I remember I said I won't be making any "Gan Sui Joong" this year, which are plain alkaline/lye water rice dumplings.
But due to "family" demand, I made them, but plain with no fillings. Mom just loves these.
Again, I didn't use boric acid (pang sar) as the additive to make it bouncy.
But this time I made this sauce to go with the dumplings. Usually it's plain palm sugar syrup. But I've added some coconut cream into this, just like making a caramel sauce, coconut cream instead of milk cream. Pandan leaf instead of vanilla bean, and palm sugar instead of brown or white sugar.
This is a recipe given by a neighbour, Mrs Teh, the wife of the good man who taught me to make Toddy Buns.
She taught me how to make this sauce when I was 13, for a "Gan Sui Gou" which means alkaline rice cake.
The palm sugar sauce was really nice and the secret ingredient is coconut cream, or thick coconut milk.
So, here's what I learnt from a dear neighbour
200gm palm sugar (here I used gula kabung, which is darker, you may use the regular gula melaka)
few blades of pandan leaves, shredded and tied into a knot.
100ml water
100ml thick coconut milk/cream
small pinch of salt (if prefer a salty tinge to anything coconut milk related, and I didn't put)
1. Cook palm sugar with water and pandan knot on medium low heat until melted.
2. Let the sugar syrup continue to cook until the whole surface is very bubbly, it may take about 3-5 minutes for the syrup to slowly reduce.
3. Pour in coconut milk and salt, stirring or swirling the pot all the while.
4. Then bring the sauce back to a boil, and let it simmer for 1 minute.
5. Strain sauce and serve with dumplings or any other kuih you may prefer.
** the sauce thickens slightly upon cooling down to room temperature, something like runny honey.
Oh, again this is not a backpost. Just made this yesterday at my hometown, Kampar.
My mom makes very good palm sugar cream sauce too. Without the coconut cream, it won't taste good.
ReplyDeleteLittle Inbox,
ReplyDeleteYup, the coconut cream makes it very yummy.
u know i just suddenly tot of kueh kochi...u make b4? hahahah
ReplyDeleteI mean, the gan sui joong
ReplyDeleteThis can be eaten with kaya also right ? or not ?
ReplyDeleteManglish,
ReplyDeleteKuih koci, not yet, cos any kuih that requires a lot of banana leaves will be much later, wait til I plant my own banana trees. There are no banana leaves for sale here, cos mostly tend to have their own banana tree or their neighbours will have a tree.
Swee San,
ReplyDeleteOh yes, definately kaya also can.
That's what we have been doing for as long as I know.
This palm sugar thingy is just for this year in my family. But I've heard alot of people using palm sugar syrup instead of kaya
I think this could be a great dessert with the yummy sauce! I will like this!
ReplyDeleteI heard from a friend that eat gan-sui-zong with palm sugar syrup is more baba-nyonya style, normally chinese will chin-chai just eat with kaya. Dunno true or not?
ReplyDeleteOh yes, another friend from Tronoh said her mum would dry those left-over gan-sui-zong under the sun and use them as the pok-pok-chui for Yee-sang during CNY. Like that oso can hoh?
KitchenCorner,
ReplyDeleteAll Gan Sui Joong lovers will love this!!
Mel,
ReplyDeleteThe most cincai way is just to eat dipped in sugar. We ate with kaya and sugar mostly.
Just that this year my mom's kaya went a bit out quality, so she asked me to cook some palm sugar syrup for it and I suddenly thought of my neighbour's method.
Mel again,
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of leftover gan sui joong be used as pok pok chui, but it's really common for it to be dried in smaller chunks and be put into red bean soup to add some gummy bits to the sweet dessert.
I love gula melaka. The dumpling is known as kngee chang in hokkien. I would eat it with fresh grated coconut and gula melaka(palm sugar)just like kueh lopes
ReplyDeleteJudy,
ReplyDeleteOh, that's a fresh idea (to me) on how to eat kngee chang. And I learnt a new hokkien word today. Thanks!!!
I don't think my hokkien hubby knows how to call this in hokkien.
"kngee" means alkaline in hokkien.
ReplyDeleteI remember each year we look forward to mother 'kngee chang' Not so much of eating the chang but waiting to taste her gula melaka syrup as she make it only once a year :)
ReplyDeleteJudy,
ReplyDeleteThanks again, I guessed right :)
ICook4Fun,
ReplyDeleteHehehehe, I understand that.
That's when festive food means festive food.
If they are everyday stuff, the "festiveness" is no longer there.
This looks amazing! YUM!
ReplyDeleteI like to eat the rice dumpling with just plain granulated sugar.
ReplyDeleteJessica,
ReplyDeletethanks!!
Anonymous,
Sometimes I eat with sugar too.
Really great post, Thank you for sharing This knowledge.Excellently written article, if only all bloggers offered the same level of content as you, the internet would be a much better place. Please keep it up.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeletethank you for the kind comments,I'll still be blogging for a long time, I hope.
hi wendy! This looks gorgeous, can you believe I've never had this before? I was wondering, how do you keep this (in the refrigerator, I presume?) and how long can this last, if so.
ReplyDeleteHellochloe,
ReplyDeleteI kept it in the fridge, as long as it doesn't smell and taste bad.
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I love kan sui zhong!
ReplyDeletehi
ReplyDelete