Onde-onde

This is an event submission for the Merdeka Open House 2009 held by Babe in the City -KL. The theme for this year is 'My Sweet Malaysia' and selecting a dish to make was particularly difficult as there were so many things I wanted to try out.

I eventually settled with making the good ol' onde-onde that could almost never go wrong. The first time I made onde-onde I was racing against time and resulted in sloppy onde-onde with leaked out palm syrup. Argh!

This time was made with ample amount of time and they turned out perfect.

Looked less green because pandan juice was used instead of pandan paste.

The anticipation.



Palm syrup goodness!

I had a good time licking off palm syrup off the plate. Yum!

Ingredients: (Makes 8)

80g Glutinous Rice Flour
15g Tapioca Flour
Pinch of salt
60ml Pandan Juice
1 tsp Oil
35g Gula Melaka
Dessicated coconut, to coat

Method:

1. Mix together glutinous rice flour, tapioca flour and pandan juice until combined.
2. Pinch out a ping pong sized dough, flatten it and place it in boiling water.
3. When it floats, scoop it out and combine with the rest of the dough.*
4. Knead the dough until everything is incorporated and a smooth dough is formed. If dough is too dry, add in more juice and if dough is too sticky, add in more glutinous rice flour.
5. Divide the dough into 8 ping pong sized balls. Flatten each ball and put a teaspoon of gula melaka into the centre.
6. Enclose the filling and roll it up to form the onde-onde balls.
7. Drop the onde-onde balls into boiling water. The onde-onde balls floating is an indication that it is cooked. Cook for a further 2 minutes to ensure that the sugar is all dissolved and syrupy.
8. Remove the ready onde-onde balls and drop them into a bowl of cold water.*
9. Scoop up the onde-onde balls with a perforated ladle and toss in dessicated coconut to serve.

*This mixture of cooked and raw dough is meant to stabilize the dough. This additional processes will also helps the glutinous rice ball to be more chewier.

We did this twice. Once substituting tapioca flour for corn flour. The one with corn flour resulted in a harder texture while the one with tapioca flour produced a softer, fluffier feel. Now we know, no substitution. ;)

Despite everything that's happening in Malaysia, it will always be the place I call home. Happy 52th, Malaysia!