No Bake Cheesecake Cookie Cup

I made baked cheesecake cups before back in the old days.  Today I wanted to try the no bake version.  I had some ginger snaps in my pantry and it worked well as a base for my cheesecake cookie cups.  I used a fat free blueberry nonfat yogurt which I was hoping for a light tint of blue hue for this cheesecake cup, but guess not.  The yogurt itself was fairly white in color and when mixed with the cream cheese mixture, well as you can see, the end color result of this cheesecake cookie cup.

This recipe yields 9 cheesecake cups and feel free to decorate the top with fresh blueberry or blueberry preserved for colors contrast.  This is one easy dessert to make and kids friendly too.

~Yield 9 cheesecake cups

Ingredients:

9 ginger snaps cookies (as base)

0.125oz unflavored gelatin

1/8 cup boiling water

1 (8oz) cream cheese

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup fat free blueberry nonfat yogurt (or any yogurt of your choice)

9 paper baking cups

Method:

1.  In a medium glass or ceramic bowl, use an electric beaters to blend together cream cheese and sugar until smooth.  Use a spatula and fold in yogurt.  Set aside.

2.  In a small bowl, add in the gelatin and add boiling water.  Stir until gelatin dissolves thoroughly.

3.  Pour the gelatin mixture into the cream cheese mixture and mix until incorporated.

4.  Arrange the baking cups in a muffin tray and add one ginger snap into each cup.  Top with 2 Tbsp. of cream cheese mixture into each.  Divided equally.

5.  Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving.  Optional:  You can top the cheesecake cup with blueberry preserved, or fresh blueberry before serving.

Brown Sugar Glutinous Rice Cake (Kuih Pulut Gula Hitam)

I made this Malaysian cake or kuih to bring to a friend's house.  I won't be sharing the recipe because I didn't make a good job of it.  The glutinous rice turned out too soft and I think I picked the wrong method to do this.  Since I made this without measurement, just estimation, I also found it not sweet enough.  Since lots of people know how to make this, I won't be telling you how.  Just that I added brown sugar and sweeten coconut flakes into the coconut fragrant glutinous rice before putting it into a container to shape.

Surprisingly my hubby liked it and I thought he hardly eat any Malaysian cake.  I would definitely try this again and this time with another method of doing it.  This cake is best eaten on the same day.  It is not recommended to put it in the refrigerator as this will harden the glutinous rice.

I tried to arrange it like a snowflake, haha... does it look like a snowflake?  :-P

BoBoChaCha 2

I made BoBoChaCha before but this time with the added tapioca strips.  I steamed the cubed yam for 25 minutes and set aside.  Then, I cooked the cubed sweet potatoes in a large pot with water.  Boil in low heat for 20 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are soft.  Then, I add in the Chinese bar shape brown sugar or you can use Gula Melaka or gula Jawa.  Dissolve those sugar to taste.  Lastly, stir in the cooked sago pearls/tapioca pearls, cooked tapioca strips, cooked yam and stir to mix well.  Add in some coconut cream to increase the overall fragrant of this dish.

In the next page, I will show you what the dried tapioca trips package looks like.  You should be able to buy this in any Asian or Vietnamese market store.  Instruction to cook this will be provided as well.

I found this Tapioca Strips at my Asian market and knew that it would be perfect for my Bobochacha.  It goes well with any of the Vietnamese dessert too.  In fact, it is a Vietnamese product but goes well with our Malaysian sweet dessert soup too.  Boil this in low heat for 15 minutes and then turn off the heat and let it sit in there, covered for 10 minutes.  Test one strip to see if it's completely soft.  Then, rinse with cold water to serve.

Green Tea Pudding without Eggs

I called this green tea pudding without eggs because this pudding was not made with eggs and baked in a water bath.  I used gelatin to harden it.  I got the inspiration from Nasi Lemak Lover's Soymilk Pudding and a commercial I watched on youtube.  That commercial featured vanilla pudding, coffee pudding and green tea pudding and it just caught my eyes.  Since I have one last packet of powder gelatin to use and all other ingredients at home, I set to work.  I revised the recipe using my Reduced Fat Panna Cotta that I made earlier.  The difference was no heavy cream was used in this pudding.

If you loved green tea, you would love this.  Just make sure you use a good quality green tea powder or matcha so that the color will come out green and the taste of green tea will be strong.  It does makes a difference so don't buy a cheap green tea powder for baking or making dessert (I had learned my lesson).  I recommend Redman's green tea powder for baking if you live in Malaysia.

