I ran out of red dye and left it pandan green instead. |
This snack will always transport me back
to my primary school days. Long before Bengawan Solo, my mum would make this.
With a flat grating board , she would grate the tapioca over a old beat up
basin. Then , mixed with her ubiquitous red dye , she would steam the pudding
over a huge wok. It would then be cut into bite size and tossed with grated
coconut.
On school fairs, she would ‘contribute’
this pudding to raise funds. Since almost every mum could make this, it was
never a popular item in school and I was always compelled to consume them. Mum
never knew.
Fast forward a couple of decades,
tapioca is so hard to come by. It is an irony that this staple consumed during
the war , because rice was rare commodity , would be so elusive in times of peace.
This pudding or kueh ( in Malay ) is made
for old times’ sake, a tribute to mum’s labor of love.
Surprisingly, it is well received by my
girl’s classmates who never had this nor know what it is
called. But since discerning palates
voted an ‘aye’ to this, all the years of eating leftover school fair ketuk ubi
is forgotten.
To make a soft but yet manageable ketuk
ubi or tapioca pudding, the ratio of grated tapioca to liquid and sugar is very
important.
For optimum texture and sweetness, here
is what I found out :
1 portion of tapioca : 0.21 portion of cream
of coconut : 0.21 portion of water ( in
grams ).
Or , 1 portion of tapioca : 0.42 portion
of liquid ( liquid = equal amounts of water and cream of coconut )
1 portion tapioca : 0.13 portion sugar ( by weight )
Thus, as in this case :
312 g grated tapioca = 132g ( i.e. 312g
x 0.42 ) liquid
The liquid component is made up of 66g water + 66g cream of coconut i.e. 132g
liquid.
312g tapioca = 40g sugar ( i.e. 0.13 x 312g )
With this ratio, it will be a breeze
scaling it for any amount of tapioca.
Makes 12 medium pieces.
Pudding ingredients :
312g grated tapioca
66g water
66g cream of coconut
1 drop food dye , any color
2 drops pandan paste
garnish :
1 cup grated coconut
1 tsp fine salt
Method :
1.
Mix the coconut
and salt in a microwave safe bowl.
2.
Nuke for 1-2
minutes. Stir. Cool.
3.
Grate and process
the tapioca to fine bits in a food processor.
4.
Add water, cream
of coconut, dye and pandan paste.
5.
Stir well.
6.
Transfer the
pudding component to a lightly oiled steaming dish. Steam for 45 minutes,
uncovered.
7.
Leave to cool.
8.
Cut the pudding to
size.
9.
Toss in the
coconut.
Leftover pudding
should be chilled and kept a maximum of 1 day.
This kueh is very tasty especially eaten with loads of grated coconut. I like it!
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