Ingredients

Serves 4-6

Rice
2 cups black sticky rice, soaked in 4 cups water for 6 hours
500ml water
1 tablespoon sesame oil
5 tablespoons castor sugar
8 treasures = a mix of nuts, lotus seed, dates and other dried fruits from a Chinese grocer
250g coconut custard


Coconut custard
400ml coconut cream
4 tablespoons castor sugar
4 tablespoons custard powder
2 tablespoons cold water


Cellophane Hay Stax
150g cellophane noodles
Oil for deep frying
100g snow sugar (available at essential ingredient) or icing mixture


Black Sesame Sauce
50ml water
100gm sugar
50g ground black sesame seeds (Asian grocers)
30ml hot water


 

Method

Rice
Drain the rice thoroughly and place in saucepan with the 500ml water and cook gently until soft, about 45 minutes – add extra water if it dries up before cooking properly.

Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar and oil.

In the base of 4 serving bowls brushed lightly with oil decorate the base with the eight treasures.
 
Carefully add some of the rice, when a ¼ filled add a spoon of custard, top up with more rice.

Place in a steamer and steam for 30 minutes. Remove and serve immediately or cool completely and microwave later.  Top with cellophane hay stax and drizzle with black sesame sauce before serving (recipes below).


Coconut custard
Gently heat the coconut cream with the sugar. In a separate bowl mix the custard powder with the cold water to make a paste. Stir the coconut cream into the custard powder then pour back into the saucepan and bring just to the bowl. When thick, pour back into the bowl and refrigerate until set. It is now ready to use in the rice pudding.


Cellophane Hay Stax
Heat the oil in a deep saucepan or pot to 180ºC.

Add the noodles in two batches and fry quickly until they puff. Remove onto absorbent paper.

When cooled dust with snow sugar or icing mixture


Black Sesame Sauce
Bring the water and sugar to the boil and simmer for a minute, remove the syrup from the heat and allow to cool.

Mix the ground sesame seeds with the 30ml hot water and stir this mix into the cooled syrup. Refrigerate until needed.