Ondeh Ondeh (Pandan Glutinous Rice Balls)

Ondeh ondeh (or "onde onde" as some spell it) is a Malay kuih. I have eaten this many times in my hometown but I did not know of its name until a long time ago. A friend at university told me he loves Ondeh Ondeh and he usually bought them from the Bengawan Solo (cake shop) store from the university hospital near our faculty. He taught me how to appreciate this yummy juicy (melted sugar inside the 'ball') kuih. You have to put the entire ball into your mouth, so that when you bite into it, the melted sugar inside oozes out.

I did not realise how easy it was to make this dish. I found quite a number of recipes online but I came up with this easy (maybe a cheat's) version. And it tastes great!

There were 2 shades of green because of the different amount of pandan paste I added

(makes about 40-50 balls)

500g glutinous rice flour

1 tsp pandan paste

1 cup water

desiccated coconut (I prefer this to shredded ones)

about 200g gula melaka or palm sugar

2 tbsp white sugar

Stir pandan paste and water together in a jug. In a large bowl of half the amount of glutinous rice flour, pour a bit of the pandan mixture. Mix and knead with your hand and slowly pour more mixture as you go along, until you achieve a dough that has a consistency like that of playdough.

Using a grater, grate gula melaka (I bought my cylindrical shaped dark brown version from Singapore) or palm sugar finely. Add sugar and mix well. Make small balls out of the dough. Flatten each ball and place half a teaspoon (the amount depends on how big your ball is) of sugar mixture in the centre. Wrap around the ball so that the sugar is inside the ball. Ensure that each ball is smooth and round.

When I try it the next time, I hope to make this flat dough thinner. That means the dough has to be smooth and not dry.

In a saucepan of boiling water, drop the balls in. Gently stir through so that the balls will not stick to the bottom of the saucepan. You only need to create enough movement to swirl the water. You will know that they are cooked when they float onto the surface of the water. Using a slotted spoon, remove the ball out of the water and place it in a bowl of dessicated coconut. Swirl the bowl to coat the ball. Serve warm.

This is a dish that should be eaten soon after it is made. Do not make a mistake (like me) of making the balls and leaving them overnight in a container to cook the next day. Some sugar inside the balls dissolved in the moisture and leaked into the container. I managed to salvaged most of the balls and cook them immediately in the morning.

Ideally, you should use pandan juice (pandan leaves blended with water). However pandan leaves are not easily available in Australia. Hence this particular brand of pandan paste is good enough and it is convenient too!

This pandan paste can be found at Asian grocery stores

Postscript: A better recipe and more info available here.