This is one of my favourite Malaysian desserts, which I made for dinner on the day I cooked the sweet and sour pork chop rice. I’ve not been able to get the sago pearls correctly made for a long long time. After a few failed attempts this year, I’ve decided to give it another try. The procedure is very easy, now that I know the trick, which is to boil the water first before putting in the sago…
Ingredients:
1 cup sago pearls (also known as tapioca pearls)
1.5 liter water for boiling
For palm sugar syrup:
100 g palm sugar (known as gula Melaka or gula kabung in Malaysia), chopped roughly
100 ml water
2 screwpine (pandan) leaves knotted, optional (for added fragrance)
For coconut milk mixture:
Freshly squeezed coconut milk from 1 coconut (or you can used packet coconut milk or buy fresh coconut milk from the market), added with a pinch of salt and chilled for at least 1 hour
Steps:
1. Wash sago with tap water and drain. Boil water in a medium pot and add in the drained sago when the water has reached boiling point. Keep stirring to avoid sticking to the bottom of the pot and turn off heat when sago pearls turn transparent. Drain off excess water from the sago pearls using a sieve. Spoon sago pearls into moulds and leave to cool before chilling in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
2. Boil water for the palm sugar syrup with the screwpine leaves. Keep stirring until sugar has fully dissolved. Pour out and leave to cool. Keep the syrup chilled in refrigerator.
3. When the sago pearls have set in the mould, unmould into a dessert bowl and spoon 2 tbsp of chilled palm sugar syrup over the sago pearls, and 2 – 3 tbsp of coconut milk on top. Adjust the amount of syrup and coconut milk according to your own liking.
Cooking Heals 
wow!
your photos are amazing. i like 2nd photograph’s angle better.
recipe is very simple to make, will try one day.
is this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandanus_fascicularis screwpine ? if so its there in my native place 🙂
Thanks for your comments. Yes, it is very easy to make, and yummy too. No, it’s not the one you showed me, it’s Pandanus amaryllifolius (check http://www.clovegarden.com/ingred/pd_pandan.html) .
hi,
There is different between the gula melaka and palm syrup right ?
From what I know palm sugar is a generic name, the palm sugar in different countries are called different local names and could be produced using different types of palms with different methods. For me the palm sugar in Malaysia is gula melaka, and I’ve seen it being used similarly as palm sugar in English.
nicely done..i love they way you present it…keep it up
Hi,
I am glad I found your blog and beautiful photographs. I plan on doing your sago recipe this weekend. I have already bought the ingredients! Thanks and keep up the good work.
I did the recipe exactly. Sago turned to glug. The palm sugar did not get that dark nutty caramelised flavour and the coconut milk with pinch of salt was watery and tasteless. WHAT did I do wrong?
Well you have to make sure you don’t overboil the sago, you can actually strain the sago pearls just before they turn transparent (when you can still see a dot of white in the middle). I sometimes drain the strained sago pearls under cold water. Actually I find that the quality of the sago also makes a difference, if you get poor quality sago pearls then they tend to melt easier. For the palm sugar it really depends on the quality as well. I’ve never faced problems with mine as I always buy the good ones. I use the local ones in Malaysia so I don’t know whether its the same in your area. Same with the coconut milk, I always squeeze it fresh from the shredded coconut flesh or buy fresh from the market so I never have problems with them either. Not sure if you get the same if you use the canned ones.
I love your photos !! really want to try it
Sounds great and I have the ingredients. What sort of mould do you use? Do you have to line it or something to reduce mess and keep the shape of the cooked sago?
Hi Pamela,
Sorry have not been updating my blog for months, been really busy with other stuff! I just use normal muffin tin or moulds. I don’t line it with anything, just use a knife to get it out from the mould when the sago pearls are set.