Sago gula melaka
Sago gula melaka is one of the simplest and best-loved desserts of Malaysia and Singapore. Sago pearls cooked until translucent, chilled in moulds and served with dark gula melaka palm sugar syrup and thick coconut milk. The flavour is caramel and smoky palm sugar sweetness against gently salty coconut, the texture springy and slightly chewy. It is entirely plant-based, gluten-free and needs no oven. The key is rinsing the cooked sago thoroughly of excess starch, or it sets into a sticky lump.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Cooking the sago 25 min
- Rinsing 5 min
- Chilling (make the syrup meanwhile) 120 min
- Serving 5 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneBoil the water
Bring 2 litres of water to the boil in a large pot — the pearls need room, as in too little water they stick together.
Ingredients: 150 g sago pearls or small tapioca pearls · 2000 ml water for boiling
Cook the sago
Pour the sago into the boiling water, stirring so it does not clump. Cook 10–12 minutes, stirring often, until the pearls are almost translucent with a tiny white dot at the centre.
Ingredients: 150 g sago pearls or small tapioca pearls · 2000 ml water for boiling
Translucent, with a white dot in the middle.Finish covered
Take the pot off the heat, cover and leave 5 minutes — the white dot disappears in the residual heat.
Ingredients: 150 g sago pearls or small tapioca pearls · 2000 ml water for boiling
Rinse the sago
Tip the sago into a fine sieve and rinse under cold water, stirring with your fingers, until the water runs clear and the pearls separate.
Ingredients: 150 g sago pearls or small tapioca pearls · 2000 ml water for boiling
Rinse until the water stops clouding.Chill in moulds
Divide the sago between 6 small moulds or cups rinsed with cold water, press down with a spoon and refrigerate 2 hours until set.
Ingredients: 150 g sago pearls or small tapioca pearls · 2000 ml water for boiling
Make the syrup
While the sago chills, chop the palm sugar and boil it with the water and the knotted pandan leaves for 5 minutes, until dissolved and slightly thickened. Strain and cool.
Ingredients: 150 g gula melaka palm sugar · 100 ml water for the syrup · 2 pcs pandan leaves (optional) · 400 ml thick coconut milk · 1 pinch salt
Palm sugar gives a smoky caramel taste.Prepare the coconut milk
Stir a pinch of salt into the coconut milk — salt lifts the sweetness of the syrup. Chill.
Ingredients: 150 g gula melaka palm sugar · 100 ml water for the syrup · 2 pcs pandan leaves (optional) · 400 ml thick coconut milk · 1 pinch salt
Serve
Turn the sago out of the moulds into bowls and pour over syrup and coconut milk to taste. Serve cold.
Ingredients: 150 g gula melaka palm sugar · 100 ml water for the syrup · 2 pcs pandan leaves (optional) · 400 ml thick coconut milk · 1 pinch salt
Before you start
Gula melaka
Gula melaka is Malaysian sugar from coconut palm blossom sap, sold in cylinders. Asian shops and online shops stock it; Indonesian gula jawa, coconut sugar from a health food shop, or dark muscovado with a teaspoon of molasses stand in. Pandan leaves are usually sold frozen in Asian shops — the dessert works without them too.
Sago or tapioca
True sago comes from the pith of the sago palm, but pearls sold under that name are often tapioca. Both behave the same — cook them until translucent.
Storage
Moulded sago keeps 2 days in the fridge but hardens with time. The syrup keeps a week in the fridge, opened coconut milk 3 days.
