Ondeh-Ondeh

 椰丝球

I used to make this snack alongside my late mother-in-law. Making this snack yesterday brought back fond memories. 

Ingredients:

White flesh sweet potatoes 

Tapioca flour

Hot water 

Gula melaka/Palm sugar (click here for info)

Fresh grated coconut (alternative: pasturized grated coconut like this one sold in supermarkets). Around 250g is required for 750g sweet potatoes.

Pandan leaves 

Method:

Prepare grated coconut

1. Cut pandan leaves into short strips and lay them in a tray. Then, spread the grated coconut on the pandan leaves and sprinkle a bit of salt over them. Steam the grated coconut in wok/steam over high heat for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Prepare mashed sweet potatoes

2. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into small pieces. Using the same work/steamer, steam them over high heat for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. Pictures below show the white flesh sweet potatoes before and after peeling. They are large, and weighed around 630g each. I got these sweet potatoes and fresh grated coconut from a vegetable stall at ABC Brickworks wet market. These type of sweet potatoes will produce ondeh ondeh with a natural light green hue. There is no need to add pandan extract/juice when making the dough. 

3. Remove the sweet potatoes from wok/steamer and measure the weight of the sweet potatoes. The amount of tapioca flour and hot water will be 20% each of the sweet potatoes. E.g. if sweet potatoes weigh 1kg, tapioca flour will be 200g and water 200g.

4. Mash the sweet potatoes whilst they are piping hot. A few ways of mashing: Large fork, potato masher or back of knife. Cover the mashed sweet potatoes with a plastic wrap to prevent drying.

Prepare pandan-infused water

5. Cut 2 pandan leaves into short strips and boil them in the water (refer to step 3 for quantity). This is to infuse the water with pandan fragrance. Alternatively, you can just use plain hot water.

Make Ondeh-Ondeh dough

6. Add tapioca flour into the mashed sweet potatoes, followed by the pandan-infused hot water, and knead into a dough. Do not add the hot water all at once. Leave 10 to 20g and add to the dough only if the dough is dry. Knead until dough is smooth and pliable. Cover with a plastic wrap and let the dough rest for at least half an hour. 

Prepare filling

7. While dough is resting, shave the gula melaka finely. We will need about 150g for 700g of dough.

Make Ondeh-Ondeh 

8. Pinch a small ball of dough (15g). Use thumb and index finger to form a well in the dough. Spoon gula melaka into the well, then seal the opening and gently roll the dough into a ball using your palms. Repeat for the rest of the dough. Cover the Ondeh-Ondeh with a cloth.

Cook Ondeh-Ondeh

9. Boil a pot of water and gently drop the Ondeh-Ondeh into the water one by one. Reduce heat to medium-low and boil the Ondeh-Ondeh until they float up. Continue to boil for another minute. Then, remove the Ondeh-Ondeh from the water one by one using a small sieve, and place them gently on the tray of grated coconut (from step 1). Roll the Ondeh-Ondeh over the grated coconut, or use a spoon to coat the grated coconut over the Ondeh Ondeh.

Enjoy! This is for you, dearest MIL.