Che Dau Trang (Vietnamese Pudding with White Beans and Sticky Rice in Coconut Milk)

This is very tasty. A lot of my friends said it looked gross or sounded too weird to eat, but it was exactly what we needed. AND it is delicious! MMMMM.....

For a 2-quart pot, you'll need:
1/2 cup dried black-eyed peas, soaked overnight
1 cup glutinous rice
2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1 15-oz can coconut milk

Optional: Crushed peanuts for serving.

Soak 1/2 cup dried black-eyed peas overnight. Or if you're in a hurry, you can use canned beans,
just make sure they're unsalted.

Rinse beans and add to pot with 2 cups of water. Turn heat to high and when it boils, turn the
heat down to medium-low to simmer for about half an hour for the beans to soften. Obviously,
you can skip this step if using canned beans since they'd already be soft. Add 1/2 cup sugar,
1 can of coconut milk, and 1 cup uncooked glutinous rice and let simmer for another half hour to
cook the rice until soft. I like my rice to be the consistency of rice porridge. Taste and add more
sugar if you've got a sweeter tooth than mine.

Serve warm or cold. Add a sprinkle of crushed peanuts on top if you wish.

Enjoy!

GK's notes: Obviously we skipped the peanuts, but I bet they would be good. *sigh*
I added probably 1/8 c more sugar than she calls for, but that's obviously optional! In addition, I used brown rice, because A: I like it and B: it's healthier. Dh wants me to try the sticky rice, so next time I will. I'm sure it will be good, too. =) It took much longer for my beans to get done, like an hour and a half, but they had been left out of the water for a whilebetween soaking and cooking, and may have dried back up some. Soak those beans really well, folks!