‘Pulut kacau’ is another favourite ‘kuih’ of mine. And, naturally my mum’s is the yummiest. While not an Indian ‘palavaram’ or cake, it nevertheless makes an annual appearance at Deepavali. My mum’s is not just any ‘pulut kacau,’ it is the pink, rosy, glistening variety. Glutinous rice, creamy coconut milk and sugar. Three yesses. This wonderful dessert, makes sweet tooth me, smile happily just thinking and writing ‘pulut kacau.’ Seriously, it is a dessert that makes life worth living.         

I like my ‘pulut kacau’ or ‘wajik’ as it’s known outside the northern states of Malaysia. But, I’ve often wondered how a traditional Malay ‘kuih’ or snack came to be part of the selection of cakes at Deepavali particularly when we lived in Alor Setar. At the time, my mum already had an extensive must-have Indian ‘palavaram’ list. Vying for storage space and pride of place were the usual suspects like ‘nai urundai,’ ‘sugi urundai,’ ‘muruku,’ ‘achuan or achi muruku,’ ‘paitha urundai,’ ‘oma podi,’ ‘porlanga urundai,’ ‘athirasam,’ ‘pachaperu urundai’ and ‘masal vadha.’

In addition, sister number 2 always baked a variety of biscuits using a Sawa Cookie Press. What’s that? It’s a made-in-Sweden (yes, I Googled) kitchen implement with a range of cookie cutters or discs that produces different shaped biscuits. She also baked brown and white pinwheel biscuits. Sister number 3 made coconut candy and coconut biscuits topped with little red cherries. With this buffet of festival offerings, why ‘pulut kacau’ as well?

My mum explained that it was her mum, Tulasi, who had introduced ‘pulut kacau’ at Deepavali. Back in the day when my very much younger mum and dad, and siblings lived in Kangar, Perlis – where I was born. The story was whenever my grandma visited, she would bring loads of goodies and clothes for her daughter and grandchildren. It was no different for the Festival of Lights. A capable cook and baker, she contributed to the then narrower spread of ‘palavaram’ with this delicious dessert.

My grandma, I was told, knows not how to bake or cook in small quantities. Hence, her ingredients comprised 2 cupak or close to a whopping 2 kg of glutinous rice, 4-5 large fresh coconuts and loads of sugar.  Cleaned. Squeezed. Stirred. Cooked. The gooey goodness was left to set in a very wide, circular, slightly indented ‘thambalam’ or pan. In terms of scale, it was bigger than a large pizza pan. To feed the family and distribute to neighbours.  My mum doesn’t do small either. She carried on the legacy of the big pan of pink ‘pulut kacau’ at Deepavali even after we moved to Kuala Lumpur. 

A lot older and much slower now, my mum has handed the reigns to sister number 3. A cooking enthusiast, she has since infused her own creativity and turned this sweet delight even more delightful. She stops the cooking process before the glutinous rice sets completely. Then generously spoons the thick and syrupy mixture into little bowls to be devoured immediately. Heavenly.

Ingredients, measurements and instruction

Again, the ingredients, measurements and instruction are based solely on my mum’s description. A handful is the size of her cupped arthritic hand, cup refers to an old milk tin, a ladle full is the ladle she’s had forever, enough of this or that refers to gut feel and visual appearance, and save some for later means prepare more of one ingredient so that it can be shared and used in another recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 cupak or about 1.8 kgs or 6 cups (milk tin) glutinous rice
• 4-5 cups (milk tin) thick coconut milk ( flesh from 4-5 large fresh coconuts)
• 4-5 cups (milk tin) granulated sugar

Preparing the glutinous rice

• Wash and soak glutinous rice overnight

Preparing the coconut milk

• Grate the coconuts with a coconut grater
• Place the coconut flesh in an electric grinder
• Pour some hot water to moisten the coconut flesh. Give the grinder a whirl
• Squeeze the coconut flesh to obtain as much thick milk as possible

Instructions

• Steam the glutinous rice until well cooked. Keep aside
• Heat the coconut milk
• Add in sugar. Cook the mixture
• Scoop and drop a bit of the mixture into a bowl of liquid
• If it stays put and doesn’t disperse, mixture is ready to receive glutinous rice
• Stir in glutinous rice
• Remove from heat when the glutinous rice fully integrates and soaks up the syrupy mixture
• Pour into pan

‘Pulut kacau’ is a yummy 3 ingredient dessert. Squeezing milk from the fresh coconuts is hard and a little messy. But, my mum’s pink ‘pulut kacau’ is well worth it. The shortcut is to use canned coconut milk and/or buy brown ‘wajik’ from ‘kuih’ shops in the city. Taste? Pretty good but not like my mum’s, naturally.