Onde Onde Requires Glutinous Rice Flour

Because I enjoyed the onde onde from Lim's Nyonya Hut, I was inspired to make some of my own.

And of all times to do so, I chose Christmas morning so I could bring them over to my friend's house for lunch.

It took me us (YB eventually had to lend a hand) 3.5 hours!!

Pandan (screwpine) leaves. Bought them for AUD$2.80 (15 pieces).

The main recipe I referred to is from Rasa Malaysia and tweaked based on other references from Malaysian Kitchen, Thoughts Transcribed and My Dear Tummy.

The ingredients are as follows:

250gm of glutinous rice flour

100gm shredded/dessicated coconut

200ml pandan juice*

150gm gula melaka (palm sugar)

pinch of salt

1 1/2 tbsp of sugar

*To make pandan juice, blend 10 pieces of pandan leaves with 220ml of water. Drain.

Alternatively, 200ml of water with 2-3 drops of pandan essence? Just assuming!

 

Not too sure whether it did give me 200ml of pandan juice or not. Probably a little less!

Instructions:

1. Grate gula melaka and mix with sugar. Set aside.

The darker the better. A packet with 2 blocks (420gm) for AUD$1.70.

 

After grating/chopping the block, I mixed in some sugar.

2. Boil water in a large pot.

3. Mix flour with pandan juice, knead until smooth. Well, mine was a bit lumpy, so I kept adding a bit of water until I thought it was smooth enough.
4. Take a piece (40gm) and plonk it into the pot of boiling hot water. When it floats, scoop it out, shake off excess water and return it to the dough.

5. Continue to knead dough until smooth. Set aside for 15 minutes, while covered.

Hello, blob!

6. Place coconut mixed with salt onto a tray or plate, steam for 2-3 minutes. Set aside.  

Optional: place half a pandan leave (chopped) on to the plate when steaming. It gives the coconut a pandan fragrance.

7. Reheat / boil the large pot of water.

Optional 1: remove the pandan leaves from the coconut and put them into the water. Again, this will give your onde onde a pandan fragrance. :)

Optional 2: Add 1/2 - 1 TBSP of sugar to the water. I didn't. Or, you may mix them into the flour during step 3.

8. Start making your onde onde. Oh, I hate this part!

The green aliens have landed!

 

Take a pinch of dough, roll it then flatten it until it's wide enough for you to place some gula melaka in the middle. Roll it carefully or it will burst!!!

The trick is to make sure you gently plonk the ball into the hot water, as you make them one by one. Once they float to the top, leave them for a few minutes (2 - 3 minutes) just to ensure that they are soft enough and not semi raw.

9. Scoop them out, shake off excess water and gently lay them onto the bed of dessicated coconut. Leave them there for a while, while you scoop out the rest or something, roll them around in the bed. Leave them there for a while as you roll more balls and drop them into the water.

OK, it was my first attempt. I need more practice, I suppose.

Tasty little balls!

I was not happy with them as I was hoping to get a thinner layer but because I was pressed for time, the layer was thicker to avoid any explosions in the pot of water.

The second time I made them was for some friends to try. However, I made the mistake of putting them in the fridge overnight. They turned out chewy the next day. I advised friends to steam them before consumption, but I'm not sure whether that helped.

At least the second attempt took a shorter time. :)


Notes: 
1. You don't have to add pandan juice to the dough. You can leave them plain white in colour.
2. If dough is too wet, add a bit more flour.
3. If dough is too dry and lacks stickiness, add a wee bit of water. 
4. I tried with some peanut filling and it was a very interesting combination!


Related posts:
Glutinous Rice Flour - Jian Dui and Loh Mai Chee