Tau Suan (Mung Bean Soup)

Spilt Mung Bean Soup

I've been saying each time I ate a Gnocco fritto that it tasted quite a bit like our Youtiao (dough fritter). So when I came across a packet of spilt mung beans the other day at the local Chinese shop (but you only see Africans in it weird enough), I decided to make one of my favourite desserts - Tau Suan.

There are more than one ways of making it, one of which was to soak the beans for 2 hours, drain and then steam them for 20 minutes before adding them to a syrup made of water, rock sugar, pandan leaf and caltrop starch.

I decided to soak them for a few hours, drain, boil them in water, rinse the beans a few times by throwing away the water and boiling the beans in more water (until the water's clear). Then I made a caramel with normal white sugar so as to give the Tau Suan a golden colour, added in water and a pandan leaf and substituted the Caltrop starch with a equal mixture of corn and tapioca starch. Added in the cooked mung beans last and cooked it till I obtained the desired texture.

I fried the Gnocco fritto I bought from the supermarket, and added them to my Tau Suan. It tasted really yummy. As a matter of fact, I made a chocolate cake for the rest of the family and ate up the whole pot of Tau Suan myself.