Blog Exchange- I made the recipe!

Do you remember the blog exchange I was posting about a few weeks ago? The person that sent me my box was from Malaysia. This was cool for several reasons, one of which was that the kids learned a little about a different culture, and of course so did I.

Any way..because of my chaotic life it took me until yesterday to make the recipe she sent the ingredients for. This is not baked, I am sorry, but i htought your interest in this experiment might outweigh your desires for my oven to be heating up my kitchen when it was 104 degrees. Yeah. 104. Blech. No we do not use air conditioning. Double blech.

The recipe was for Sago Pudding with Palm Sugar. It looks really pretty in the picture in the book. The sago looked to me like tapioca. And the result, MY result, looked more like unconstructed tapioca pudding. Hey! Leading edge dessert making! I read that unconstructed desserts are all the rage in the big cities.

The first thing was to chop the palm sugar, which comes in cones, coarsely. I did that and I tasted it..I thought it tasted a bit like a combination of horehound and maple. Strong but good and very sweet.

Next I had to cook the sago. I had a running commentary from the kids on this..Fish eggs! Spider eggs! Are you making tapioca? Aren’t you suppose to cook it in the milk?

So far so good. Then I rinsed and drained it..and had to put a cheesecloth in the colander so the sago wouldn’t go through. Then I let it cool..I didn’t have the cute individual cups that they showed in picture so I had to put it in a casserole dish. In the fridge it went.

When it chilled the sago stuck together but it was tasteless. Like globules of water. You serve it with a syrup made from the palm sugar and water, and coconut milk. When I put the syrup on the sago moved apart and it really looked like tapioca..unconstructed tapiooca. LOL!

But…it was good in a comfort food sort of way. It was a homey kind of taste and the kids liked it enough that it was gone after lunch. I don’t think I did it right, sorry Eunice! But I loved the fun of trying it!

Here is the recipe if you want to try it:

12 c water

1 c pearl sago

1 1/3 c palm sugar coarsely chopped

2/3 c water

1 c coconut milk

pinch of salt

makes 4 small jellies (mine made a huge bowl of unconstructed tapioca pudding)

Bring 12 c water to boil in large pan. Stir in sago and simmer, stirring, for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let set 10 minutes. AT this point the sago should be transparent.

Put into a strainer adn rinse under cold water to get the excess starch off so rains will separate. Drain thoroughly. Spoon into small dessert glasses and chill well.

Combine sugar and water in small saucepan and simmer until sugar dissolves. cool

To serve turn sago out onto plate. Spoon some syrup and some coconut milk combined with a pinch of salt over the top.