Ondeh ondeh recipe

Back to the my younger days, i have always loved the way how my grandma made her ondeh ondeh. The filling instantly oozed out right after the 1st bite, the tenderness of the skin of ondeh ondeh; beyond words of description.

I woke up one day craving for it badly. Checked all the wet markets & coffeeshop for it but to no avail. Feeling so disappointed & then i decided to do it myself & headed back to the wet market to buy all the ingredients. :D

Ondeh ondeh is 1 of the traditional peranakan kueh, either made from sweet potato or glutinous rice flour. These cute small balls are covered with pandan juice & filled with "gula melaka" (palm sugar), then rolled in with grated coconut.

These are the ingredients that you will need for the whole process.

Recipe as follows: (around 20-25 balls)

• 250g glutinous rice flour
• 200ml pandan juice
• 150g gula melaka (finely chopped)
• 100g grated coconut
• A pinch of sea salt

Chop up the pandan leaves & blend it with 220ml. Squeeze out the juice into a bowl. Some people choose to use green colouring as substitute however i would prefer to use panda juice instead. As pandan juice will help to give off a very nice smell & goes off well with the gula melaka & coconut. 

Then combine the glutinous rice flour with pandan juice & knead lightly. 

Pinch a small piece of dough (about 40g) & dropped it into a pot of boiling water. When the dough rises to the top of the water, remove it & shake off the excess water. 

Put it back into the main dough & knead until you get a smooth, soft dough. Leave the dough aside for 15 minutes, use a wet cloth to cover it to prevent the dough from drying up. 

Add pinch of salt to the grated coconut & let it steam for 2-3minutes after which let it cool off completely.
Pinch a small piece of dough, about 15-20g each & flatten it lightly. Fill the center of the dough with the gula melaka then roll them up to form a ball shape. (Note: This step can be left chilled in the fridge, boil them only when ready to serve. Try not to keep those balls in the fridge for more than half a day.)

Boil another pot of water. Place these glutinous rice balls into the boiling water. Remember to stir the boiling water gently to prevent the balls from sticking to the bottom of the pot. 

As you can see some of these balls have small cracks on them & to the extend that the gula melaka was leaked out. I was terribly horrified by them! But it was a good experience. Nonetheless, there were more good ones than the bad ones. :)

Please do not leave it on a plate like me after you remove them from the boiling water as it will stick to the plate. Just coat it with grated coconut & serve instantly. :)

I served it to my best friends & received compliments on it. I was super happy however i know i have to improve on it, like prevent the balls from leaking. Each time after i've completed working on 1 recipe, i feel so good. I didn't know cooking & baking can be so therapeutic. :) 

I'm gonna try different kind of food recipes, hopefully it will turn out good too! And for now, i hope you like this recipe.

Get your hands moving & maybe you can surprise your relatives with this traditional kueh for CNY! :)

xoxo,

Queen