This pudding is delicious and all of us loved it.

Ingredients:

7g powder gelatin + 1/4 cup water

(A)
2 cups 2% milk
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. good quality matcha or green tea powder

Method:

1.  Mix water and gelatin together, let it set.

2.  In a medium saucepan, add in (A) and bring it to a boil and stir to dissolve the sugar.  Remove from heat and add in 1.  Stir until the gelatin is dissolved.

3.  Sieve into prepared cups and let it cool at room temperature.  It is normal to have some matcha that won't be completely dissolved and pass through the sieve and sink at the bottom of the cup.

4.  Move to the refrigerator to let it set completely.  About 2-3 hours.  Bigger cups take longer time.  Preferably overnight.

Pumpkin Sweet Potatoes Sago Dessert

What to do with extra pumpkin on hand?  Make this!  This idea was suggested by one of my readers and I couldn't agree with her more, so easy to make and so tasty especially with lots of tapioca pearls or sago pearls.

You have to use fresh pumpkin for this.  Just cut it into small pieces along with the sweet potatoes.  You can either steam to soften and cook it or just boil them together in a pot for 20-30 minutes.  Add Chinese brown sugar pieces to taste, add in cooked tapioca pearls and lastly coconut cream.  Stir to mix well.

Good either serve warm or cold.  My hubby loved it cold with crushed ice.  Keep any leftover in the refrigerator and enjoy it cold straight out of the fridge.  This method of cooking is just like BoBoChaCha actually.  So, of course you can add in yam or tapioca strips or plantain or red bean or whatever you think is suitable.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

 

I wanted to try a pumpkin cheesecake ever since I tried it few years ago.  It was a store bought frozen kind and it was so good, the memory just stick with me.  I actually prefer the duo version where there was part white and part pumpkin cheesecake.  However, it sort of ended out this way.

You can use graham crackers instead of ginger snap cookies if you like.  Omit the nuts if you prefer. 

Look at my crack cheesecake!!!  This was my first cheesecake and it cracked badly.  Note to self, never offer to bring a whole cheesecake for a party or potluck because you never know how it would turn out.  If you have great tips on baking a non-crack cheesecake, feel free to share with this cheesecake amateur here.  :-)

Recipe adapted from Kraft Foods with slight modification.

Make an 8-inch cheesecake:

Ingredients:

19 ginger snaps

1/8 cup walnuts  (1/8 cup is half of 1/4 cup)

2 Tbsp. butter, melted

2 pkg. (8oz. each) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1 cup (7.5 oz.) can pumpkin

1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. cinnamon powder

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

2 large eggs

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 325'F.

2.  In a food processor, add in ginger snaps and walnuts, process until fine.  Pour in the melted butter and pulse a few times to mix.  Pour into a 8-inch springform pan and press at the bottom of the springform pan evenly.

3.  In a large bowl, beat together softened cream cheese and sugar until well blended.  Add in pumpkin, spices and vanilla, beat well.  Lastly, add eggs, one at a time and beat until blended.  Pour into prepared crust.

4.  Lined a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place under the cheesecake to catch any drip.  Bake for 45-55 minutes or until center is almost set.  ( I baked mine for 60 minutes and my cheesecake cracked, my friend told me I might be over baked, so if you are making this, check your cheesecake at 45 minutes, 50 mins. and so on) How to know if the cheesecake is done?  You gently shake the pan, if the cheesecake is done, the edge should be slightly puffed and it will be set except for a small area in the center that will be soft and jiggly.  Do not insert a knife into the center as this may cause the cheesecake to crack during cooling.

5.  Loosen cake from rim of pan, cool before removing rim.  Refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving.

Pumpkin Tang Yuan or Pumpkin Glutinous Rice Balls

Happy Solstice or Dong Zhi “冬至节”everyone!  Today is the first day of winter and in tradition, Chinese eat Tang Yuan and reunion meal on this day.  This year I made a pumpkin tang yuan or pumpkin glutinous rice balls.  I used the leftover dough from making the Chinese Pumpkin Sesame Cakes to make this.  I will show some before and after pictures in the next page.

At first I thought of serving it in a thick sweet syrup but later changed my mind and served this in my Red Bean and Black Glutinous Rice Sweet Soup.  Just have to make it sweeter as the tang yuan is plain. 

A nice bowl of tang yuan to warm you up!

