan leaves (tied into knots)
Mutton/Lamb Rendang
- 700 g mutton/lamb mince
- 1 packet rendang mix (200g)
- 1 large onion (cubed)
- 4 dried chillies
- 5 lime leaves (also known as kaffa leaves)
- 3 stalks of lemon grass
- 400 ml coconut milk
- 200 ml water
For decoration
- 1 boiled potato (mashed with a little butter and milk)
- 5-6 hard-boiled quail eggs (stained red with natural food coloring)
- 3-4 grilled prawns (grilled and de-shelled)
- 1 red chilli (sliced into an open flower)
- 2-3 sprigs of coriander
- Serves six to eight
Instructions
Pulut Rice
- Place the glutinous rice, dried tamarind slices, ground turmeric and 800ml water in a large bowl. Mix well and set aside at room temperature for ~4 hours or overnight.
- Drain the rice, remove the tamarind slices and gently wash the rice under running water. Drain and set aside.
- Add some water to a steamer and set it over medium heat. Once the water is boiling, steam the drained rice for 20 minutes.
- While the rice is steaming, mix the salt into the coconut milk. Set aside.
- After 20 minutes, remove the rice which should be sticky and partially cooked and transfer into a large bowl.
- Drizzle 1/3 of the coconut milk over the rice and mix evenly with a spatula. Repeat this step twice using the remaining coconut milk.
- Transfer the rice from the bowl back into the steamer. Add the knotted pandan leaves on top and steam the rice for another 25 minutes until fully cooked.
Rendang
- De-seed the dried chillies and soak it in warm water for ~10-15 min. Once softened and expanded, grind it in the food processor into a chilli paste.
- Sauté the chopped onions in a little oil until it is caramelised and golden. Add in the chilli paste and stir fry till fragrant.
- Next, add in the rendang mix followed by the lemon grass and lime leaves. Sauté till all the aromatic spices are well combined, sweltered and fragrant (kitchen will smell heavenly at this point!)
- Add in the mutton and combine well with the rendang spice.
- Stir in the coconut milk and mix well. At this stage, taste and sprinkle a dash of salt and pepper if desired. (I added only just a pinch of pepper as the paste is already tasty).
- Simmer the sauce until it is reduced to a dry stew texture and fully absorbed by the meat.
Assembly
- Place a 8 inch spring form tin (without the base) unto a cake board and spread evenly 1/3 of the steamed sticky rice into the tin.
- Layer the mutton rendang evenly across the rice. Repeat with the sticky rice and meat rendang until a three layer rice cake is formed.
- Carefully release the finished cake from the springform. Pipe mashed potato around the cake border.
- Decorate with a red chilli flower and celebratory red quail eggs. Top with coriander and juicy cooked prawns.
Notes
This is a rice cake, it tastes the best when the rice is freshly made. The do-ahead would be to cook the rendang and to soak the rice the night before. I steamed the rice on the morning of the celebration and prepared the cake decoration items. Together with the nicely warmed up rendang, I assembled the cake in less than 20 minutes. If there are any leftovers, these should be stored like any rice and curry dishes and kept in the fridge, best consumed by the following day.