How to cook green bean soup and other local hawker dessert favourites

Why make kaya when you can buy it?

For one thing, it is a good way to give your arms a workout – there is a lot of whisking involved.

You will also be helping to keep a waning tradition alive.

The old-school method of extracting milk from freshly grated coconut is ideal. But given the difficulty of obtaining this even before Covid-19 times, you can replace the 750g of freshly grated coconut and 300ml of water used in this recipe with 500ml of store-bought coconut milk.

Even with this shortcut, kaya is not easy to make. It demands patience and effort. But trust me, it is worth the hard work.

INGREDIENTS

6 pandan leaves, cut into 4cm lengths

Try making bubur pulut hitam – a black sticky rice dessert that requires only six ingredients.

The main ingredient is unpolished, short-grain glutinous rice of a dark purple hue which should be washed and rinsed thoroughly. Some housewives tell me they soak the rice before cooking.

To save time and effort, I put the rice to boil right away. The dessert should have a sticky, gooey consistency, but do not boil the rice until it turns to mush.

This is also a dessert one appreciates for its texture. The rice grains should be cooked to the point that they are tender yet chewy.

You can use granulated sugar but palm sugar does make a difference with its aromatic qualities. When using palm sugar, chop it up for it to dissolve quickly. If you cannot get hold of palm sugar, brown sugar is a good substitute.

I used a regular popsicle mould because I do not have a rectangular one. If you do not have popsicle moulds, use freezer-friendly containers.

For a little twist on the traditional red bean potong, I usually add dried Mandarin orange peel because I have a stash of it in my fridge, for making red bean soup. Potong purists may see red at this, but I like that citrusy flavour.

For a pop of colour, you can, although it is not necessary, add two drops of rose pink food colouring.

If you do not have food colouring, try a few drops of grenadine – if you have it at home.

The highlight of the dessert is the topping of you tiao (fried dough sticks).

Given the circuit breaker measures, it might be a little tough to get hold of you tiao. Then simply go without – it just means less calories. But if you do have you tiao, toast it and cut it into pieces just before serving. The savoury and crispy pieces complement the sticky sweet texture of the tau suan.

It does require some patience to caramelise the sugar. Do it over low heat and you should get a beautiful rich caramel.

INGREDIENTS

300g mung beans

12 pandan leaves

250g sugar

2½ litres water

140g sweet potato flour

100ml water

3 Tbs sugar (optional)

4 you tiao (fried dough sticks, toasted and cut into bite-sized pieces)

METHOD

1. Soak the mung beans for two hours. Drain off water and rinse.

2. Cut four pandan leaves and place them with the mung beans in a heat-proof bowl.

3. Steam on high heat for 20 to 25 minutes. Check that the mung beans are cooked but not split.

4. Discard the pandan leaves.

5. In the meantime, in a sturdy stainless steel pot, heat the sugar over low heat. Do not stir until the sugar caramelises.

6. Boil the water in a separate pot and add to the caramel. The caramel will crystallise but will melt eventually.

7. Add the remaining pandan leaves into the pot of syrup.

8. Mix the sweet potato flour with 100ml of water to dissolve it. Add the mixture to the syrup.

9. Add the steamed mung beans to the syrup. If you find the mixture not sweet enough, add the sugar.

10. Stir and turn off the heat.

11. Discard the pandan leaves.

12. Serve hot and garnish with you tiao pieces.

Yields eight servings

Instead of the more commonly sold red bean soup, the red bean in this version is cooked until it achieves a paste-like consistency.

To shorten the cooking time, soak the red beans for three hours or overnight prior to cooking. But it is also possible to cook red beans without soaking them first. I took the easier way out by using a heatproof handheld blender to blitz the beans into a smooth paste.

You should adjust the boiling time depending on the pot and stove you are using. Cook the beans until they have split and softened, and then you can blend them.

Add a little more water if you prefer it less thick. I like my red bean soup more full-bodied.

To add more texture and nutrition, I put in two traditional accompanying ingredients: bai he (lily bulbs) and lian zi (lotus seeds). I have a small quantity of each in my dried goods collection in the fridge. Leave them out if you cannot get hold of them.

I usually cook a big batch, divide the paste into containers and keep them in the fridge to eat as a snack or dessert over a few days. Halve the quantities of the ingredients and adjust the amount of sugar if you want to cook a smaller batch.

INGREDIENTS

500g red beans

5.1 litres water (3.5 litres for cooking red beans, 1.6 litres for cooking lily bulbs and lotus seeds, 2 Tbs for mixing with cornflour)

1 piece of dried mandarin orange peel (2g)

8 pandan leaves

250g honey rock sugar

50g rock sugar

100g dried lily bulbs

100g dried lotus seeds

30g white sugar

1 Tbs cornflour

Equipment: Handheld blender

METHOD

1. Wash and rinse the red beans.

2. In a sturdy pot, add the beans and 3.5 litres of water. Bring to a boil over high heat.

3. Add the dried mandarin orange peel and pandan leaves.

4. Cover and boil over high heat for 90 minutes or until beans are cooked and have softened. Turn off the heat.

5. Remove the pandan leaves and dried mandarin orange peel. Discard.

6. Place the pot on a sturdy surface.

7. Use handheld blender to blend beans. Place pot back on stove.

8. Bring to a simmer over low heat. Add honey rock sugar and rock sugar; stir until dissolved. Turn off the heat and set aside.

9. Bring 600ml of water to a boil.

10. Place dried lily bulbs in a heatproof bowl and lotus seeds in another heatproof bowl.

11. Pour enough water to cover lily bulbs and lotus seeds. Leave to soak for 45 minutes.

12. Discard water and rinse.

13. Bring 1 litre of water to a boil over medium heat. Add the lily bulbs and lotus seeds. Boil for 30 minutes. Remove from pot and discard water.

14. Bring red bean mixture to a simmering boil.

15. Add lily bulbs and lotus seeds.

16. Add white sugar.

17. Simmer covered for 15 minutes, stirring often.

18. Mix 1 Tbs cornflour with 2 Tbs of water. Stir this into the red bean mixture and let it come to a gentle simmer. Turn off the heat.

19. Serve hot.

Serves eight to 10

This article was first published in The Straits Times.