Ondeh-Ondeh

This is one of the South East Asian delicacies that few could resist, I don't know about you but I'm one of them.

Ondeh-ondeh is a tiny ball like item coated with white furry grated coconut. When you sink your teeth into this little ball you could feel the burst of molten gula melaka and this is so tantilising to the palate.

For me to make this, is a little tedious as freshly grated coconut is not easy to come by in HK. Today I was craving for ondeh-ondeh so, I trotted (actually I took a cab and it costs me HK$50) all the way to Wanchai in search of freshly grated coconut. Finally found a SE Asian grocery shop that sells all kinds of spices and coconut stuff. Bought a pack of freshly grated coconut for HK$7 (minimum purchase) and a pack of gula melaka for HK$16. Oh! Please buy those gula melaka that is softer in texture otherwise, you will have a hard time chopping them into pieces.

Armed with all these, I went home and plunge straight into my ondeh-ondeh project. Bearing in mind what my aunt told me about good ondeh-ondeh, I chose to do equal amount of sweet potato to glutinous rice flour and the end result is good. The ondeh-ondeh is soft even when cold (I mean at room temperature for a few hours).

See the molten gula melaka ... so inviting!
I sank my teeth into that...kekeke!






Ingredients: (20 pieces of 20g each)
150g steamed sweet potato
150g glutinous rice flour
6 tbsp water or more
1 tsp corn oil
chopped pieces of gula melaka
freshly grated coconut

Method:
1) Steam the sweet potato until soft.
2) In a bowl, mash the sweet potato, add in the glutinous rice flour, water and oil.
3) Knead till a smooth dough is formed. You can add more water if the dough is dry.
4) Chop gula melaka into bite size pieces.
5) Divide dough into 20g each and wrap in the gula melaka.
6) Put the wrapped balls into a big pot of boiling water.
7) Fish them out when the ball floats.
8) Toss them on to a plate filled with grated coconut and coat all around the balls.
9) Eat them and enjoy the burst of molten gula melaka!

Notes:
I did not add pandan paste into my ondeh-ondehs but you can add pandan paste to make it more fragrant.
Adjust water accordingly as some sweet potatoes are drier while others have a higher level of moisture.
My ondeh-ondehs are about 3.5cm in diameter but you can make them into any size that you desire.
Try to get the softer type of gula melaka, otherwise it will hard to chop them.