Sago with coconut milk

Sago hydrated off the heat rather than boiled, so the milk stays loose instead of turning to glue.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 150 g small sago pearls
• 1 litre water, for cooking the sago
• 600 ml coconut milk
• 120 g palm sugar
• 0.75 teaspoon salt
• 2 pandan leaves, knotted
• 100 ml coconut cream, to finish

Method

1. HYDRATED OFF THE HEAT, NOT BOILED THROUGH. Sago into fast boiling water for 10 minutes only, then the heat OFF and the lid on for 15 minutes while the residual heat finishes the centres. Boiled the whole way it sheds so much starch that the pot turns to glue, and that is the one failure this dish has.
2. The bua loi on this site is dough balls boiled hard and rinsed; sago is different and gentler, and the two methods do not transfer.
3. Rain the sago into the water while stirring. Tipped in as a lump it welds into a single mass instantly.
4. After the 15 minutes off the heat, every pearl should be clear through with no white dot. If dots remain, cover for another 5 minutes -- more boiling will not fix them, only more soaking will.
5. RINSE IT IN COLD WATER until the water runs clear. That takes off the loose surface starch, and skipping it is the other way the milk thickens to paste.
6. Warm the coconut milk with the palm sugar, salt and pandan until the sugar dissolves. Do not boil it.
7. Three quarters of a teaspoon of salt, as with every coconut dessert here.
8. Drained sago into the warm milk, off the heat, and stirred once.
9. Rest 10 minutes. It thickens as it stands and will thicken further overnight -- loosen with coconut milk, never water.
10. Serve warm with the coconut cream spooned over unstirred.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Thailand · All recipes