Friday, February 4, 2011

Chinese New Year Honeydew Sago (Sai Mai Lo) Dessert

How was your first day of Chinese New Year?! Had lots of food and snacks? Collected lots of angpow? That's great! Anyway, I thought I'll share with you a recipe of one of my favourite desserts.

 Honeydew Sai Mai Lo (Honeydew Sago Dessert)


It makes such a great dessert during the summer months because it is really cooling and refreshing. 

Hope you'll enjoy this dessert as much as we did :)

Serves 4
All you need are:
1/2 of honeydew
3/4 cup of sago (Tapioca Pearls) - Coles sells it.
1 cup of coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar
8 cups of water

All you need to do:
1) Boil water, when it is boiling,

 Add in the sago. 


Stir every once a while, otherwise it'll stick. Boil for 10-15 minutes, till the sago turns translucent. 
*Make sure not to over boil it. As long as most of the sago is translucent, you can stop boiling it.

2) Rinse sago thoroughly with cold water in a strainer. Set aside.

3) In a pot, boil the sugar and water till the sugar is dissolved and becomes a syrup. Set aside to cool.

4) Chop the melon in two,

 and blend one of it in a blender until it becomes a puree. Set aside.

5) Use a melon ball scoop or chop the remaining honeydew in to small cubes. Set aside.

6) Add the puree, chopped honeydew, sago and coconut milk into a large bowl. Mix.

7) Add the syrup into the bowl to taste (depending on how sweet you want it) and mix properly.

8) Cover with wrap and chill it in the fridge for about 3 to 5 hours. 

9) Serve.

Enjoy! :)

11 comments:

Lee said...

Hi,
I tried making this dessert but replaced half the coconut milk with evaporated milk, after mixing everything together I left it sitting in the fridge overnight. When I tried it the next morning, the honeydew melon pieces and liquid had a bitter taste to it. I don't know why, because the honeydew melon I used was quite ripe and tasted very sweet and juicy, do you know why it turned out to be bitter tasting when added to the liquid? Thanks.

Passionate Mae said...

Lee: Good question! :) I've never tried that before. I know that evaporated milk has no sugar added to it and 60% of its water content have been removed. By just replacing 1/2 cup of coconut milk with evaporated milk, you're actually removing the sugar content of the sai mai lo as well. Also, did you use a new unopened can of evaporated milk? Try adding more sugar or use 1:3 of evaporated milk to coconut milk to ensure that you have enough sugar content in it. Hope this helps!

bars in Singapore said...

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Anonymous said...

According to other recipes, it says to add fruit when ready to serve so that honeydew does not get bitter.

Unknown said...

Hi, I am going to make sai mai lo for cny, just want to ask, can I make these on thursday and then serve it on friday night? because i am kinda busy on friday :(

Passionate Mae said...

Hi Kah Hui Lau, sorry for the late reply, I hope you made it anyway, but the answer is YES you can make it the day before. You can keep it no more than 2-3 days.

Unknown said...

hi may i know how long will it takes for the honeydew sago still good in the fridge?

Passionate Mae said...

2-3 days tops Alai.

kak long said...

Hi Lee, may I know the coconut milk needs to be boiled? also can I replaced the cocomilk to fully evaporated milk? Thank you.

kak long said...

Hi just to ask coconut milk to be substitute with evaporated milk fully, can? do i need to boil the coconut milk? Thank you.

Passionate Mae said...

Hi Kak Long, the coconut milk shouldn't be boiled.
I have never tried it with evaporated milk, therefore I can't comment, give it a shot and let me know how you go.
Cheers