Sticky Rice Cake with Palm Sugar and Coconut Milk - A Desperate Attempt of Indonesian Street Snack

What comes to your mind when you see something challenging?
A. Yes! I should try! I can do this!
B. .........Oh shit!

Not proud of it, but I am leaning more towards B. Oppps. Rarely From time to time, I welcome challenges and feel excited...but most of the time, including the time I heard that the cooking together (Masak Bareng Yuuk) event 's theme is Indonesian street snack, and not only that...the snack has to be made of rice...."oh shit" was really the first thing that came to my mind. I've never attempted any Indonesian snacks at home. Whenever I miss them, I'd dig deep into my pocket and just buy some. So, I initially planned to "miss" this event, but after some intense discussions with my blogging pal, Deetha, I gave it a go.

I started making this snack without any expectation of success, not aiming to create any specific classic snack. I was thoroughly submissive of what the result was gonna be, it was a desperate experiment.

My plan was to throw the following:
- Sticky rice
- Palm sugar
- Coconut milk
- a pinch of salt
into a pot, cook them for a while and see how it goes....

Sticky Rice Cake with Palm Sugar and Coconut Milk

I realised that I haven't even tried cooking sticky rice before. I imagine it should be the same as cooking regular rice, which is..dump them into the rice cooker and press cook. I assumed I could do the same with this thing, and when I heard the beep, I would have some sweet and fragrant sticky rice thingy, ready to be consumed.

Clearly, I was delusional. Cooking sticky rice is a gadzillion miles away from cooking regular rice. It has to be soaked, it has to be steamed, and then cooked again, and possible steamed again. Whoa! Was I ready for that? Not really. But with a pack of sticky rice on my hand...and the fear of that pack of rice being thrown onto my face by Deetha (albeit virtually - hehe no, Deetha is sweet and not at all violent), I got onto it and did this very dubious snack, which despite of it looking miles away from any classic Indonesian snack, tasted bloody fantastic. Sticky, sweet and fragrant.

Recipe
- 1 cup of white sticky rice, soaked overnight
- blocks of palm sugar (add bit by bit until you reach the desired sweetness)
- a pinch of salt
- coconut milk (I use 200 ml)
- water (add when necessary)

Cook soaked sticky rice in a bit of water, add coconut milk, add palm sugar and pinch of salt, adjust taste until it is perfect for you and all the coconut milk are absorbed. Set aside, let cool. When you want to consume it, steam until the cake is done thoroughly. You can create a sticky rice cake "sandwich" by adding mashed bananas or durian in between, or serve it with creamy coconut milk, or consume as is.

Hope I won't say "oh shit" again next month and take whatever challenge with courage and optimism (nah, that doesn't sound like me, does it?)