Pumpkin Talam

The inaugural meeting of the Onde Onde Club started without me! But no matter - it is great to share from afar, especially since I've got other members who stepped up and took photos and did a write up!

Photos were taken by Rachel and the write up by Ling. All got to sample except Celia and me! And this is what Ling wrote:

What a better way to meet a fellow Malaysian than inviting her to make some kuih together! Pumpkin talam is an invention by our Onde Onde club consultant, Grace Chew (who is now in the heart of Africa while Sarah raids her garden!). Sarah, being the president of the club, did her share by providing all the ingredients! Rachel, our new member, took the responsibility of taking pictures when our official photographer had to keep up with her jet-set life style flying off to China! (Note: that would be referring to me!)

The pumpkin came from Grace's garden. I had to use my cleaver and a lot of muscle work to cut open the pumpkin. I used a quarter of the pumpkin to produce 2 cups of mashed pumpkin for the kuih. It was easily done, yes, you guessed it, just microwave it until pumpkin is soft and can be mashed easily. Then, we added water, sugar, tapioca flour and rice flour. Mix well and steam probably for about 15 minutes or until it's cooked. While we waited for the bottom layer to cook, Sarah started preparing the top layer. To make ourselves feel less guilty in terms of how fattening this kuih is, we used light santan! Mix santan, rice flour, tapioca flour and salt together.

When the bottom layer (pumpkin layer) is cooked, just pour the santan mixture on top and steam further until top layer is cooked. This is the agonizing part - patience!! We couldn't cut the kuih immediately as it had to be cooled down to set. So, Sarah and Rachel went home empty handed! But I promised to deliver the kuih to them the following day.

Recipe:

Bottom layer

2 cups of mashed pumpkin

1.5 cup of water

1 cup of sugar

1 1/3 cup tapioca flour

2/3 cup rice flour

Top layer

1 tin (400ml) santan

1/2 cup rice flour

2 tbsp tapioca flour

1 tsp salt to taste

Wonder what should we make for our next Onde Onde club meeting!! Any ideas?

Ling, Onde Onde Club VP

Organically grown pumpkin from Grace's garden.

When we visited their house early this year they were so tiny.

Pumpkin layer

Coconut milk layer on top of pumpkin layer

The finished dessert!