Recipe For Sagu Gula Melaka: A Malaysian Dessert.
"Sagu gula melaka, sometimes spelled sago gula melaka, is a Malaysian dessert made with tapioca pearls, coconut milk, and palm sugar or gula melaka. I suggest you discover the recipe for this deliciously exotic dessert that is easier to make than you think!"
Ingredients
Here are the necessary ingredients to prepare sagu gula melaka for 4 people:
4 tablespoons of tapioca pearls
1 pinch of coarse salt
20 cl of fluid coconut milk
2 sachets of vanilla sugar
1 pinch of cinnamon powder
40 g of gula melaka
1 mango or a bowl of frozen mango pieces
Cooking of Japanese pearls.
The first step in preparing sagu gula melaka is to cook tapioca pearls or Japanese pearls in slightly salted boiling water.
1- Bring one liter of water to a boil and add a pinch of coarse salt.
2- Pour the Japanese pearls into the boiling water and mix well so that they do not stick together.
3- Cook the tapioca pearls over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they become tender and translucent.
4- Drain the pearls in a colander and let them cool down.
Preparation of coconut milk.
1- In a small saucepan, mix the coconut milk with the vanilla sugar and a pinch of cinnamon powder.
2- Heat the coconut milk over low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar well.
Preparing Sago.
Sagu, which is a type of pudding made with tapioca pearls, is very easy to prepare.
1- Mix the cooked Japanese pearls with flavored coconut milk.
2- Divide this mixture into 4 individual ramekins.
3- Let the sagu gula melaka set in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Note: When I mixed the pearls with the coconut milk, I realized that I had prepared too much flavored coconut milk. If this is also the case for you, don't throw away the excess! At the time of tasting, it is possible to add extra coconut milk on the pudding to obtain an even creamier dessert.
Preparing gula melaka syrup.
As I explained in the article about Malaysian gula melaka, this name refers to palm sugar sold in Malaysia in the form of cylindrical blocks.
Gula melaka syrup can also be found in Malaysia and some Asian stores, but it is better to prepare it yourself from raw sugar cane.
1- Cut the gula melaka into shavings in a saucepan using a knife or peeler.
2- Add one to two tablespoons of water.
3- Heat this mixture over low heat until the sugar is completely melted.
Note: If you cannot find palm sugar, you can replace this ingredient with coconut sugar or rapadura whole cane sugar. If you do not have time to prepare the syrup yourself, you can simply use maple syrup.
Preparing the mango.
The tapioca pearl pudding being a rather heavy dessert, I decided to accompany it with small cubes of mango. However, I would like to specify that the original recipe for sagu gula melaka usually does not contain it.
If you are using fresh mango, cut it in a hedgehog style to get fruit cubes.
If you are using frozen mango pieces, thaw them beforehand and then cut them into brunoise, which means small cubes of 4 mm.
Assemblage of sagu gula melaka.
1- When your tapioca pearl pudding is set, spread the diced mango on top of the dessert.
2- Drizzle it all with gula melaka syrup.
3- Serve the fresh gula melaka sagu, with an extra drizzle of sugar syrup and flavored coconut milk for the more indulgent.