Shape it into small balls with your palm, I don't have exact recipe, basically mashed pumpkin mixed with glutinous rice flour.

Then, drop in batches in boiling water until it floats on top.  Dish out and put them in cold water.  Preferably, add some glutinous rice balls in a bowl and then top with red bean and black glutinous rice sweet soup to serve.  You can add a dollop of coconut cream to fragrant it up if you like.

ENJOY!!

Nagaimo Mung Bean Dessert

Nagaimo is also called 山药 or 淮山 in Chinese.  It is a type of yam that can be consume raw.  It has long been traditionally used as Chinese medicine and herbology.  They cut it and dried it in pieces for cooking Chinese herbal soup.  It's the white color herb that we called it 淮山.  I just learned that it has other name which is 山药 from my Chinese friends.  I learned this dessert from them as they gave me a container to try.  It was my first time tasting fresh Nagaimo, frankly I didn't like it as they cut it into big chunks.  It was similar to potato in taste but full of potassium, magnesium, zinc, vitamin C, vitamin B1, and more.  It is also low in calories and a high protein tuber.  I saw a Chinese cooking show, where they put cubed and blanched Nagaimo and Pumpkin into heated milk and serve it as breakfast.  Usually you can cook it like what you would normally cook a potato dish.

You can read more about Nagaimo here. And more about the nutritional facts here.

In this dessert, I diced the Nagaimo into small cubes so that it was easier for me.  Since I cooked it in a slow cooker, some of the Nagaimo was blended into the soup when stirring.  It still have pieces of Nagaimo but quite pleasant since it was not in big chunks.  Definitely a dessert I will be cooking if I buy Nagaimo again.

Ingredients:

Nagaimo, a segment of it (more or less depended on how much you like it)

1 cup of mung beans

A small piece of ginger, peeled and chopped into tiny pieces or leave it in big piece and smashed it if you want to take it out after cooking

Rock sugar to taste

Water to cover double the amount

The water amount that I used

Method:

1.  Peel the Nagaimo with a peeler (careful when holding it because very slimy and slippery), then rinse with tap water.  Diced into small pieces (you can cut it into bigger pieces if you like to eat it in chunks).

2.  Wash by rinsing the mung beans several times until the water is cleared.

3.  In a slow cooker, add in mung bean, chopped ginger, Nagaimo and cover with water.  Slightly more than double the amount.  Turn to high and let it cook for 3-4 hours, or until the mung beans are broken out.

4.  Add in rock sugar to taste.  Stir or wait until sugar dissolved.  Mix some potato starch with water, stir to mix well.  Slowly add into the dessert and stir until thicken.  If not thick enough, add more potato starch water.

5.  Good serving it warm or cold.  Keep the leftover in a container in the refrigerator to enjoy it cold.  Refreshing during Summer.  Or keep warm in the slow cooker to enjoy it warm.

Note:  You can cook this on the stove too, just have to keep watch.

Water Chestnut Jelly Cake

If you have been reading my blog, you probably aware that I did this before but the plain version.   With the yellow rock sugar that I used, my water chestnut cake turned out white, not the result that I was looking for.  So, this time I played with the recipe and used Malaysia's Gula Melaka and added the chopped water chestnuts.  It turned out so much better, love the fragrant of Gula Melaka that I could taste with each bite as well as the added crunch from the water chestnuts.  It is really refreshing eaten it cold straight from the refrigerator.  I prefer this instead of pan-frying it with batter, less grease thus healthier.

This will be the way I am making this in the future until I am out of the Gula Melaka, then the other substitute that I could think of will be the Chinese brown sugar in bar shape.  That would give me the color that I want but with different fragrant.

Ingredients:

250g water chestnut flour (馬碲粉)

500ml water
1 5oz (141g) canned of diced water chestnuts
750ml water
350g  Gula Melaka

Method:

1. Open the canned of diced water chestnuts, drain, lightly rinse and chop into desired pieces.
2. Mix water chestnut flour with 500ml water and whisk to mix well.  Set aside.
3. Boil Gula Melaka with 750ml water until sugar dissolve. Add in the chopped chestnut pieces.
4. Pour water chestnut mixture into Gula Melaka solution and keep stirring until it turns transparent and thick.
5. Pour the thicken chestnut mixture into a well greased 8 inch pan.
6. Steam on high heat for 30-45 minutes.
7. Let it cool at room temperature and then cover with a plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator for at least three hours.  Preferably overnight.
8. Slice and serve it cold.

