How to make Malaysian Cendol
Here’s my first proper food post on the blog and I can’t think of a more interesting dessert to kick start this with. This ubiquitous South East Asian dessert called cendol is something I grew up eating a lot of in Malaysia. It has the magic divine combination of palm sugar, coconut and pandan (screwpine leaves) which flavours make up the base for a majority of sweets from this region. And really, any dessert with shaved ice goes down well in the tropical heat!
For this post I’d like to focus on the Malaysian version of the dessert. Although you can find many variations of cendol - some places serve it with durian, red beans or palm seeds - the original version is made up of 4 components: the cendol (a short, green noodle-like jelly where this drink also gets its name from), coconut milk, palm sugar syrup and shaved ice.
The main difference with the Malaysian version is that we use a local palm sugar called gula melaka. It has a richer, more complex flavour profile of brown sugar and molasses compared to the more common pale straw-coloured palm sugar which has lighter caramel and butterscotch notes. In Australia gula melaka can easily be found in most Asian supermarkets and they usually look like small logs the colour of chocolate. If you can’t find this, you can use regular palm sugar too.
After going through almost every cendol recipe on the internet and trying out a few, I couldn’t find one with the texture I wanted so I decided to write my own recipe. The only way to do that was to experiment with my own starch ratios.. it was a fun, messy evening and I’m excited to share my first recipe here with you!
Malaysian Cendol
Serves 4-6
Gula melaka syrup
300g gula melaka, roughly chopped
3 pandan leaves, knotted
150ml water
Method
Combine in a small pan and bring to boil. When all the sugar is dissolved, take it off the heat, strain and set aside to cool.
Coconut milk
1 tin coconut milk (approx 270ml)
1 pandan leaf, knotted
1/2 teaspoon salt
Method
Combine, bring just to the boil, strain and cool. Watch it like a hawk - overcooking coconut milk can cause it to split. You can use the coconut milk straight out of the tin if you’re pressed for time but of course it tastes better with a little more effort.
Cendol
75g mung bean flour (also known as green bean flour, hoen kwe/hun kwee flour)
25g rice flour
600ml water
15ml pandan juice (from approx 100g leaves - see notes below*)
1 tsp sugar
pinch of salt to taste
Before you start, set aside a bowl of cold/ice water and a piping bag. If you have a potato ricer with large holes, you can use this to shape the cendol as well. If you’re a stickler for detail like me, a piping bag gives you better control.
Method
1. To make the cendol, combine all the ingredients above in a mixing bowl. You can add some green food colouring if you want it greener, personally I don’t like that bright radioactive green that you get in commercial cendol.
2. Strain the mixture into a pan and cook on medium heat. It will start to coagulate at the bottom as the starches react to the heat so make sure you keep stirring it throughout so that it cooks evenly. Using a whisk is ok but as it thickens I find a silicone spatula much more handy. You can also use a Thermomix.
3. When the cendol starts to solidify and looks a bit translucent, it’s ready. At this stage it should not ribbon off your spatula but still quite soft and holds its shape somewhat.
4. Pop it hot into the piping bag you set aside earlier and pipe straight into the bowl of ice water. The ideal size is approx. 1.5 - 2 inches long and just slightly thicker than spaghetti. Let it set for about 10 minutes…
5. …and your cendol is ready to assemble! Simply spoon the cendol into a glass, top with shaved ice, coconut milk, palm sugar syrup and enjoy :)
Where to find
These should be available in most asian grocery shops but here are some specific places in Sydney:
Fresh pandan leaves
• Thai Kee IGA, Level 1, Market City, Chinatown
• Pon Tip, 16 Campbell St. Chinatown
• Mae Cheng, 18 Campbell St, Chinatown
• Hong Phuoc, 297 Illawarra Road, Marrickville
• Maroubra Oriental Grocery, 926 Anzac Parade, Maroubra
• Randwick Oriental Supermarket, 61-63 Belmore Rd, Randwick
• Sunrise Produce (weekends at EQ Markets Moore Park)
Gula Melaka
• As above, and
• Miracle Supermarket, World Square, George St
• Ayam brand gula melaka syrup can be found in most supermarkets including Woolworth’s
Notes
* Pandan juice can be made a few ways. Traditionally the leaves are pounded in a mortar and pestle with a few drops of water and the resulting pulp is squeezed for the juice. A more convenient method is to blitz in a blender with water and then strained - if you do this you can add some of the water in the recipe to the blender. It will be diluted but this is fine as we’re combining everything together. If you have a slow juicer you can also run the leaves through it to extract the juice. Alternatively, you can use pandan extract/paste which is easier to find.
** You can add pretty much anything you want to this - kidney beans boiled in sugar syrup, nata de coco cubes, sweet corn, grass jelly and durian are some more common additions
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