Sweet Potato Ondeh Ondeh & Deep Fried Sweet Potato Balls with Taro Paste

The once every 3-month Girls Cooked Off is coming up again, with the core ingredient being the humble sweet potato. Half of the group are making savoury and I belong to the group making a sweet/dessert.

After unfruitful search on internet, I decided to try making something from Malaysia again. I guess that's because food from my hometown always reminds me of my childhood and my family. There are at least 3 desserts from Malaysia that I really like:

1. Bubur Cha Cha - a popular Nyonya dessert of sweet potato, yam, black-eyed beans, tapioca jelly and sago pearls in thick coconut milk. There are slight variations depending of which part of Malaysia you try this dessert, some even have slice bananas in it.

2. Sweet potato On deh Ondeh - a Nyonya dessert fills with melted gula melaka(palm sugar), and then sprinkle with grated coconut that is seasoned with fine salt.

3. Deep fried sweet potatao ball with taro paste - this is a dessert my grandmother used to make every chinese new year. I have never seen it in a restaurant but I believe it is a teochew snack. If eaten straight after deep frying, the skin is crispy on the outside and chewy inside bcause of the glutinous rice flour.

I ended up making the deep fried potato balls a week before the cook-off and also making ondeh ondeh for the actual cook-off.

Deep Fried Sweet Potato Balls with Taro Paste

Sweet Potato Ondeh Ondeh

If it wasn't for the girls cook-off, I would have been too lazy to make these delicious childhood yummies, especially for the deep fried potato balls which is like an lost art in my home eversince grandma became physically unfit and stopped cooking. My version of the sweet potato ball is far from those made by my grandma but making this snack reminds me so much about her and her kind and childlike smile.

Rempah Udand aka Pulut Panggang

Another Malaysian snack which is one of my favourite - rempah udang. It's made of steamed fragrant glutinous rice cooked with coconut milk, with prawns/shredded coconut/lemon grass fillings and wrapped in banana leaves. It is then pan fried or grilled. I have been put off by making this in the past as I imagined it would be very complicated and time consuming. It does take time as it involves a few processes - steaming the rice, making the prawns/coconut filling, wrapping then pan frying but the ingredients are actually not too difficult to make and the result is rewarding. I must admit it's not going to be something I'll make on an average weekend but only special occasion motivates me to do it, in this case it was the girls cooking/get together party.

Fried Koay Teow

Crispy Chicken With Mango Kerabu

Had a craving for this dish hence made it for a gathering eventhough it's not mango season.
Supposed to pour the sauce over the chicken but as the sauce is spicy, decided to leave it for people to add the sauce themselves in case some don't take spicy food.

I am quite happy with the crispy chicken, it will nicer if served fresh after frying as it was crsipy.

Chicken Rice (my modified version)

One of my fondest childhood memory is having Hainanese Cchicken Rice with my cousins at a foodcourt near the Penang Bus Terminal. I was probably around 10 years old? During that period of my life, my family lived in a shop house with my grandmother and my other 2 uncles and their families. Including maid servants and other cousins who live in another state but visit from time to time, the shop house sometimes contained up to 18 people. My memory of the best chicken rice was at this run down foodcourt near the bus terminal where my cousins, my sister and I would sometimes go to on our own without adult supervision.

Memory is a interesting gift God has given to us. It consists more than just replay of the events/facts but sometimes we remember a person or an occasion by the senses, smell, thoughts. I can't really recall a lot of things about that place or how we could get away by going there on our own without adult supervsion, or how much we pay for the rice but the taste of the chicken rice stays vivid in my memory and whenevwer i recall this taste or when I smell the fragrant of the chicken rice, it brought back this sweet memory of my childhood.

So I decided to try making Hainanese Chicken Rice today. After doing google search, based on how much work i want to put in (as i have said before i do not fancy too complicated recipe), and taking into account my love for ginger and spring onion, I have modified the chicken rice. I chose to steam the whole chicken instead of putting it in boiling water as one recipe suggests, and I also made the mince ginger + spring onion suce that usually go with cantonese steam chicken instead of Hainanese Chicken Rice. (Love this sauce, I can eat a bowl of rice wit just this minced ginger + spring onion sauce!). The rice is so fragrant even as it was being cooked I can smell it! (this of course is because I used the chicken stock from the steamed chicken to cook the rice instead of water.)

One of the challenge lies not so much in the cooking, but the deboning of the cooked chicken. Authentic Hainanese Chicken Rice (HCC) is served with deboned chicken slices but I have left the drumstick without deboning simply because I think it looks better =)

To complete the meal, you MUST, yes you MUST I stressed again - have the garlic chillie sauce to go with the chicken.


There is heaven and earth difference having HCC with or without this garlic chillies sauce. You can make this from scratch, or purchase from asian grocery store. I am very picky with this chillie sauce. There are so many brands out there, but I prefer one with strong garlic and with a lighter red/orange colour over a darker red one. I think the lighter red means there are more garlic mince in there.

So as I put a spoonful of this chicken rice into my mouth and enjoying every bit of the chicken essence combined with the chillie sauce and soy sauce and ginger mince, it brings back the fond memory childhood again ....

Oh one more thing, I did not serve the chicken rice with soup (typically you will serve this with a small bowl of chicken soup with spring onion sprinkled on top) but i omitted this as i chose to store up the remaining chicken stock for use later as a soup base with wonton and dumpling I have made last weekend.

One of the must have when I go home to Penang is tasting all the yummy "nyonya Kuih". Nowadays Melbourne chinese grocery do sell many types and they are of high quality and authentic such as "Ang Koo Kuih", "Kuih Lapis". "Ondeh-Ondeh", "Cassava Kuih" etc. I always thought kuih cassava is difficult to make, but when i discovered the recipe, i was thrilled and excited to try as it is super simple. This is especially so because grated cassava is so readily available in chinese grocery store. So I decided to give it a try and it turned out very well :)


I couldn't wait for the cake to completely cool down before cutting a slice and try, i am sure some of you can identify with that kind of temptation. Most importantly the taste just bring back so many memories of Penang and the time with family and friends ... it's amazing, almost thought for one second i am in Penang! After the success with this kuih, i am now more confident to try some other kuih when i have the time and craving, so come back another time to check out what i will try next! This is definitely a good start if you haven't made kuih before and want to give it a try.


Here are some i packed up and bring to work to share with workmates, they do look like the ones from the shop, isn;t it?