Recipe – Tau Suan (Mung Beans Dessert)

I love my aunty for her persistence. If she wants to do something, she will do it to her best of ability. Just like after she ate the malay steamed cake at Tim Ho Wan, she wanted to make it at home. When she failed the first time, she never gives up and continue try till she gets it. I love her spirit.

That’s why she is known in the family who cooks curry chicken, chicken rice, beancurd and tau suan pretty well. That is because she has done it over and over again for so many times that she does a good job (but she doesn’t cook other dishes that well haha!). So one night, she is in the mood to cook us some tau suan!

I am sure many of you who cooks will agree with me. It is so hard to write a recipe! Because many times, we cooked by feel. For example, in this tau suan recipe, Aunty poured some potato flour into the bowl. I ask her how much, she say “agar agar” 1/3 bowl. But how can like that right! All our bowls are different in sizes! So she said 100g lah! I was like, huh 100g?! So much meh?!?!?! But it only turns out to be about 40g.

There are many variations for tau suan recipe online. While most of them are similar, some actually stir fry the mung beans with sugar first to give it the caramelized fragrance. We don’t usually do this at home because that means another step of washing up! Haha! If I have the mood next time round, I will probably try it again. But this bowl of tau suan from Aunty is already good enough for me. It feels like home. 🙂

Recipe for Tau Suan (Mung Beans Dessert)

Ingredients:
300g mung beans
150 g sugar
1.3 litres water
few pandan leaves
1 you tiao (fried dough fritters)

Thickener:
40 g sweet potato flour
125g water

Instruction:
1. Soak the beans in water overnight (or at least for an hour).
2. The next day, add some pandan leaves with mung beans. Steam the beans for about 15 minutes, or until they are soft.
3. Heat the pot and add in 1.3 litres of water and, pandan leaves and sugar. Let it boil for about 10 minutes.
4. Add in the mung beans and boil for another 5 minutes. Add in sugar and potato flour.
5. Add in the thickening mixture. Continue stirring until the tau suan slowly thickens. Serve with fried you tiao.