Ondeh-ondeh are glutinous rice balls, filled with gula melaka or palm sugar and coated with coconut flakes. It can be said that ondeh-ondeh is an evergreen traditional kuih which is found in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei. Ondeh-ondeh are usually green as they are made from the mixing of glutinous rice flour with pandan juice. However, over time, many modifications have been made. Creative housewives have used sweet potatoes to mix with the glutinous rice flour and pandan juice to make ondeh-ondeh. Thus, if orange sweet potatoes are used, then the ondeh-ondeh will be orange. Here, I have used the purple sweet potatoes and, thus, my ondeh-ondeh are purple in colour.
Ingredients:
- 1 cylindrical block of gula melaka
- 150 g purple sweet potato
- 160 g glutinous rice flour
- 5 tbsp of pandan juice
- 100 g water
- Flakes from 1 coconut
- 1/2 tsp salt
Method:
- Shave the block of gula melaka and set aside.
- Mix the coconut flakes with the salt in a metal plate. Set aside.
- Put the sweet potato into a metal plate and steam it.
- Once soft, remove the plate of sweet potato from the steamer and put the plate of coconut flakes into the steamer to be steamed (about 5-10 minutes). Remove and set aside.
- Transfer the sweet potato to a large mixing bowl and mash it while it is still hot.
- Add the glutinous rice flour and the pandan juice to the mashed sweet potato. Knead them.
- Add water, a little at a time to the dough. Knead till the dough is soft and smooth and no longer sticks to the hand.
- Divide the dough into small pieces (15 g each). You may make it smaller.
- Roll each dough into a ball.
- Flatten the ball and make a hole in the centre. Put a teaspoon of shaved gula melaka into the hole and seal the edges. Shape the dough into a ball. Repeat this until all the dough balls are completed.
- Boil a pot of water.
- When the water is boiling, drop the balls into the pot.
- When the balls float to the surface, it means that they are cooked. Let the balls stay in the boiling water for another few minutes to ensure that all the gula melaka inside the balls has melted.
- Scoop up the balls and drop them into the plate of coconut flakes. Coat the ball with coconut plate.
- Spoon them up onto a serving plate.