Fruit Pastry using Puff Prata/ Pratha

Summer came with abandon of fresh berries, peaches, nectarines, melons, mango and all were on sales.  My house was fulled of all sort of fruits.  My hubby bought some nectarines but it were sour and soft and I bought some plums and it were sour as well.  So, all these sour fruits had been left in the refrigerator uneaten as the sweeter fruit would be chosen.  I had been thinking of a way to eat these fruits since I don't like to waste food.  Was thinking to make them into the fruits pastry cake but I was a bit lazy to make the cake.  Then, an idea came when I remembered I still have two pieces of frozen roti puff pratha in the freezer.  Thus, this fruit pastry was created.  Out of convenient and not wanting to throw away sour fruits.

I will show the step-by-step picture in the next page with the simple recipe.

First, cut and core the nectarines and plums, put them in a bowl.  Add in some blueberries and sweeten them with sugar and cinnamon (optional).  How much sugar to add depends on how much fruit you have and how many fruit pastry you are going to make. Stir to mix well.  Set aside.  [I used 4 nectarines, 2 plums and 1/2 cup of blueberries, used about 4-5 Tbsp. of sugar.] Take out your frozen prata/pratha and let it rest at room temperature until soften.

Second, place the soften prata on a Slipat or parchment paper.  Stretch it out a little bit, add in the filling like above picture.

After that, pull the prata over some of the fruit, like a blanket.  Brush the puff pastry with egg wash (from one beaten egg).

Lastly, bake it preheated 400'F oven for 25-28 minutes or until golden brown.  You can serve this with sprinkle powder sugar on top.  Good when it's still warm or at room-temperature.  Of course, you can use frozen puff pastry or filo papers for the wrapping as well.  You can also serve it with whipped cream or vanilla ice-cream. 

Verdict:  Everyone loved it!  Great way to dispose of the sour fruit and make such a great dessert presentation too.

Chinese Water Chestnut Cake

My friend gave me three packets of water chestnut flour recently.  I wanted to try this Chinese water chestnut cake for a long time and finally I got my chance.  The above is my Chinese water chestnut cake without the bits of chestnuts.  I didn't have the water chestnuts but decided to make it anyway.  It turned out pretty good I think, tasted like cold jelly straight from the refrigerator.  I will certainly play with this recipe in the future because I saw others people water chestnut cake in yellow color instead of white.

This cake is actually served during Chinese Lunar New Year by Chinese, depended on where they are located.  I don't think we Malaysian eat this during Chinese New Year.  I pan-fried this with the equal mixture of flour: rice flour.  The batter was really crispy!

 

This recipe is graciously shared by Florence.  I changed it a little bit.

Ingredients:

250g water chestnut flour (馬碲粉)

500ml water
600g fresh water chestnut (I omitted this)
750ml water
300g - 400g rock sugar/golden rock sugar (I used 400g)

Method:
1. Wash fresh water chestnut thoroughly and cut or crush them into your desired size. (I omitted this step)
2. Mix water chestnut flour with 500ml water and strain for use later.
3. Cook rock sugar with 750ml water till sugar dissolve. Add in the crushed chestnut pieces.
4. Pour water chestnut mixture into rock sugar solution and keep stirring until thicken. (Keep stirring until it turned transparent and gluey)
5. Pour the thicken chestnut mixture into a well greased 8 inch pan.
6. Steam on high heat for 30 minutes.

Note:  You have to let it cool in room temperature and then let it set in the refrigerator.  It will harden and turned jelly like after that.

Red Beans & Black Glutinous Rice Sweet Soup

This is one delicious sweet soup I discovered by accident.  I was planning to cook some red bean soup with orange peels.  And then I remembered my mom used to add a handful of white glutinous rice with hers.  Some people added some dried longan too.  But I did not want the dried longan in my sweet soup and while trying to take out my shell pasta to cook noodle soup, I spotted my black glutinous rice.  I was thinking why not I used the black glutinous rice instead of white since it was considered to be healthier.  So, I used the black glutinous rice along with my red beans and dried orange peels and set my slow cooker to low and was really surprised at how tasty it was the next day.  It was so delicious that I would cook this way often from now on.

