Desserts : Chendol

CHENDOL

Chendol is a very popular dessert in Asia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. It is made from coconut milk, thin green pandan flavored noodles and palm sugar. Red beans, rice and grass jelly are added on top as additional toppings. In Indonesia,Singapore and Malaysia they are sold at road side stands. 

  It is even dessert fare in Singapore, found in dessert stalls, food centres, coffee shops and food courts.^[6]

Cendol has become a quintessential part of cuisine in Southeast Asia and is often sold by vendors at roadsides, hawker centres and food courts.^[6] Cendol vendors are almost ubiquitous in Indonesian cities, especially Jakarta, Bandung, and Yogyakarta. Originally cendol or dawet in Java was served without ice, however after the introduction of refrigeration technology, the cold cendol with shaved ice (es serut) was available and widely popular. It is possible that each country developed its own recipes once ice became readily available. This explains why it is most popular in Malayan port cities such as Malacca, Penang and Kuala Lumpur where British refrigerated ships' technology would provide the required ice.


In Sunda, Indonesia, cendol is a dark-green pulpy dish of rice (or sago) flour worms with coconut milk and syrup of areca sugar. It used to be served without ice. In Javanese, cendol refers to the green jelly-like part of the beverage, while the combination of cendol, palm sugar and coconut milk is called dawet. The most famous variant of Javanese es dawet is from Banjarnegara, Central Java.
The affluence of Singapore, as well as Western influence, has given rise to different variations of cendol, such as cendol with vanilla ice-cream or topped with durian.<sup>[5

 
 

 
There is popular belief in Indonesia that the name "cendol" is related to and originated from the word jendol; in Javanese, Sundanese and Indonesian, it means "bump" or "bulge", in reference the sensation of drinking the green worm-like jelly. In Vietnam, it is called "bánh lọt," or fall cake. Bánh lọt is a common ingredient in a Vietnamese dessert called chè, or more commonly chè ba màu. In Thailand it is called lot chong (Thai: ลอดช่อง) which can be translated as "gone through a hole", indicating the way it is made by pressing the warm dough through a sieve in to a container with cold water.[3]</sup>

Ingredients:

• 10 screwpine leaves
• 2 – 3 drops green food coloring
• ½ cup green pea flour (hoon kway)
• 5 tablespoons palm sugar
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 4½ cups water
• 1 coconut, grated
• salt

  Directions

  1. Pound screwpine leaves to extract the juice.
  2. Add sufficient water to the juice with green food coloring to make 2 cups.
  3. Mix green pea flour with the juice.
  4. Cook this mixture over medium heat stirring continuously until it bubbles.
  5. Place chendol frame (I have no idea what this even looks like, but should be a sieve with large holes) over a basin of cold water and ice cubes.
  6. Spoon the cooked screwpine mixture onto the chendol frame and with a spatula, press through the holes into the cold water.
  7. Drain off the water and chill the chendol.
  8. Boil the palm sugar and granulated sugar with ½ cup water to get syrup.
  9. Strain and cool the syrup.
  10. Add the remaining water to the grated coconut and extract coconut milk.
  11. Add a good pinch of salt to the coconut milk.
  12. To serve, place 1 tablespoon chendol into a small serving bowl, then add 1 tablespoon syrup and ¼ cup coconut milk.
  13. Top the bowl with ice shavings and serve immediately.
  14. Note: if pure green pea flour is used, mix 2½ cups of screwpine juice to ½ cup green pea flour.