Pandan Coconut milk Rice ( பாண்டான் இலை தேங்காய் பால் சோறு )

Pandan Coconut milk Rice

 ( பாண்டான் இலை தேங்காய் பால் சோறு )

Ingredients:

Raw rice or Basmati rice  - 1 cup

Pandan leaves  -  3 nos

Coconut Milk  -  1 cup

Water  -  1 cup

Garlic and Ginger  - finely chopped 1 spoon each.

Steps:

Soak the rice in water for 15 to 20 minutes.

Heat oil or butter in a pressure cooker, saute the garlic and ginger.

Add in water and coconut milk and salt.

Tie the pandan leaf into a knot and drop into the boiling water coconut milk mixture.

Drain water and add in the rice. Cook for 2 whistles and slow cook for a minute.

Fluff the rice and serve the fragrant rice hot.

My Notes:

Pandan leaves is used widely in South East Asian cooking. Long, narrow blade like leaves are aromatic and used as a flavour enhancer in rice dishes, pastries and cakes.

Singaporeans and Malaysians are pandan lovers especially the rice, nasi lemak.

Nasi lemak ( the fragrant rice )is a national food of Malaysia and is eaten with fish sambal, fried peanuts, boiled egg and cucumber.

Pandan leaves are used in many desserts including chiffon cakes and beverages.

The leaves acts as an substitute for fragrant rice like basmati rice. So we can cook pandan leaves with normal white rice to get a fantastic tasty fragrant rice.

The leaves give not only a great aroma to the cooked rice but also believed to be having anti inflammatory and anti microbial properties. 

For the New Year lunch, I had cooked pandan rice and an accomplishment of mixed vegetable kurma. 

Mango salad is also a good choice to go with.