Cantik means pretty while manis means sweet. It's straight forward translated from its name. Even though the name is cantik manis, I reduced the sugar amount from the recipe that I saw in my Yasa Boga cookbook. It's very easy to make, no steaming or baking process. Cantik manis is also popular during Ramadan in Indonesia. Usually, there are evening markets that sold traditional goodies before the Iftar time, so people can buy and bring them for breaking their fast at home or mosque.

Anybody who wants to participate in Joy From Fasting To Feasting (season-III) who is hosted by Lubna Karim, feel free to click the link above. You don't have to be a Muslim to join the event. The more the merrier, don't you think?




Originally, these little cute dessert cakes are wrapped individually in thick plastics or banana leaves. However, I couldn't find thick plastic wrappers and too lazy to thaw and shape my frozen banana leaves. I used my bite-size brownie squares 24-cavity silicone and putu ayu moulds. Below is the pictures.






Cantik Manis
- Indonesian Sweet Pretty Cakes -

Ingredients:
� 100 g colourful sago/tapioca pearls (Indonesian: biji mutiara)
� 50 g mung bean flour (Indonesian tepung hunkwe)*
� 500 mL coconut milk (If you use a 400 mL coconut milk in a can, just add another 100 mL water)
� � tsp salt
� 90 g sugar (the recipe calls for 100 g)
� 1 pandan leaf, knotted
� banana leaves or plastic sheets, for wrapping (I used moulds)



Methods:
� In a boiling water, put sago pearls and cook until done and transparent and strain.
� Dilute mung bean flour with some parts of coconut milk and set aside.
� Boil remaining coconut milk and pandan leaf with salt, then add mung bean flour mixture and stir. Add sugar, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Add sago pearls, stir well and remove from heat.
� Pour the mixture into moulds. Leave to cool. Unmould the cakes and serve.

Cook's Note:
* For people who can't find tepung hunkwe, you may substitute for the Korean mung bean starch by reducing the amount of mung bean flour that I used in this recipe.


Mung bean flour is known as tepung hunkwe in Indonesian. However, there is a bit different with the Korean mung bean starch on the right hand side picture. If you notice tepung hunkwe is translated as flour not starch since it's mixed with vanilla. The Korean one is pure starch.

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I was first interested to b�nh tr�i when I saw pictures of Vietnamese foods that taken by one of Indonesian foodies during his travel to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and Hanoi. At one of his pictures, he stated that he forgot the food name and described how it tasted. Then, I was asking Anh what that was and she explained it to me.

B�nh Tr�i is actually similar to Indonesian klepon. While in some parts of Sumatra, people call it onde-onde which is the same as the Malaysians do. The difference, klepon is covered with grated coconut and filled with palm sugar or coconut sugar. B�nh tr�i is sprinkled with roasted sesame seed and sugarcane rock candy as its filling.  Yep! Most of Asian countries have their own sticky rice dumplings!  Shame on me! I haven't made my own klepon yet.^_^

Short story, I was browsing the recipe for it. I found two recipes which one was in Vietnamese and another one was in English. The one in English was to complicated to follow. I decided to choose the Vietnamese one. For the first time, I was following a recipe that is not in the language that I speak. Off course, I used google translate. Even though google didn't translate to a proper English, I quite understood with the recipe.

Since those two recipes are slightly different in ingredient. One is with a mix of glutinous rice and rice flours and another one is only with rice flour. Again, I bugged Anh to make sure that I got the correct flours. She mentioned the ratio 9:1 for sticky rice flour and rice flour. Thanks, Anh!

One thing, I changed from the recipe. The recipe applies sugarcane rock candy for the filling. I used Indonesian palm sugar (known as gula aren) that has a darker colour since I don't have any sugarcane rock candy.

This post goes for Delicious Vietnam #4 and is hosted by Bonnibella

B�nh Tr�i
- Vietnamese Glutinous Rice Dumplings -
recipe by Trang Emi, modified by me
 
Ingredients:
180 g (1 cup + 1 tbsp) glutinous rice flour
20 g (3 tbsp + 1/4 tsp) rice flour
190 ml warm water
palm sugar (depends on how much filling you want)
roasted sesame seed

Directions:
1. Combine glutinous rice flour and rice flour. Add warm water gradually to flour mix. Mix well and form into a dough ball--it should be like play dough consistency.

2. Take a small dough and shape into a ball. Repeat the earlier step until all dough is shaped into small balls. From this recipe, you will get about 35-40 small balls.

3. Pinch a small ball of dough and flatten it out into a thin disk.

4. Place a small amount of palm sugar and close the dough around it.

5. Meanwhile, you are busy with shaping the little balls. In a pot, bring water a boil. Once you�ve covered an entire plate and your water is boiling and your little ball soldiers are starting to stick.

6. Plunk your balls into boiling water and wait until they float to the surface.

7. Prepare a bowl with cold icy water on the side. Once the balls are floating, with a slotted spoon or spider, transfer them right away to the a bowl of cold water. Place on a serving plate and sprinkle roasted sesame seed.

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