Honeydew Sago

If you want a sweet dessert for the current hot summer days why not try this staple of Chinese dimsum restaurants. It's basically cold ginatan with sago and fruits. You can vary the fruit, instead of honeydew melon you can use watermelon or rock melon or other fruits you fancy. We had this when we had a barbecue at a friend's house. It was so refreshing to have a very cold bowl of coconut soup dotted with floating pearls of sago and the fresh crunchy bite of the honeydew.

I got sago cooking tips from Wendy's Eupho Cafe and indeed the sago I made was well cooked through (no white thing in the middle) , soft but a bit chewy and not at all mushy. So thanks Wendy for that tip. This is so easy to make even kids can do it.


Honeydew Sago

1 x 400 g  can coconut milk
3/4 - 1 cup water
3 Tbsp sugar
pinch of salt (about 1/8 tsp)
1/3 cup small sago pearls
honeydew melon - peeled and chopped into small pieces

*To cook sago:

1. Boil about 3 cups of water in a saucepan. Add in sago pearls and bring to boil.
2. Once it boils, cover saucepan and turn off heat. Leave for 20 minutes.
3. Remove the lid, stir the mixture, turn on the heat and bring it to boil again.
4. Once it boils the second time, cover again, turn off the heat and leave covered for 10 minutes. The sago should be cooked by now.
5. Drain the sago from the hot water and rinse. Soak in cold water (to stop it cooking further). When completely cool drain again and set aside.

*To cook coconut milk soup:

1. Put coconut milk in a saucepan. Add in enough water to dilute it. This will depend on the brand of coconut milk you got. If it's very thick then you add up to 1 cup water. If a bit thin then you reduce the water accordingly.
2. Add sugar and a pinch of salt.
3. Stir to mix and bring to boil for a few minutes until sugar is completely dissolved. Taste the mixture to see if the sweetness is acceptable, if not, add more sugar.
4. Remove from heat and cool completely. Chill in fridge. This should be served very cold.

*To assemble:

1. Put in desired amount of sago and chilled coconut soup in a bowl. (The coconut soup might separate when left standing. So stir it first before ladling into bowls.)
2. Top with some honeydew melon. Serve.

Variation: Add in pandan leaves in the coconut soup mixture before boiling. Remove the pandan after taking coconut soup from heat.