Black Rice Pudding Recipe and Casa Luna Ubud Cooking School

When I first moved to Hong Kong I was not a big fan of asian desserts but they grow on me the more time I spend traveling throughout Asia. We were in Bali for my friend's wedding last year and did a day trip to Ubud to take the cooking course. We made this delicious black rice pudding with coconut milk among other dishes at a cooking class at Casa Luna Cooking School.

Our class started by making a simple Hibiscus tea, which turns to a startling pink colour when lemon or lime juice is stirred in at the last step. Next we made Rujak a sweet and sour salad made with cucumber pineapple and dressed with tamarind, shrimp paste, chili, palm sugar dressing. Then we started making 2 different curry pastes, one for Pepesan Ikan (grilled fish in banana leaves) and the other paste for Tuna Mesanten (fish curry). The pastes were  made by first finally chopping all then ingredients then slowly grinding them together using huge mortar and pestles made from volcanic stone. Everyone in the class took turns grinding the pastes together. It takes some serious elbow grease. This could also be done with food processor but I am not sure you would extract as much flavour but it would make it a lot easier! Next we made a Kangkung Pelecing (Spinach with tomato sambal) and a refreshing Acar (carrot and cucumber salad). Then to finish up, the black rice pudding. Most of the pudding was prepared before we arrived because the rice needs to be soaked and boiled for an extended period of time but we were given good instructions to make it at home.  Once all the food was prepared, we sat and enjoyed our lunch accompanied by a tasty sweet rice wine. Rice wine usually tastes like it might make you blind; I was very surprised by the sweet rather than overly alcoholic taste. 

We tried out a bunch of restaurants whilst we were in Bali but I have to say the food we cooked at Casa Luna was the best food that we ate during our trip. I would highly recommended it if you are ever visiting Ubud. 

The Casa Luna kitchen

Making Hibiscus Tea

Rujak - Sweet and Sour Salad

Making curry paste

Palm sugar - used to sweeten the rice pudding

Pepesan Ikan - Steamed fish in banana leaves - Fish ready to be steamed

Cooking the Tuna Mesanten (Fish Curry)

Kangkung Pelecing - Spinach with tomato sambal 

Lunch - all the dishes we cooked at our cooking class!

Bubur Injin - the rice pudding we cooked in our cooking class

My home made pudding with fresh mangos

Bubur Injin

Black Sticky Rice Pudding With Mango

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Waiting Time: 8 hours

Cooking Time: 1 1/4 hour

Serves: 4

1/2 cup black sticky rice

2 Tablespoons sticky white rice or plain white rice

1 pandan leaf 

1 cinnamon stick

1 vanilla bean 

200g brown sugar or palm sugar 

sea salt

2-3 cups coconut milk 

1. Soak black rice for 8 hours or overnight. 
2. Add the white rice to the black rice 2 hours before cooking to soak.
3. Put rice and water it has been soaking in into a sauce pan and extra water so that it is about 10cm above rice. 
4. Boil the rice with a pandan leaf, cinnamon stick, vanilla bean until most of the water has evaporated. This should take around 1 hour. 
5. Lower heat add brown sugar and sea salt and simmer until sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick and glossy. 
6. Spoon pudding into bowls and top with coconut milk and fresh fruit such as mango. 
7. Enjoy.

A pandan leaf and cinnamon stick in the rice pudding

Ingredients for the rice pudding

Casa Luna Cooking School 

Honeymoon Guesthouses 

Jalan Bisma, 

Ubud, Bali 

Indonesia 80571 

Phone: +62 361 973 282 

Fax: +62 361 973 282 

www.casalunabali.com