Despite the title no-frills dessert, I can’t say that I make this rice pudding all the time. In fact, the last time I had this dessert was when I still called myself a teenager.
As I often move around places where there’s no Chinatown or Asian groceries are scarce (not by choice, of course), black glutinous rice is precious in my eyes. When my friend brought this dessert over to my potluck party a couple of weeks ago, I was thrilled to reconnect with my teenhood favourite.
Anyway, since my friend knows how much I wish to recreate this dessert, he gave me his remaining stash to me. Happiness. 
There are many ways you can go about making this. If you like it a bit fancy, you can add palm sugar and knotted pandan leaves to flavour it up. If this is still too plain for you, banana fritters and grilled mango make wonderful accompaniments.
Since this is a rice pudding à la fuss free, only sugar and water is used. You’ll be surprised to find that the rice itself exudes sweet aroma likened to vanilla and pandan when boiling in water and my favourite part of the cooking process is watching the rice stains the water into Ribena-like colour.
Black Glutinous Rice Pudding with Coconut Milk Drizzles
Serves 4 people
Ingredients:
1 cup black glutinous rice ( can be found in Asian grocery stores)
5 2/3 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
about 1 cup coconut milk to drizzle
Method:
1. In a medium sized pot, add water and black rice. Simmer uncovered under low to medium heat for 70 minutes (the reason I say uncovered is so that I can walk away without worrying the mixture will boil over and caramelised on my stovetop – this’d spell disaster). To shorten the cooking time, you can soak the rice a day before.
2. Stir in sugar in the last 15 minutes of the cooking time. The rice mixture will be mushy and thickened around this time, so stir gently to make sure it doesn’t stick at the bottom.
3. Drizzle coconut milk just before serving. My personal preference is to serve while it’s piping hot but it is equally good at room temperature or cold.
Emily’s note: You can vary its consistency at the end of the cooking time. If you like it congee style (my dad for one), add more water and sugar to taste.
zomg ive been thinking of trying to make this all week thanks for the recipe!
Great minds think alike. lol
Hope you’ll enjoy the dessert.
This looks so delicious. I had black rice a couple of years ago. My friend got it in Korea town in NYC. I haven’t seen it since. I think it is probably available in Chinatown. I’ll have to look now!
Wow, this is wonderful…I have never tried this rice, and would not have though for a pudding
Very nice!
I love this dessert!! It’s easy to make but flavorful! I agreed only water and suagr can make a great dessert out of this black rice!
love your photos. they make me mouth water!
Marvelous! I love everything about this dessert! Must try!
Very very nice! Looks so yummy!
I have just discovered your blog, and I love it! I live in London now, but grew up in Australia having been born in Hong Kong. The thing I miss most (apart from family and friends, of course) is the great Asian food in Australia. You say nothing like what is in Malaysia, but SO MUCH better than what is here in London!
Anyway, found your blog and loved it, and loved it even more once I realised it was written from Australia! Keep up the good work.
Looks so yummy and shiny….nice Asian twist on rice pudding!
I love glutinous rice in any color, shape and way…this look so yummie with coconut milk
Sounds delicious – definitely going to try making it if I can find that type of rice here in Europe.
Just wanted to make sure about one thing though, is it really 5 cups of water? Sounds like alot for just 1 cup of rice…?
Hi Christina,
Yes, you need 5 cups of water for this instead of the usual 1:2 ratio of white rice to water.
Black glutinous rice is a bit different from white rice because it is quite fibrous (like brown rice)and husky. Also the correct texture of this dessert is mushy and not to forget, since I’m cooking uncovered, you lost a lot of moisture there. Say if you prefer to cook it covered, then you can reduce the amount of water.
If you still not certain, you can start with three cups and add more later (but you got to watch it more closely from getting burnt). I added 5 cups and so that I can walk away without worrying about it from getting burnt.
Hope this helps.
I remember eating black rice pudding as an offering at the Hindu temple..it was soo good.I am very sure it had baby bananas and jaggery or palm sugar in it. This recipe reminded me of that a lot. thank you
That is a deliciously looking dessert. I would love to this at home and serve it to my family. It only does not give the yummy taste but also the benefits it gives to people. Black rice had been known to contain higher level of antioxidants than blueberries thus making it the super food of the 21st century. Glad to have found your site for this recipe with the detailed instructions I truly can follow.
Is it 5 lots of 2/3 cups of water for the black sticky rice to simmer in?
Receipe looks so easy-very keen to give it a go.
Thanks Shona
Hi Shona,
It’s five cups + 2/3 cups of water.
Hope you’ll enjoy the recipe.
Have a good weekend!
Loved this recipe! I added a little bit of vanilla essence though to give it a bit more flavour (my boyfriend was looking for cinnamon but couldn’t find it so we went with the vanilla). Tasted great!
I’m so glad I discovered this web site! Thanks for all the good tips, I may become a master chef after all
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This is spot on. My wife is from HK and we are living in Australia. Every time we go back to HK for holidays we eat this dessert and this recipe is as close to the HK style as you can get. Excellent and many thanks for sharing.
P.S. Goes great with fresh mango, forget about the canned stuff though.
This is really great!!! I would also suggest adding some fresh mango…
Hi John,
Great idea! Can’t wait till summer when mango is abundant!
Loved making it and eating it too. So did my 2.5yr old who didn’t want any dinner just dessert! Even though I added the 5 cups of water mine stuck a bit as I was busy doing too many things that I almost forgot it altogether but could hear it bubbling away. Thanks for the recipe, it was easy to make.
If you live in Ontario, Canada, you can buy black rice in the ethnic section of Food Basics. It is very reasonably priced.