I love to cook red beans and black glutinous rice in my slow cooker overnight, because I will be rewarded with a soft and gluey and delicious sweet soup in the morning, without fail.   I liked mine soupy thus I added a lot more water.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup red beans, washed

1/2 cup black glutinous rice, washed

3-4 dried orange peels

Rock sugar to taste

Method:

1.  In a slow cooker, add in red beans, orange peels and black glutinous rice.  Add water until it reaches half of the slow cooker (or slightly less than half).  Turn it to low (8 hours) and go to sleep.  This is a soupy version, if you like it thicker, add less water.

2.  The next morning,  give it a stir and add in rock sugar to taste.  Stir until rock sugar dissolved and turn it to warm.  Enjoy it as morning breakfast and throughout the day.

Sweet Lily Buds and Lotus Seeds Soup

This is a pretty common Chinese sweet soup in Malaysia. I know I didn't like this soup when I was little or when I was back in Malaysia. It is just not my thing especially the lotus seeds and lily buds, not something that youngster would like. But as I got older, my taste bud changed as I am more into healthy food these days or food that would provide benefit to my body as to the opposite. I came into this soup again and the benefits of drinking this simple soup really changed my mind about this soup. This soup is said to be supporting heart, nourish kidney, fight memory loss, insomnia, loss of appetite, nourish brain especially for students or white collar workers who need to use brain to think a lot and anti-aging. I believed in Chinese medicinal soup for prevention and overall body wellness so I guess I will cook this sweet soup frequently from now on. Yeah, I thought my girls wouldn't like this soup but surprisingly they both loved it, even finishing all the lotus seeds, longan, wolfberries and lily buds I gave them. I seriously thought they wouldn't eat the lotus seeds and lily buds like when I was young.



Ingredients:

15g dried lotus seeds
15g dried lily buds
10g wolfberries (Goji berries/ Ke chi)
12 red dates
12 dried longan
800-1000 ml water
Rock sugar to taste

You can add 1 or 2 beaten eggs if you like (optional)

Method:

1. Rinse lotus seed, lily bud, red dates, wolfberries, dried longan under running water. In a pot, add in water, let it boil. When boiling, add in the rest of the ingredients except rock sugar.

2. Turn the heat to low and let it simmer for 2 hours. Add in rock sugar to taste and continue simmering for 10 minutes.

3. Add in beaten eggs (if used) to create egg drop soup effect before serving.

Duo Colors Marbled Tang Yuan (Glutinous Rice Balls)

I saw this recipe on CCTV4 TV food program, "Everyday Food" and thought what an excellent idea! Thought I share it with my readers here, so we will have another way to serve our favorite dessert "Tang Yuan". As I mentioned earlier, in order to incorporate more diary into the Chinese families diet, they have used fresh milk in cooking and making dessert. Usually we used water to make glutinous rice balls but for your own family consumption, you now have the option to use fresh milk for extra nutrient, what an excellent idea right? Also, I never thought that I can add cocoa powder into making my glutinous rice balls too, we usually just use the different colorings. Can you tell, I really learned a lot from this episode. It looked too pretty not to try it out especially all of us adored "Tang Yuan". So, I gave it a go and really liked it, you can give it a try too!

I want to wish my readers a "Happy Mid-Autumn/ Moon Cake Festival" too! Enjoy the mooncakes, food, full moon and good company!





Ingredients:

White dough: glutinous rice flour + milk

Brown dough: glutinous rice flour + cocoa powder + milk

Filling: Red bean paste, roll into ball shape

Syrup: Water + Gula Melaka (or brown sugar) or (1 cup water + 1 cup sugar + a drop of almond extract)


Pictures Guide:

Lay the brown log shape dough side by side with the white log shape dough.


Twist them together.


Cut it into pieces.


Flatten each piece with a roller or hand and place red bean paste in the middle. Close it and make into ball shape.


Like this. Very pretty right? :-)

Method:

1. In a bowl, add in white glutinous flour and a little milk at a time. Knead until a dough is formed. In another bowl, add in white glutinous flour + a little cocoa powder + milk (a little at a time) and knead until a dough is formed. At the meantime, also roll the red bean paste into balls for easy filling.

2. Roll each dough (white and brown) into a long log shape and intertwine both together. Cut into pieces. Take one, roll into flat circle and put filling inside, close it and roll into a ball shape. Finish the rest.

3. Bring a pot of water into a boil. When boiling, add the glutinous balls into the boiling water. When it floats to the top, dish out and place into individual bowl. Dissolve some Gula Melaka (or Chinese brown sugar) with a piece of ginger as Syrup for the tang yuan. Or just plain syrup with a drop of almond extract (optional) (1 cup water + 1 cup sugar + a drop of almond extract).

