A friend of mine introduced me to making porridge with glutinous purple rice, and ever since then, I would buy a small pack whenever it makes its sporadic appearance in the supermarket. The high amount of amylopectin is responsible for its sticky quality – yielding a thicker and richer porridge compared to one made with regular rice.
As I was preparing to cook some glutinous purple rice last month, I remembered reading somewhere that rice water, or the water used for washing rice, was good for the skin and has been used by Chinese and Japanese women for centuries. Without doing much research, I went ahead and soaked rice in distilled water at a 1:1 ratio.
Purple rice water
I also had some shikon roots going through a second infusion. It was much lighter than the first infusion so I thought if I used it together with the purple rice water, I might get a lavender-colored soap. Wanting to keep things simple, I decided to use these 2 ingredients in my 2-oil Fil-Castile formula. And instead of my usual unscented Fil-Castile, I added essential oils of lavender and rosewood (all-natural blend since the real thing is endangered and too costly.) At the last minute, I added bamboo charcoal to have some kind of design for the top.
In stark contrast to the dark purple colour that I got with my Shikon and Bamboo Charcoal Soap, this second-infusion batch had a greenish hue when it was wet, and dried out to a greyish bone colour. The colour I had hoped for was not there, but it smelled nice and expensive. 😀
I finally got to test a bar a few days ago. It was slimy, pasty, and barely bubbly. If I really wanted to, I could create a little lather by coating my hands with wet soap and rubbing them together for a few seconds. But if I just glided the bar on my body, there was no lather and the soap was so slippery that it kept jumping out of my hands. Because I like using soap with a good lather, this soap rates low in usage pleasure, but it leaves my skin feeling very soft. My conclusion is that I used the wrong type of rice, but rice water is certainly good for the skin.
As for my sticky purple rice porridge, it was delicious. After cooking it and adding enough water to make it into the consistency I wanted, I seasoned it with a little himalayan salt, added coconut milk for richness, and coconut nectar for sweetness. I forgot to include it in the photos, put I also like to sprinkle it with toasted Japanese sesame seeds, either the white or black variety. Yum.
Glutinous purple rice, coconut milk, coconut nectar/syrup, himalayan salt
Glutinous purple rice porridge.
SoapJam 