Fermented Glutinuous Rice (Tapai Pulut)

Fermented Glutinuous Rice (Tapai Pulut)

Tapai wrapped in rubber tree leaves

The fermented glutinous rice





The yeast for making tapai

The fermented glutinous rice is the favourite of the oldies. I found out that many youngsters nowadays do not like the taste and smell of this delicacy. Actually it is a delicious cake. It tastes sweet and have a slightly alcohol smell. It is also very juicy once it is done. Maybe it is the alcohol smell that makes these youngsters shun away.

There are many superstitious belief when making this cake. I was told by my late mother that our body and thoughts must be clean before making this fermented glutinous rice. Some of things that you must follow is that you must say good things so that this cake will turn out good.

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo glutinous rice

1/2 biscuit yeast

20 pieces banana leaves (20 cm x 10 cm)
or rubber tree leaves

Method:

1. Cook the glutinous rice in a rice cooker just like cooking plain rice.

2. When the rice is cooked, cool it completely in a container.

3. Pound the yeast till very fine. Sift it on top of the cooked rice. Spread it evenly on top of the rice.

4. Turn the rice on the other side and sift the remainder yeast on top of the cooked rice.

5. Put the rice in an air tight container and then wrap it with a towel. Put in a dark place and let it ferment for 2 days. After 2 days the rice is ready to be wrapped in banana leaves. Keep in the refrigerator.

Note: The fermented glutinous rice is best eaten when it is cold. Some people like to eat it together with ice- cream. If you do not have banana leaves you can also put it in a plastic container. I have also seen people use rubber tree leaves.

After 2 days you can see that the rice is whiter and juicy. A lot of the juice can be seen in the container. Sift out the juice before wrapping in banana leaves. The juice can be poured in a bottle and consume when needed.