Merdeka Open House 2009: My Sweet Malaysia: Red Bean Soup Dessert with Sago and Glutinous Rice Balls

It's the Merdeka Open House 2009 event hosted by Babe in the City again. She has been hosting this event for the past couple of years and I am glad to be a participant in this. This year the theme is My Sweet Malaysia and we have to cook up some traditional sweet dessert based on our ethnic group. I picked this red bean sweet soup with sago and glutinous rice balls. Red bean dessert has been very traditional but over the years lots of different ingredients have been added to make it a little different and here is my version.

This is a short read extracted from wikipedia on red bean soup:

In China, red bean soup is a popular dish. The soup is commonly thinner than the Japanese oshiruko version. It is categorized as a tang shui, (literally translated as sugar water), or sweet soup. It is often served cold during the summer, and hot in the winter. Leftover red bean soup can also be frozen to make ice pops.

It is one of the main desserts offered after Cantonese cuisine meals in restaurants at night. When served, it is plain most of the time. The fancier restaurants may offer red bean soup with sago (西米). The two types of sugar used interchangeably are rock sugar and sliced sugar (片糖).

Since the older generation of Malaysian Chinese were immigrated from China, this red bean soup had been adapted in Malaysia and became one of the traditional and common dessert nowadays.



Ingredients:

1 to 2 cups red beans, soak overnight for fast cooking
1/4 to 1/3 cups Sago
1 cup glutinous rice flour + enough water to make a dough
Brown sugar or Rock sugar or Gula Melaka to taste
1 piece of tangerine peel
Water

Coconut cream (optional)

Method:

1. In a saucepan, boil it with water. When boiling, add in the amount of sago that you want (1/4 or 1/3 cup). Stir and let it boil for 10 minutes. Turn the heat off and cover and let it sit for 15-20 minutes or until sago turned transparent. Rinse in a sieve under cold running water, set aside.

2. In another large saucepan, add water of your choice, boil it. When boiling, add in red beans and tangerine peel and let it simmer for about 2 hours or until soften. Then, dish out the tangerine peel and add in sugar of your choice to taste.

3. While waiting for the red bean to cook, can make the glutinous rice balls. In a bowl, add in the glutinous rice flour, add a little water at a time until a dough is formed. Pinch and roll the dough into small balls, set aside. Boil another saucepan with water. When boiling, add in the glutinous balls in batches. When float to the top, dish it out and place in cold water. Set aside.

4. When the red bean soup is done. Add in the sago and glutinous rice balls. Stir to mix well. Before serving, can add in a dollop of coconut cream, stir well and serve for thicker texture and fragrant. I omitted the coconut cream. Serve hot or at room-temperature. I won't recommend you to put it in the refrigerator as the glutinous rice balls will turn floury and hard (not a good eat).

Happy 52nd years of Independence Malaysia and please visit BabeKL's blog on August 31st for the round up of the highly anticipated event: My Sweet Malaysia. Thank you.

Cantaloupe Sago Summer Drink

I have been seeing this dessert circulating around the Web in recent years. I never make an attempt to make it mainly because some called for coconut milk. Then, some was made with evaporated milk but I hardly stock this in my pantry. And it just happen that I have some condensed milk in my refrigerator so "tada!", why not I used condensed milk instead, got some milky flavor and sugar in one. This drink indeed refreshing especially good during Summer when cantaloupe, honeydew and mango are at its cheapest. Very cool and refreshing drink to serve as a drink or dessert during the hot summer days. My girls and I loved it but not my hubby, he said why wasted a cantaloupe for this? *fume* <---me!





Ingredients:
1 cantaloupe, separate
1 cup water
4 tsp. condensed milk
1 cup crushed ice
1/4 cup mini sago pearls/ tapioca pearls

Method:

1. In a small saucepan, boil water. When boiled, add in tapioca pearls, boiled for 10 minutes uncovered, then turned off the heat, covered and let it sit for 15-20 minutes or until the tapioca pearls turned transparent. Drain in a sieve with cold running water. Set aside.

2. Cut the cantaloupe in chunks for blender and reserved 1/4 (cut into small cubes) to add in later.

3. In a blender, add in water, chunks cantaloupe and condensed milk. Puree and blend until fine, add in crushed ice and blend until smooth.

4. Pour mixture into a serving bowl, add in tapioca pearls and cubed cantaloupe. Mix and serve cold.

5. Keep leftover in the refrigerator.