rice

Blue butterfly pea flower rice

You can forget the old adage that there’s no blue food. Butterfly pea flowers are beautifully blue, and when you infuse any liquid with them, it turns beautifully blue as well. It’s a great addition to drinks, both alcoholic and non. When mixed with an acid, like lemonade, it turns purple, and the swirling colors in the glass are spectacular. Check out my recipe for Lavender Limonade and you’ll see what I mean.

The flowers add virtually no taste, so they don’t interfere with the flavor of whatever you’re adding them to. This beautifully blue rice is the centerpiece of the Malaysian dish, nasi kerabu, which consists of blue rice surrounded by various vegetables, pickles, and sometimes fish or meat.

According to Ayurvedic medicine, butterfly pea flower tea works as a memory enhancer and antidepressant.

So if we’re feeling blue we should drink some blue tea. If we can remember to . . . Makes sense, yes?

You can find dried butterfly pea flowers on Amazon.

The recipe for blue rice is simple. Add a few dried butterfly pea flowers to the water when you make rice, and presto! Blue rice. You can vary the shade of blue by adding more or fewer flowers.

But as with most things, you can make it more special with a few extra twists.

I recommend that you use Jasmine or Basmati rice for this.

There are definite differences among different varieties of rice. If you have a few types in your pantry, do the sniff test. You’ll see that basmati, jasmine, arborio, valencia, sushi rice, sticky rice…each smells different from the others, each one has properties that cause it to cook up with a different texture from the others, and each one is specially suited to certain dishes and preparations. And that’s just for white rice! Whole grain rice varieties have distinct properties as well.

Although it’s more processed than whole grain rice, sometimes only white rice will do for a particular dish, especially when you want the rice to absorb a sauce. Such is the case here. Whole grain rice won’t pick up the color the way white rice will.

Blue rice is especially used in Southeast Asian cuisine and I often add seasonings that are a part of the classic dishes of that region. But there’s nothing wrong with a little fusion, blending together the flavors and ingredients of more than one culture together in the same dish. Try adding other herbs and spices, such as cardamom, fenugreek, ginger, coriander, basil, and onward, as a side with Italian, Indian, French, Mexican, etc, etc, etc dishes. Just use a light hand. You’re goal is to add a hint of flavor, not to overpower the delicate rice. Also, be careful about using spices that will affect the color. (Do avoid turmeric!) The recipe below features the herbs and spices that I’m using tonight, to accompany a Thai curry. Consider it a guide. You could easily eliminate the keffir lime leaves and use butter or olive oil instead of coconut oil to work with a different flavor profile.

Blue Butterfly Pea Flower Rice

I make anywhere from ¼ cup to ½ cup raw rice per person, depending upon whether it’s a side dish or the main feature of a dish. A good rule of thumb is to use a ratio of one cup of rice to two cups of water.

Ingredients:

1 cup jasmine rice, rinsed three times and drained well

2 cups boiling water

¼ to ½ cup dried butterfly pea flowers, crushed

1 tablespoon coconut oil

½ teaspoon salt

1 medium sized clove of garlic, minced

¼ cup very finely chopped onion

2 pairs keffir lime leaves, torn in half

Method:

• Put the dried flowers in a small bowl and pour the boiling water over them to cover. Cover the bowl and let it stand for 20—30 minutes. The color of the water should be a very dark blue, as the color will fade considerably when the water is absorbed by the rice.

• Drain the water from the flowers through a fine mesh sieve, pressing hard on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Then discard the flowers. Measure the water—if it’s no longer a full 2 cups, top it off with plain water to come back to that volume.

• Melt the coconut oil in a saucepan large enough to accommodate the rice—remember that it will more than double in size (the rice, not the pot). Add the onion and cook, stirring, until the onion is soft and translucent.

• Add the rice and the garlic and cook, stirring, for another minute or two so that the rice absorbs some of the oil.

• Pour in the reserved blue water and bring the pot to a boil. Then turn the heat down to very low, cover the pot, and allow the rice to steam undisturbed for 18 minutes.

• Take the pot off the heat, uncover the rice, and use a fork to separate the grains and fluff it up. Then re-cover the pot to keep the rice warm until you’re ready to serve it. Remove the keffir lime leaves before serving.

Did you make it? Was it fabulous?