Tau Suan

The weather has been so cold and gloomy these days. It's hard to come to terms with the fact that we're supposed to be having spring when it does feel more autumn / early winter. Brrrr.

Hence, when we went to the asian store to stock up on chinese ingredients and I saw some freshly-made you tiao - fried dough fritters, I immediately bought some and decided to make myself some Tao Suan.

Back in Singapore, there are a lot of sweet desserts made out of beans. Tao Suan is one of my favourite and it uses mung beans as a base.

This is the only the second time that I'm making this dessert because hubby ain't a fan of the taste of mung beans and the first time I attempted it, I made the you tiao from scratch, which was way too time-consuming and tedious for my taste.

Hubby and Sammy ate up the you tiao with gusto. Hub refused to try the mung beans while Sammy tasted at least 2 spoonfuls of it before stopping. I shall just have to persevere in training Sammy's taste buds to like my Singaporean sweet desserts!

I realized that I didn't post any recipe the first time round, so this is my fuss-free and easy recipe. I like this recipe because it does not use as much sugar as most other recipes ask for. Plus I modified it a little by using pandan essence because I didn't have any pandan leaves and it worked just as wonderfully. :)

Ingredients: -

- 150 grams Mung Beans
- Some You Tiao (toasted in the oven till crispy)
- 1/4 tsp pandan essence
- 50 grams rock sugar
- 500 ml water

Thickening glaze
- 40 grams starch / sweet potato flour / tapioca flour
- 125 ml water

1. Soak beans in water for an hour. Drain, steam for about 30 minutes.

2. In a pot, add water, rock sugar and pandan essence.

3. Bring to boil, reduce heat and add the mung beans.

4. Prepare the thickening glaze and stir it in slowly until mixture thickens to desired consistency. You do not need to add the entire amount.

5. Taste. Add more sugar if necessary.

6. Serve hot with you tiao. Enjoy!