Recipes: sweets

Serves 12-15

Make the Red Rubies

1. Bring a medium pot of water to the boil.
2. Meanwhile, add the chopped water chestnuts to a medium sized zip lock bag. Add food colouring then mix to colour the chestnuts. Add tapioca floor. Seal the bag then toss to coat all the chestnuts with the tapioca starch.
3. When the water is at a raging boil, slowly pour in prepared chestnuts, dispersing them in the water to avoid clumping. The red rubies will rise to the top when cooked. Allow them to continue to bubble for a couple of minutes before draining/scooping out into a colander. Rinse with cold running water to remove any excess starch and colouring. Add cooked red rubies to a bowl of iced water.

Put it All Together

4. Drain lychees, jackfruit, longan and coconut jelly, but reserve the syrup in a large jug.
5. Slice lychees in half and jackfruit into strips. Add them, along with the longan and coconut jelly into a large mixing bowl.
6. Add in grass jelly cubes and rinsed toddy palm seeds.
7. Add in evaporated milk.
8. Add in reserved syrup to taste (about 2 cups).
9. Finally, drain red rubies from their cold water bath and add them in this mix. Stir to mix everything through then chill well before serving.

1. Add everything to a large mixing bowl. Stir then taste and adjust sugar and water to taste.

1. Add flour and salt into a large bowl. Add in milk and whisk to combine. Add in whisked eggs and butter and mix together to arrive at a smooth batter. If there are lumps in your batter, it is better to strain it through a sieve rather than over working your batter to try and remove them. Set aside for 30 minutes.
2. Heat a non-stick pan and add 1 tsp butter. Swirl the butter around the pan to coat then wipe off with kitchen paper.
3. Pour enough batter into the pan to lightly coat the bottom. Allow the crepe to cook on low heat until the batter turns completely opaque and is cooked through. There’s no need to flip it. Once the crepe is cooked, it will slide around the pan and release. Slide the crepe onto a plate and continue making your crepes until all the batter is used up. There is no need to butter your pan after the first crepe. Stack crepes flat on top of each other as you are cooking them.
4. Allow crepes to cool before filling/assembling.

Serves 12

1. Rinse then soak the beans in cold tap water overnight.

Prepare the Sago

2. Add water to a large, deep pot and bring to the boil. Add in sago and give it a stir. Immediately reduce the heat to low when it comes to the boil. Cover with a lid and gently simmer for 15mins (stirring every 5mins). Turn off the heat and keep the lid on. Let sit for 25mins.

3. Drain cooked sago through a fine sieve and rinse thoroughly with cold tap water to remove the excess starch. Place cooked sago in a large bowl filled with iced water and set aside.

For the Soup

4.Rinse the beans then add to a large pot. Add sugar, tangerine peel and fresh water, then bring to the boil.

5. Reduce heat and gently simmer for 90mins or until beans are cooked to your liking. Remove the tangerine peel.

6. I like to give this mix a light blitz so that the soup has a mix of whole cooked beans and mashed beans. Blitz or don’t blitz. Blitz as much or as little as you desire.

7. Add in the orange zest, stir and heat through.

8. Drain prepared sago and add into the soup. Stir to mix through then taste for sweetness. Adjust as needed. Serve hot or warm.

Serves 4

To make the Thai milk tea

1. Add the tea mix to a large pot. Pour in just boiled water and steep for 5mins. Strain tea leaves through a fine sieve (I recommend using a tea sock).
2. Add condensed milk and stir to dissolve. Chill until ready to use.

To make the Egg Custard Pudding:

1. Add 65mL of milk in a small bowl. Sprinkle gelatine powder on top and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, add egg yolks, sugar and vanilla and whisk to combine.
3. In a medium sized pot, heat remaining 185mL milk until it just comes to the boil. Pour this warmed milk into the egg mix and whisk to incorporate. Pour this egg and milk mix back into the pot and simmer for 2mins, stirring continuously.
4. Add gelatine mix into the pot and stir on med-low heat until the gelatine has completely dissolved.
5. Strain mix through a sieve into a small, clean container and chill to set (at least 4 hours, best overnight). Once set, cut pudding into cubes.

Other components:

1. Prepare brown sugar pearls according to the packet instructions.
2. Drain the grass jelly and cut it into cubes.

Tips:

1. we like to dissolve caster sugar in some drinking water and store the cubes in this mix.
2. Make you drink by layering the toppings any which way you like and enjoy.

Prepare the Sago

1. Add water to a large, deep pot and bring to the boil.
2. Add in sago and give it a stir. Immediately reduce heat to low when it comes to the boil. Cover with a lid and gently simmer for 15mins (stirring occasionally).
3. Turn off the heat and keep the lid on the pot. Let sit for 25mins.
4. Drain cooked sago through a sieve and rinse with cold tap water to remove the excess starch. Place cooked sago in a large bowl filled with iced water and set aside.

Prepare the Taro

1. Bring a pot of water to the boil.
2. Split taro evenly between 2 steamer baskets.
3. Steam for 20mins or until cooked. Set aside.

