Coconut Pandan Sticky Rice

Looking for a sweet entrée into Vietnamese cooking? This simple, tasty rice dish uses coconut and sesame to accentuate the natural sweetness of sticky rice. The instructions call for pandan extract, which can be found at most Asian grocery stores (along with all the other ingredients in the recipe). Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 cups sticky rice (also called sweet rice or glutinous rice)
1 cup coconut milk
½ tsp salt
3 tbsp roasted sesame seeds
1-2 tbsp sugar
¼ cup shredded young coconut
3-4 drops pandan extract

Preparation Process

Rinse the rice and soak in water for at least 3 hours (preferably overnight)

Drain the rice and transfer to a rice cooker, then pour in ½ tsp salt, 3-4 drops of pandan extract, 2 tpsp shredded coconut and 1 cup of the coconut milk and toss the ingredients together

Cook in the rice cooker per the instructions on the cooker. If the rice isn’t cooked completely after one cooking cycle, stir the rice, cover the rice with parchment paper and cook for 1 more cycle.

Gently stir the rice together with chopsticks until the rice is translucent and soft

Heat a pan on high heat and cook the sesame seeds until they turn golden brown, then remove from heat and let cool

Grind the sesame seeds down with a mortar and pestle, then stir in 1-2 tbsp sugar, depending on your preference

Transfer the rice to a plate, sprinkle with the remainder of the shredded coconut, then top with the sesame seed mixture and serve

Want to make this and need the written instructions? Just click here to download the full recipe.

Young coconut in the US is imported from Thailand. If finding it locally is a challenge, we just discovered that it is available on Amazon. Check it out by clicking the image below.

Pandan essence can be purchased at most Asian grocery stores, but if you can’t find it locally, you can easily find it on Amazon. Click the image below for details.