You usually hear about magical plants that can change colour in fairy tales and storybooks but what if we tell you that there is one that actually exists and very much useful in the kitchen?
Butterfly Pea Magic
Bunga telang or butterfly pea flower is a traditional colouring used commonly in Malay dishes, especially in the east coast region of Peninsula Malaysia. It gives a beautiful purplish blue hue that you cannot possibly recreate using artificial colouring, that we can guarantee you.
Despite its beautiful colouring, unfortunately it is flavourless. So, don’t count on it to add a little more ‘pizaz’ to your food.
DIY Extract
Making the extract is super easy. It only takes a couple of steps. You can use this simple technique to extract the stunning colour of the blue butterfly pea flower, whether to use as a drink or as colouring for your food or craft projects!
Ingredients:
- 5g blue butterfly pea flowers (15 flowers)
- ½ cup hot water
Method:
- Soak flowers in hot water. Basically you want the hot water to just cover the flowers.
- Let it soak for 30 minutes at least prior to using.
Extra tips
- You can also use dried blue butterfly pea flowers if you don’t have access to fresh ones.
- The longer you soak your flowers, the stronger and deeper the colour will be. You can store this coloured water in the fridge for several days.
- The less water you use, the more concentrated the colour of your blue butterfly pea water.
Get That Desired Purplish-Blue Hue!
Now, you have your butterfly pea extract and it is ready to be used! Wondering what should you make first? How about some delicious Sweet Potato Onde-Onde with Palm Sugar filling by Justine Lim? Sounds tempting, right? It tastes even better!