For the Soup

1. Add coconut milk, water, sugars and knotted pandan leaf into a large pot and bring to the boil
2. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
3. Remove the pandan leaf
4. Add in half of the cooked taro and blitz with an immersion blender/stab mixer until smooth.
5. Drain prepared sago and add into the coconut soup. Stir to evenly distribute. Add salt.
6. Add in cooked taro pieces and gently stir through.

This recipe makes a very generous portion, so there should be plenty of leftovers, or gather some friends or loved ones and share it together.
 

1. Heat up oil in a pan and when hot fry the mantou for 2-3 minutes per side or until golden brown 

2. Dip with condensed milk and enjoy!  

Blitz everything in a blender and enjoy immediately

Tip: vary the amount of condensed milk according to your preference 

 

1. Scoop out the thick cream from the coconut cream container/tin and add to a small pot (leave behind the thin, watery liquid).
2. Add in sugars, salt and a couple of drops of pandan flavouring (a little goes a long way). Gently and stir everything in the pot until all the sugar has dissolved. Turn off the heat.
3. Place egg yolks in a medium sized bowl. Whisk to combine.
4. Continue to whisk the egg yolks as you gradually add in the warm coconut cream mix.
5. Add this egg and coconut cream mix back into the pot and gently heat. Continue stirring this mix with a spatula until it thickens (about 5-8mins) in the gentle heat.
6. Toast some bread & spread your kaya jam over. Add a slab of butter as pictured. PURE INDULGENCE! 

Notes:

• Your kaya will thicken further after it cools.
• Allow your kaya to cool then spoon into a sterilised jar and chill before serving.
• You can use real pandan leaves but we find using pandan flavouring saves so much time! 

1. Peel bananas and slice in half lengthways. Sprinkle on sugar and gently toss to coat. Leave to marinate for a couple of hours.

2. In a very large mixing bowl, add condensed milk, coconut milk, fresh milk, melted butter, egg, vanilla and salt. Whisk to combine.

3. Cut baguettes into 1” long slices on the diagonal. You should roughly get 5 slices out of each baguette. Add baguette slices into the mixing bowl and coat with the ‘custard’. Leave for 15mins to soak.

4. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line a 20cm tall round cake tin.

5. Build your cake, layer by layer. Start with a base layer of soaked bread. Make sure the pieces are tightly packed and there are no gaps. Use half of your bread for this layer.

6, Next, arrange half of your bananas to form the next layer. Keep your bananas flat with no overlapping.

7. Add the remaining soaked bread to form the next (third layer). Gently pressed down on the cake to remove any air gaps.

8. For the final top layer, arrange your bananas, cut side up. This is the presentation layer. Gently press down so that the bananas nestle into the bread layer.

9. Bake for about 70 mins.  Cover the top with a piece of foil at around the 45min mark to prevent the top from getting too dark. Remove the foil 15mins later to allow for the top develop a nice golden top until the end.

10. Leave the cake to cool in its tin. Chill overnight to set in its tin.

11. Turn out cake and then serve.

Makes 10-12

Prep: 20mins plus time overnight for setting

Cook: 10mins

Total Time: 30mins plus time overnight for setting

Make the mango puree:
1. Peel and cut up 4 ripe mangoes. Blitz the flesh in a food processor and transfer to a pot.

2. On medium heat, reduce the liquid until you end up with about 2 cups of puree. Be sure to stir constantly to avoid the liquid catching and burning in the pot.

3. Strain the puree through a fine sieve to give you a smooth puree. Set aside.
 

For the pudding, you will need:
1. Add gelatin to med-large sized heat-proof bowl. Pour in water and whisk to dissolve the gelatin.

2. Add in salt and caster sugar. Whisk to dissolve.

3. Pour in evaporated milk and mango puree. Stir until everything is well combined.
4. Using a fine sieve, strain the mix into a large heatproof jug. Fill glasses with pudding mix then add in diced mango to each cup.
5. Refrigerate overnight to set.
6. Pour evaporated milk onto your puddings just before serving.

1. Place all ingredients (except for the salt) in a pot and bring to the boil.

2. Immediately reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Stir until the sugar has completely dissolved.

3. Remove the pandan leaf and add in a pinch of salt. Stir to combine, then leave to cool in the pot.

4. When the mix has cooled, pour into a shallow tray and freeze overnight.

The next day:

1. Break up frozen coconut into the size of ice cubes and place into a high powered blender/food processor. Blitz until smooth and creamy, then pour into an ice cream container and refreeze until set (overnight).

Makes approximately 1.4 litres 

1. Defrost durian (though ensure it is still sem-hard) and cut into pieces. 

2. Put all ingredients in a blender and blitz until its blended to your preferred consistency. 

Enjoy 

p.s. more condensed milk can be added if you prefer it sweeter. Same goes for ice and milk. If you like a more watery consistency, add more milk and ice. If you like it on the thicker side, then leave as is :)