Pressure Cooker Black Sticky Rice Dessert (Bubur Ketan Hitam / Bubur Pulut Hitam)

Learn how to make black sticky rice porridge/ bubur ketan hitam (bubur injin )conveniently with a pressure cooker without having to soak the glutinous rice. So creamy, gooey, and delicious with a simple tip to make it cooks faster too. Instruction for cooking on the stove and rice cooker are included too.

DELICIOUS CREAMY BUBUR KETAN HITAM

Bubur ketan hitam is also known as bubur pulut hitam or bubur injin in Bali. Ketan or Pulut means glutinous rice. Hitam means black and so the English translation black glutinous rice. Black glutinous rice is one of the popular ingredients used in the dessert in Southeast Asia such as: kue koci gula kelapa and Coconut Black Sticky Rice with White Chocolate Mousse I made a while ago.

BLACK GLUTINOUS RICE (KETAN HITAM/PULUT HITAM)

Despite being called black glutinous rice, the rice grains actually have a purple hue to them after cooking. Black glutinous rice is also known as black sticky rice or black sweet rice. Don’t be mistaken with black forbidden rice or wild rice. Black glutinous rice is sticky, and gooey after being cooked. I like the sweet mild aroma of black glutinous rice. I find it very aromatic!

HEALTH BENEFITS OF BLACK GLUTINOUS RICE

1. Fiber

Black glutinous rice is unprocessed and it is high in fiber. As we know fiber helps to lower blood cholesterol and improve blood sugar level.

2. Unprocessed

Because it is unprocessed, it retains vitamins and minerals, and also high in anthocyanin, a pigment that gives is purplish hue color after cooking.

WHY YOU’LL LIKE THIS RECIPE

1. SIMPLE

Making bubur ketan hitam is never a complicated business. All you need are black glutinous rice, sugar, coconut milk, and pandan leaves if you have some.

2. NO SOAKING REQUIRED FOR PRESSURE COOKER

I love making bubur ketan with pressure cooker. The cooking time is not necessarily short, but I like that I don’t have to stir or add water (like the case in boiling on stove-top). It’s convenient.

3. NO-COOK COCONUT SAUCE

In the past, I usually heat the coconut milk until warm, but I’ve learned in recent years that coconut milk/cream retains its health benefit when you don’t expose them to heat, just like why cold-pressed coconut oil is good. So, any chance I have, I try not to expose them to the heat and usually when you boil the coconut milk, they “break” and turn frothy

VARIETIES YOU CAN DO WITH BUBUR KETAN HITAM

You can add the following beans to bubur ketan:
1. Mung beans
2. Red beans/adzuki beans
You can do half half: 100 gr beans and 100 gr black glutinous rice. If cooking on stove top, just soak the beans together with the rice and then cook them together after that. No soaking is required if cooking with pressure cooker.

Bubur ketan hitam with mung beans added

Don’t underestimate the humble look of bubur ketan hitam. There is nothing fancy about its look. This dessert is loved by many in Southeast Asia, including me. Bubur ketan hitam is so soft, gooey, and topped with that slightly salty coconut cream and I’m willing to go into a food coma for this! No kidding!

TIPS FOR CREAMY GOOEY TEXTURE

Bubur pulut hitam has a creamy, gooey consistency with soft with some bite from the rice texture because of the starch released from the grains during cooking.
1. IF THE RICE IS NOT SOAKED AND THE RICE GRAIN IS WHOLE (NOT BREAK INTO SMALLER PEICES)
Most recipes you see only require 15-25 minutes pressure cook time, why mine is set to 1 hour 15 minutes?
First of all, I don’t set this time just out of anywhere. I tested the recipe without soaking the rice and pressure cooked from 15 minutes all the way to 1 hour 15 minutes. This is how the rice looks like after 40 minutes of cooking and instead of creamy and gooey, the liquid is basically like a soup

The rice is cooked and al dente at 40 minutes of high pressure cooking

The liquid is still soupy and not creamy and gooey because the rice grains are still intact and no starches are released to make it thick

Then I continue to increase the cooking time and it is nice and gooey at 1 hour 15 minutes cooking time and 10 minutes natural release. It’s a pretty long time, but remember that you don’t have to stir or babysit like you would if you were to cook it on the stove.
2. IF THE RICE IS NOT SOAKED AND THE RICE IS BREAK INTO SMALLER PIECES (RECOMMENDED)
Then I decided I need to try to break the rice grains in a blender. I don’t want to turn it into a powder, but just want to basically break the rice grains into smaller pieces to see if it helps to shorten the cooking time and it did.

