A warm bowl of Pumpkin Sago Glutinous Rice Balls Dessert will surely satisfy your sweet tooth. A combination of the popular dessert Pumpkin Sago Soup (金瓜西米露) and chewy soft glutinous rice balls (Tang Yuan 汤圆). Surely looks amazing too.
Have ready all ingredients needed to cook pumpkin sago soup.
Start by cooking pearl sago. First bring water in a pot to a boil. Add in the pearl sago and boil for 1 minute. There is no need to stir. Cover the pot and off heat. Allow the remaining heat to continue cooking the sago for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, open the lid and check. The sago is fully cooked when it is all translucent and has no white do in the middle. (If there is still a little white dot in the middle, cover the pot and allow it to continue to cook for another 10 minutes).
Remove cooked sago from the pot. Strain and rinse them under cold running water a few times to remove any residual starch. Put the cooked sago in enough water to cover it until ready to use.
Next prepare the pumpkin soup. Peel and cut pumpkin into bite size cubes. Place into a pot. Add water just enough to cover the pumpkin. Cook till soft and tender, about 30 mins at medium flame.
Blend the cooked pumpkin cubes till creamy smooth.
Then add in the balance of the 750ml water followed by evaporated milk, rock sugar and a knotted pandan leaf.
Cover and on medium low heat, cook for 15 minutes till the rock sugar dissolved. Stir occasionally during the cooking process.
When done, remove pandan leaf from pot. Off the heat. Then add in the cooked sago and stir to mix well. Set aside the pumpkin sago soup while we prepare to make the glutinous rice balls.
Preparing Glutinous Rice Balls:
Have ready all ingredients needed to make the glutinous rice balls.
To make the white glutinous rice balls, first mix 3/4 of the glutinous rice flour and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Gradually add in warm water and continue mixing until a dough is formed. Pinch out about 15 g of dough.
Cook the raw dough in boiling water. When cooked, the dough will float to the top. Remove the cooked dough from the boiling water. Then combine the cooked dough and the raw dough.
Mix until well blended. Add in the balance 1/4 glutinous rice flour and water. Continue mixing until a smooth and not sticky dough is formed.
Divide the dough, roll into strips and cut into small pieces. Then shape into small glutinous rice balls. Sprinkle with some glutinous rice to prevent sticking and set aside while we prepare the blue colour glutinous rice balls.
To make the blue coloured glutinous rice balls, first put some blue pea flowers (about 25 flowers) into a small pot of water (about 250ml). Slowly bring to a boil and allow to boil for a few minutes till the water turns dark blue. Then using a strainer, separate the flower from the water leaving a blue colour extract.
In a mixing bowl, mix 3/4 of the glutinous rice flour and sugar together. Gradually add in warm blue colour extract and continue mixing until a blue dough is formed. Pinch out about 15 g of dough.
Cook the raw dough in boiling water. When cooked, the dough will float to the top. Remove the cooked dough and combine with the raw dough.
Mix until well blended. Add in the balance 1/4 glutinous rice flour and water. Continue mixing until a smooth and not sticky dough is formed.
Divide the dough and cover, roll into strips and cut into small pieces. Then shape into small glutinous rice balls. Sprinkle with some glutinous rice to prevent sticking and we are ready to cook the glutinous rice balls.
Cooking Glutinous Rice Balls:
Bring a pot of water to a boil and gently drop in the glutinous rice balls. Boil till they start to float to the surface. Continue to boil for another minute and then remove the glutinous rice balls using a strainer.
Soak the cooked rice balls in water until they are fully cooled. Put into serving bowl and top up with the rich and creamy pumpkin sago soup.
This sweet Pumpkin Sago Glutinous Rice Balls dessert can be served warm or chilled. Either way, it tastes great. So Enjoy!
When making the glutinous rice dough, if the dough is too dry add some water, a tsp at a time. If the dough is too wet add some glutinous rice flour, a tsp at a time too till your achieve a soft, non sticky and pliable dough.
Freshly cooked glutinous rice ball has the best texture. Just cook the desired portion, store the remaining portion in a freezer safe container and freeze for later consumption. Use cling wrap to separate each layer of arranged glutinous rice balls.
Note that the size of the chopped pumpkin decides the duration of time needed to steam them. Cutting them into smaller chunks and steaming on a larger surface will lessen the time of the cooking process.
Do not wash the sago before cooking. You can soak cooked sago in cold water to prevent them from sticking together.
Only add the cooked sago into prepared pumpkin soup. Do not continue to cook pumkin soup once cooked sago is added. Otherwise the cooked sago will soften further and will not remain in small bite size and chewy.
The pumpkin sago soup may look watery when cooked but it will thickens up when cooled.
This pumpkin sago glutinous rice balls dessert can be served warm, chill or at room temperature.
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Asian, Chinese, Malaysian
Keyword: blue pea flower, dessert, glutinous rice balls, pumpkin