Sago Pudding

Having spotted a packet of sago pearls in the oriental store, I could not resist the temptation of picking it up. I imagined myself making red bean soup with sago, mango coconut dessert with sago and so forth. In the end, I decided to go back to basics and make sago pudding.

As this was my first time making this, I was abit freaked out when the sago refuse to turn transparent even after 15 minutes of boiling and stirring. After waiting for some time, they did turn transparent in the end.

Sago pearls itself is tasteless but I like the texture. Drizzled with some gula melaka sauce and coconut milk, who could resist such a dessert as the weather gets warmer?


Sago Pudding
220grams sago
250grams of palm sugar
150grams of rock sugar
200 ml of thick coconut millk
250 ml of water
pinch of salt
pandan leaves (I obmitted this)

Boil all the sugar and water over low heat (with pandan leaves if desired). Simmer till sugar melts. Stir and set to cool.
Mean while, boil a big pot of water. When the water is boiling, add sago in. Continue stirring till the sago turns transparent (It may take up to 20-25 mins of stirring). Once it is transparant, drain from pot and rinse under cold water. Divide sago in cups or bowls. Chill.
Drizzle each sago pudding with coconut milk and sugar syrup.

Before I forget, Happy Deepavali!

Mango Sago

Sorry for the disappearing act for the past few days. Been a little crazy! The good news is I'm on schedule for planned deadline.

How can anyone resists mangoes? Mangoes and Durians are my favourite fruit-not necessary eaten together of course. Maybe having a favorite fruit runs in the family. My mum, auntie, grandma and I love mangoes!

So anyway, it's the mango season in Australia now. One mango for AU$1. Really cheap, fat and sweet mangoes. On one of the warmer days, I decided to make a cool dessert; hence mango sago.

I love the way these little pearls look. Look at them shimmering and shining under the light. It's a cheap dessert as well. Certainly worth doing it at home rather than having it in Yum Cha (or Dim Sum) restaurants!


Mango Sago
1 cup of sago
1 mango cut in cubes
4-6 teaspoons of sugar
1 can of coconut milk
1/2 pot of water + 1/2 pot of water

Boil water and add sago. Keep stirring till the sago becomes transparent. Drain and wash sago under cold water.

In the 2nd 1/2 pot of water, bring it to boil. Add sugar and stir till it dissolved. Lower the heat and add coconut milk. Add sago and mango. Add more sugar if required.

Cool and chill before serving.

You can also replace mango with honeydew, watermelon, peaches....etc!

BurBo Char Char My Sweet Malaysia

It's the time of the year again! Malaysia's Merdeka Day. Merdeka Open Day 2009 is hosted by Babe in KL. Although I am not Malaysian by birth, my dear husband is. After participating in this event for 2 years, this 3rd one is the first one that I will be entering as a Mrs. Just like the other two though, I asked hubby to pick his choice of dish given that he is the Malaysian!

This time round,the theme is My Sweet Malaysia. Hubby wanted me to make BuBor Char Char - This is an nonya dessert that features lots of different textures. The little glutinous rice balls, sweet potato cubes and of course yam/taro cubes in creamy coconut.



I haven't had this dish for ages-probably 5 years at least and to make this was a challenge due to the number of steps. Still, it wasn't hard just a tad time consuming!


Bubor ChaCha

Tapioca Flour Cubes
300 grams Tapico flour
1tsp bicarb
colouring (red, blue, purple)
200 ml boiling water

Sago
1 cup of sago boiled in hot water and rinsed with cold water.
Sweet Soup
200 grams sweet potato cubed
300 grams taro cubed
1 can of coconut cream (I used lite and flavoured instead of the real thing. Big mistake!)
500 ml water
8 pandan leaves
300 grams rock sugar
pinch of salt

Tapioca Flour cubes
1) Sift flour and bicab. Pour boiling water and stir.
2) Knead to form dough. Dive dough into 3-4 parts and add food colouring.
3) Flour your hands. Roll them in little circles or cubes.
4) Bring saucepan of water to boil.Add cubes. When cubes float up, drain.

Sweet Soup
1) Steam sweet potatoes till cooked. Same with taro
2) Bring 500 ml of water to boil with pandan leaves
3) Add rock sugar
4) Add coconut cream and salt. Taste for sweetness. Add taro and sweet potato cubes + tapicoca tubes + sago.
5) Serve hot or cold!

Baked Pandan and Coconut Milk Cake

A very belated post. Late January, it was hubby and granny's birthday. Turns out that this year, Granny's Chinese birthday (according to the lunar calender) is the same as hubby's English birthday!

On the day itself, hubby bought his own birthday cake. I felt so bad.. but work means that I did not get home till late that day. It was a sweet day though as granny waited till both hubby and I are back, staying up late to cut her birthday cake (Sharing with hubby of course). I rarely have the chance to celebrate granny's birthday-given that I'm not in Singapore often. I think she senses it too, that despite my working hours, we sincerely want to spend it with her.

To make it up, I decided to make a cake that I thought will make both of them happy. It has to be something slightly different since granny isn't a fan of sweet creamy cakes. I decided to adapt a Nyonya recipe from one of Andrew Kow's cookbook "Nyonya Kuih with Passion". It has coconut- so I know it will be a winner with hubby.

While I was making it, granny commented that it is unusual to be cooking the batter on the stove before baking it. Indeed. The batter will become very thick-like when one is making yam or radish cake.

The result is.... a happy granny and hubby. =)

Baked Pandan and Coconut Milk Cake

200 grams Rice Flour
80 grams mung bean flour
150 grams of sugar (reduced from 300 grams)
1400 ml of coconut milk (I used 1000 ml of coconut milk and 200 coconut cream)
20 grams of sago powder (omitted as I dont have it!)
pandan essence- around 2 tsp

Oil a square baking tin. Pre heat oven 180C.

Place all ingredients into a pot. Mix well and cook using medium heat. Keep stirring till the batter becomes thick. Bake for 30 minutes till it becomes golden brown on the top. Leave to cool. Cut into pieces and serve.