The whole thing turns creamy and gooey much faster too. 30 minutes + 10 minutes natural release are doable with this little extra step.

*Recipe is written for 6-quart Instant Pot. Cooking time should remain the same for 8-quart size but will take longer to pressurize. I recommend not to half the recipe for 8-quart size as it may trigger a “burn” alert. You need to cook at least the amount calls for in the recipe. For mini duo (3-quart), I recommend to half the recipe and use the same amount of time to cook*

Pressure Cooker Black Sticky Rice Dessert (Bubur Ketan Hitam / Bubur Pulut Hitam)

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

Total Time 50 minutes mins

Servings 8 servings

4.9 from 16 reviews

REVIEW & RATE PRINT

Ingredients

0.5x1x2x

US CustomaryMetric

• ▢ 200 gr Black glutinous rice
• ▢ 150 gr Coconut sugar or palm sugar, or more if you like it sweeter
• ▢ 800 ml water (for pressure cooker and rice cooker) You may need add about 1000 ml of water if cooking on the stove
• ▢ 3 pandan leaves knotted

Coconut sauce:

• ▢ 1 cup coconut cream if using canned, shake before opening
• ▢ ¼ tsp salt or more to taste

Instructions

 

Soak the rice if cooking on the stove:

• Rinse the black glutinous rice briefly with a water and drain off water. In a big pot, soak the black glutinous rice overnight (at least 4 hours) with water enough to submerge all the rice
• Discard the water the next day and proceed to break the rice in a blender or food processor if you choose to do so

Break the rice in a blender or food processor :

• I should have thought of this earlier but I had my AHA moment the other day when I made this again and decided to break the rice grains in a blender. We don't want it to turn into a powder because it's nice to still be able to see and bite some of the grains. Rinse the black glutinous rice briefly with a water and drain off water
• Put the rice in a blender or a food processor and pulse it a few times, about 5-6 times (depending on your food processor or blender)
• Do this until at least most of the rice grains are broken. Remember we want them to be in smaller pieces and not into a powder. When you cook, the starch will release faster making it creamier and shorten the cooking time

Cooking on the stove:

• Put the broken rice in a heavy-bottom pot. Add water. Bring it to a boil and then add pandan leaves and sugar. Lower the heat to medium and simmer until the black glutinous rice is broken, soft, and gooey, this may take 45 minutes to 1 hour or longer. Stir it to prevent catching at the bottom of the pot every now and then. You may need to add water if the water dries up before the glutinous rice turns soft and gooey and has the thick porridge consistency

Cooking with Instant Pot Pressure Cooker:

• Put the rice in the inner pot of Instant Pot. Add sugar, pandan leaves, and water. Give it a stir. Close the lid. Turn the steam release valve to seal. Press "pressure cooker" and make sure it's on "high pressure" and set the timer to 30 minutes and then wait 10 minutes to release pressure

Cooking with a rice cooker:

• Put the rice in the inner pot of the rice cooker. Add sugar, pandan leaves, and water. Give it a stir. Close the lid. I have a brown rice setting and I use that to cook this bubur pulut hitam, otherwise, just set to cook and repeat cycle if it's not thick enough

Coconut sauce:

• Mix the coconut sauce with salt. Stir to mix. You have an option to serve the coconut sauce without cooking (I like it this way now when I have an option not to expose the coconut to any heat) or you can just let it come to a gently simmer until it's warm and remove from the heat

Serving:

• The bubur ketan hitam can be served warm or room temperature. Generously ladle some coconut sauce over the bubur and serve immediately

RECOMMEDED TOOLS

Instant Pot

Dutch Oven

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