i asscociate our country to a can of mix nuts. many different nuts living together in the same can.
the fact that many different races live together means that we have a myriad of cultures existing on this little ever-reclaiming red dot. i personally find this is the reason that makes singapore special. instead of having one common culture, why not 4?
and when 2 of this cultures collide, namely, the chinese culture and malay culture, it forms a recently overhyped, extremely colorful peranakan culture.
which of course was recently featured on television as an epic drama of the year, The Little Nonya. now, i have to admit that i'm a HUGE fan of The Little Nonya, missing at most 3 episodes in the entire season. personally, i HATE the ending but nevertheless, the whole show was extremely addcitive.
it got my entire family glued to the television every night. with my dad predicting what's gonna happen next every 5 seconds and my mum questioning every single scene in the drama, i simply sit there on my sofa every night enjoying the drama on tv and in my living room.
and with the show coming to an end recently, i decided to satiate my peranakan withdrawal syndromes with a peranakan inspired dessert.
so lets take a look into my cookbook and see what i made this round.
introducing...
putting a little twist to the much-loved Chendol dessert.
for those of my readers who aren't familiar with Chendol, especially readers fom australia, america and the likes, Chendol is a dessert made of beans, brown sugar syrup, coconut milk and this green jelly bits made of flour. it is served cold and is an extremely savoury dessert to slurp down on hot sunny days.
now, the dessert i'm making todayhas a little twist from the regular chendol. i'm making the whole thing as a jelly that u can keep in your fridge and enjoy it whenever you want.
Agar-Agar(Jelly) Chendol
Ingredients
Part A
1 packet/12g of non-colored agar-agar(jelly) powder
850ml water
200g caster sugar
200ml/1 small box of coconut cream
1/3 tsp of salt
5 pandan leaves tied into a knot
Part B
200g chopped gula melaka
100ml water
Others
200g of green chendol strips
20 small containers to set your jelly in (molds)
Directions
Mix all the items in Part A together in a pot and set to boil over low heat. While waiting for Part A to boil, mix the items in Part B together in a pot and cook over low heat until the gula melaka melts and forms a syrup. remove from heat and leave aside when gula melaka syrup is ready.
Now, when Part A is has been boiling for a few minutes, take out one cup worth of the mixture and add into the pot containing the gula melaka syrup. mix well. leave the Part A mixture to slowly simmer. right now, you should have 1 big pot of white liquid jelly and a small pot of brown gula melaka liquid jelly.
put in 1 tablespoon of the gula melaka liquid jelly into each molds. leave for approximately 15 minutes or until it has slightly harden. this will then form a gula melaka jelly top. once it has slightly solidify, put in one teasespoon of green chendol strips and and pour the white liquid jelly mixture until it covers the mold.
leave aside to cool for like 30minutes before shifting it into the fridge.
serves 20.
it will look something like this...
Tadah!
ps: for a healthier version of this dessert, you can substitute half of the coconut cream with low fat milk and reduce the sugar content.
wasn't that difficult right? now, do give it a try and tell me how it goes yeah!
ciao!
