Let us go local today...with a favourite dessert aka the Cendol-lah!
Essentially it is a steamed cake made from three types of flours: rice, green pea and tapioca.
It is flavoured with the holy trinity of Malaysian flavours: pandan, gula melaka or palm sugar and coconut milk.
The recipe is from the great Nonya cook, Debbie Teoh's Nonya cookbook. It is jam packed with different Nonya kuih recipes that makes me salivate over everytime I flick through the pages.
It is a little tedious but the wobbly kuih you get in return is so worth it.
Needless to say, it is utterly delicious that we both polished it as quickly as we can once the photo shooting session was over.
Kuih Talam Cendol (Makes 2 moulds)
cendol layer (top)
3/4 tablespoons tapioca flour
1 tablespoon rice flour
1/2 tablespoon green pea flour
75ml thick coconut milk
100ml water
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
100g cendol, drained
gula melaka layer (bottom)
75g palm sugar
225ml water
1 pandan leaf
30g rice flour
12.5g green pea flour
3/4 tablespoon tapioca flour
50ml thick coconut milk
1/8 teaspoon alkaline water
To prepare top layer: Combine tapioca flour, rice flour, green pea flour, coconut milk and water together in a bowl until there are no lumps. Sieve mixture into a clean pot. Add sugar and salt. Cook over low heat until mixture thickens in about 5 minutes. Add cendol; mix. Pour mixture into the mould. Steam for 15 minutes. Remove.
To prepare bottom layer: Boil the palm sugar, water and pandan leaf until it melts. Leave to cool. Sieve to remove any impurirties. Add remaining ingredients and cook over a low fire until it thickens. Pour into the mould. Steam for 15 minutes. Remove. Cool for 5 hours. Refrigerate if eating later or else just serve straightaway.
To serve: Remove moulds and use a knife to loosen. Turn on top of a plate and serve immediately.
Reminder: Support the cause by buying a Royal Selangor Nick Munro pewter mould as all proceeds go to breast cancer welfare association. Also, do remember to submit your suggestions to booliciouskl@gmail.com or leave a comment for the mould to win the Olympus camera VG-110. For more pictures, see the Flickr set for all the whole Royal Selangor Jellyriffic challenge. To view, all the jellies, see this link to the Royal Selangor website.