Hello!
Call me obsessed, because I am. I am obsessed with Onde-onde. LOL! For Malaysians, I think most of you will immediately recognize the look and the shape and also the taste. Onde-onde or in other name; Buah Melaka is one of Malay desserts or we call it as "kuih" that only can be seen or at least has demands during the Ramadhan month.
I am not sure for other months because honestly I only see it during Ramadhan. It tastes very sweet for it has palm sugar or gula Melaka (hence, the name of Buah Melaka) in the center, covered by chewy texture of wheat flour and glutinous rice flour combined. It is very light, soft green in colour produced by the Pandan leaves (blended and filtered) juice. Some of the sellers put some green colouring to have this very neon-y green to attract the buyer to buy it (I assume), but I would prefer the natural way of using only the Pandan leaves for the colouring. Boiled it and roll it on pile of grated coconut and voila! You can either serve it hot from the boiler or you can also serve it cold (it takes about an hour in the fridge for the Onde-onde to cool off and to have the cold gula Melaka inside).
I decided to make it my own yesterday because I have bought so many Onde-onde from different sellers but they never done or make it right. Its either the flour is too thick, the sugar is too little and sometimes there is only flour but without the sugar, sometimes it is too big you can't even put everything in your mouth and sometimes, it tastes, funny. Hence, make it my own is the best way for me to stop complaining. My mother taught me how to do it and frankly I almost lost my finger for cutting the palm sugar (LOL!). Just a minor cut, but I'm alright! This is the easiest thing ever. Seriously.
The recipe? You can just Google it, its everywhere. But this is my own version of Onde-onde. The serve is, for 2 pax, about 20 pieces of rice balls in total. Here you go.
You need:
2 spoon of wheat flour
250g of glutinous rice flour
5 Pandan leaves
Gula Melaka or palm sugar
Coconut shavings
The steps:
1) Blend the Pandan leaves together with some water to produce juice. Pour through a fine sieve strainer, discard solid and put aside the juice. Onto the dough!
2) Mix wheat flour and glutinous rice flour together in a bowl. Add slowly the Pandan juice into the mixed bowl until it forms a kneadable ball of dough. If you like the colour to be more vibrant green, you can add artificial food colouring.
3) Make a small ball and press it to put the palm sugar inside (at the center) and I like it sweet and it is better to have a lot of sugar at the center, so put a lot of sugar, and roll it again to make a sphere. P/s: Avoid using your palm when rolling the rice ball, it will soften the dough more quickly.
4) Once you ready to have rice balls, heat up the pot of water to boiling. Drop those balls into the boiling water, let it cook until it floats. Once it floats, pick it up using strainer, drain well, and roll it in a plate of grated coconut or coconut shavings.
5) Place it on a very nice plate, serve it. Let it cool if you like the center to be chill. Whee!
Easy! Enjoy!
Clockwise: Wheat flour, Pandan leaves, glutinous rice flour, coconut shavings, gula Melaka
Mixing it!
Voila!
Malina, x
