How to Cook Bua Loy

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 20 mins

Cooking time: 30 mins

Ingredients needed to make Bua Loy:

• ½ pumpkin, peeled and seeded
• 1 cup sticky rice flour
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 pandan leaf
• 1/3 cup palm sugar
• ½ tsp salt

Cooking instructions for Bua Loy:

• To make the pumpkin puree, chop the pumpkin into smaller chunks and cook them in boiling water, covered, for about 15 minutes or until they are cooked through and soften.
• Drain them out through a colander and dump them into a food processor.
• Pulse them into a smooth puree, measuring to about ½ cup and set aside.
• Fold the pumpkin puree into the flour gradually and knead them together to form a soft, uniformly mixed dough; add more pumpkin puree in case the dough appears dry.
• Pinch out small portions of it and shape them into small ping-pong sized balls.
• Plop one of it into a pot of boiling water to test its chewiness and cook until it floats up.
• Rinse it under running cold water and take a bite of it; it should be gummy and in case it appears too soft, then incorporate a tsp of flour into the dough.
• Drop the rice balls into the pot of boiling water and cook until they hover on the water surface.
• Pass them through a colander to strain and keep them aside until necessary.
• To make the coconut milk sauce, empty the cup of coconut milk into a clean pot, along with palm sugar and a dash of salt.
• Cook the mixture, while stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves.
• Chop the pandan leaf into 3 parts and crush them into the simmering coconut milk.
• Continue to cook the sauce, while stirring relentlessly, to stop it from curdling and simmer it for the last 3 minutes before removing from heat.
• Plop in the sticky rice balls into the above sauce and stir well to distribute them evenly throughout the mixture.
• Spoon it into serving bowls and serve warm.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons