Recipe
Sago Pudding (Gula Melaka)

After a spicy meal, nothing ends it quite as delightfully as a desert of Gula Melaka, also known as Sago Pudding.
Gula Melaka is the name of the brown palm sugar tapped from the coconut tree. It has a fragrance so intensely delicious that it needs only the addition of thick coconut cream to create a sauce of unsurpassed richness.
This is poured over a simple pudding made from sago pearls.

Ingredients

Instructions to Cook

  1. Wash one big jelly mould or eight small jelly moulds and do not wipe dry.
  2. Wash the sago in a large basin of water. Drain.
  3. Boil water in a large saucepan, add sago a little a time, stirring after each addition to ensure that the sago does not stick together in lumps.
  4. After all the sago has been added, let the water come to boil again and turn it to low heat stirring once or twice to keep the grains apart. Turn off the fire when the grains turn translucent.
  5. Pour the mixture into a large sieve to drain off the water.
  6. Put mixture into a large basin of cold water and stir with a spoon. Once again, drain all the water through a sieve.
  7. Pour the sago in the jelly moulds. Smooth down the top, cool and store overnight in the fridge.
  8. Boil palm sugar (Gula Melaka) and water till sugar melts. Strain to remove grit.
  9. Squeeze coconut through a piece of muslin for thick milk. Store in the fridge.
  10. The pudding, Gula Melaka sauce and coconut milk should be very cold when you serve them. The pudding can be removed from jelly mould by easing the sides off with a knife. The two sauces should be offered separately and each person pours a little of each over the pudding.
  11. Replace palm sugar with molasses and fresh coconut milk with liquid processed coconut milk in cans or packets.
  12. Serves 6 to 8 people.