Banana and Glutinous Rice in Sweetened Coconut Milk

Just got back from my vacation and while I am sad that it is over, I am happy to say that more posts will be coming soon! But before that, today, I would like to talk about the 2016 Primary School Assessment Test (UPSR).

The results of the 2016 UPSR were announced today. This year’s candidates are the 1^st cohorts who sat for the test under the new UPSR format in line with the implementation of the Primary School Standard Curriculum which also emphasizes elements of the Higher Order Thinking Skills.

Alhamdulillah, my husband and I are relieved that my daughter has obtained good results for all subject except for her B.Malaysia – Writing paper which is less satisfactory. I felt sad for her as I know how hard she studied. She reads well but she is weak at writing, when she writes essay, she would first write it in English then later translates it to B.Malaysia. We even sent her for private tuition to help her improve in B.Malaysia.

She comes from an ideal Malaysian ‘muhibbah’ family – father is Malay-Indian, mother is Kadazan-Chinese and yet is unable to speak the national language fluently. Yes, I know what you people out there might think of us. The thing is that my husband and I speak different languages so as not to confuse the children more, we decided to choose only one language to be our home language and our children dominant language.  It was difficult in the beginning with our first child. Although I’m bilingual it felt strange speaking English so I also spoke my home language to my children but then my husband didn’t understand me!

Our son go to government school whilst our daughter is studying at a missionary school therefore they get plenty of B.Malaysia at school but when they are home, we speak to them in English even when they respond in B.Malaysia, we maintain English environment.  That is the least I can do to help my children since I can’t afford to send them to boarding schools in UK or international schools in Malaysia.

I am not saying that my English is good enough to teach my children but the point here is, like it or not, English is the universal language and the main issue that is more significant is about the declining standard of education in Malaysia -- that includes the shocking standard of English taught in our schools.

I still remember a few years ago when my estranged father called my working place to look for me then left a message to return his call as I was engaged on the other line; my colleague was so amazed that it became the hottest topic of the day -- my father speaks English very well. She said she didn’t know that my father is an educated person considering that (unlike her) I come from a rural area. She was more surprised when I told her that my father was the product of a British school. Even my maternal grandfather speaks English fluently because he studied at a missionary school. However, should I be ashamed if my parents don’t know how to speak English or speak broken English? Why should I, it’s not their native language. 

Okey dokey…Let’s get down to our main business!  So, in order to cheer my little girl up and get her mind off of the ‘less satisfactory’ result (at least for a little while), I decided to make this dessert.

Banana and Glutinous Rice in Sweetened Coconut Milk

Ingredients

2 cups thick coconut milk

2 ½ cups water

¾ cup palm sugar

½ tsp salt

10 pcs Sabah banana - peeled

½ cup small pearl sago – washed and drained

1 pandan (screw pine) leave – washed and knotted

Directions

In a pot, bring to a boil, 5 cups of water and drop the pearl sago in. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Occasionally stirring to prevent it from sticking to the bottom or the side of the pot.

After 10 minutes, it will turn partially translucent. Turn off the heat and let it stand (covered) for 10 minutes to continue cooking by itself. Then rinse it through a sieve to remove the excess starch. Set aside.

In another pot, combine the water, palm sugar syrup, salt and pandan leave and bring to a boil over medium heat.  

Add the coconut milk and bring it to a boil once again. Keep stirring at this stage as we don't want the coconut milk to curdle. Discard the pandan leave.

Add the bananas and turn down the heat then simmer for about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the cooked pearl sago. Leave to cool completely.

Serve with glutinous rice.

Note:

This is also delicious with durian in place of the bananas. You don’t need a thickening agent for this dessert as the gravy will thicken a bit as it cools.

Steamed Glutinous Rice

Ingredients

500gm glutinous rice

200ml coconut milk

400ml water

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

Directions

Wash the rice and soak atleat for 3 hours.

Drain the rice and put them into a steaming tray.

Combine the coconut milk, water, sugar and salt then stir to mix well. Pour over the rice. Steam the rice for 15 minutes.

Take out the steaming tray and fluff up the rice and continue to steam for another 15 minutes or until the rice is done.

Remove the steaming tray. Set aside to cool.