Red Bean Sago Pudding

Sago pudding is a pretty popular dessert when you go yum cha, it's one of those desserts that you would definitely see in one of those dessert trolleys! Ummm... but ashamed to say me being an Asian, I have actually never ordered or tasted a sago pudding before! Although I have never tried it, but I guess it's a cross between the Western rice pudding and custard, which both I have tasted before. I still remember a high school friend of mine used to bring in rice puddings for us to eat at the locker room all the time - the good old days!

In this cold winter weather, how good is it to have some stew or slow cooked dishes as comfort food for dinner?!?! And there's no exception for dessert, we need comfort dessert as well! I guess sago pudding can be classified one, it is quite filling and served warm!!!!

Ingredients:

120g sago

200+300ml milk

4 tbsp custard powder

2 egg

100ml evaporated milk

90g sugar

40g unsalted butter

1. Preheat oven to 200C

2. Soak the sago in water for 20min, drained. Then add the sago into boiling water, and cook over medium heat for 10 min. Keep on stirring to avoid sticking. Remove from heat, but keep the lid on till the sago turns transparent. Then drain and run the cooked sago under cold water.

3. Add 200ml of milk and custard powder together, then add in the eggs. Mix well.

4. In a pot, mix together the 300ml of milk, evaporated milk, sugar and butter, and cook over medium heat till the sugar and butter melt. Then add in the egg mixture and keep on stirring till thickens. Add in sago.

5. Pour half the custard mixture into a baking dish, then add in filling (I used those canned japanese red beans!!) Then top with the rest of the custard mixture.

6. Place the baking dish in a water bath, then bake for 15-20 minutes.

The look of the sago pudding turned out quite nice!!! However because it is for HF the next day, so I couldn't dig in straight away!

Warning: One mistake I made the next day was to reheat the pudding in the oven - that didn't only over cooked the pudding, made the custard tasted very 'old', it also created a pool of water at the bottom of the dish!!!! =(

I think I definitely need to try this recipe again, and remember to eat it as soon as it comes out of oven!