Monday, August 13, 2007

Purple Balls (ondeh ondeh)

I was talking to Zue on Sunday about everything under the sun and as usual it will end up with food :) We talked about sweet potatoes and I told her that I bought some special sweet potatoes from Philly Chinatown. Since she too bought some sweet potatoes last week so we decided to make ondeh ondeh together in a different kitchen. Here is my purple version of the ondeh ondeh.

Look like ordinary sweet potatoes
Is purple in colour - steam it until soft
Chopped some gula melaka (palm sugar)
Make into balls
Boil it and coat it with fresh grated coconut
And 'Voila' purple balls
Note : Can someone enlighten me why the boiling water turn into green when I boil the potato balls? There must be some scientific reason for that.

30 comments:

NorthBorneoGirl said...

nice ondeh ondeh Gert .. now puasa is around the corner I'm collecting recipes for breaking fast and Raya :)btw Gert do you perchance have any tried and tested recipe for serunding daging ? ..

Sue Sue said...

Wan,
Nice Onde-Onde ya. Can I have some?

ICook4Fun said...

Envy, there is a serunding daging recipe in my blog in the month of July.

Sue, you are back. How many you want me to keep for you :)

pearly said...

oh lovely onde onde , please mdm can I have some ?

NorthBorneoGirl said...

found it Gert! .. Thank you so much!.. you are my saviour in my cooking adventure;)

Salt N Turmeric said...

i call them kuih melaka and theyr usually green. heehhe.

hmmm.. dunno why the water turned to green rather than purple. x-files case?

Zue Murphy said...

Gert, what is the name of this purple potato? Where can I find it? I cannot believe that it is really purple ya. Interesting...

Beachlover said...

Gert,Can you throw few biji ondeh2 to me,pleaseeee...I like this Japanese sweet potato rather than the regular orange and yellow one.Dunno why called Japanese sweet potato.I think the purple color must mix with other color as well to jadi green..sorry me no scientist..just know how to makan:)

ICook4Fun said...

Pearly, thanks. How many biji you want?

Envy, hope you like the recipe

PJ, I am also used to the green ondeh ondeh but since I found the purple one so I used it. If you come across any of these give it a try. Is so much sweeter than the normal sweet potatoes.

Zue, remember we saw some at the vietnamese store but dah tak cantik that is why kita tak beli. Next time you pergi situ, check and see ada tak. This is Japanese Sweet potato.

Beachlover, I too crazy over this sweet potato. Is really sweet especially if you roast it. As far as I know if you mix green and red it will become purple. But is weird the water turn green.

Cat Cat said...

Pop satu biji... Pop dua biji...
If only we lived closer, Gert.
Your purple ondeh-ondeh, simpan 10 bijik for me... Rain check, ok??

Kiersten said...

Yum, ondeh-ondeh, I love it when the palm sugar just burst in my mouth!

Jun said...

hmm...nice color la gert...soo tempting. it doesnt look purple from d outside eh! u mix it with tepung gandum? not glutinous flour like kuih buah melaka tu?
oh ya..have u taste sambal tempe..if u xtra rajin, u can try my recipe 'kecipir'..very nice n can keep for quite sometimes too...

ICook4Fun said...

Cat, I will simpan 10 bijik for you :)

Pinky, I too like the feeling of the gula melaka squirts in my mouth when I bite into it :)

Jun, I mix with tepung pulut but not much. This ondeh ondeh/buah melaka keep really well. Is still soft on the second day. I am going to try out your tempe chili hijau recipe. Jun apa tu 'kecipir'?

drNO said...

it's usually green.
however, purple looks really nice...
may be next time, can make both color, better for the presentation right...half purple, half green...
n u make me feel like making some...
hmmmsooo malas to go to the shop to buy sweet potatoes..
u send some to me lor... :P

aiyah nonya said...

purple, green ondeh ondeh - I don't are what colour they are I just love them.

No idea why the colour turns green.

I have tried purple sweet potatoes before. They have a real soft texture. And they turn the water I boil them in puprle not green.

There is a rumour that farmers inject dyes to obtain that colour. No idea how true that rumour is though.

Jun said...

Gert..kecipir is the recipe name..javanese name i think...sambal mix tempe, anchovy, pnuts, potato..fried one..very nice. its in my blog..other way to cook tempe

ICook4Fun said...

drNo, is hard to find white sweet potato here. Mostly orange in colour. Since I found these so I decided to made into ondeh ondeh.

Nonya, you are right. The texture of this potatoes is softer. Is good for roasting and not boiling. Wow, like that also can ah..inject dyes into the potato :(

Jun, I got the recipe from your blog. You know this is my fav way of eating tempe. If I pergi beli nasi campur I am sure to take this dish :)

Zue Murphy said...

Gert, if I am correct, they call it winged bean for kecipir or kacang botol.

ICook4Fun said...

Thanks Zue. Too bad we can't find any kacang botol when we went to the vietnamese store the other day.

Rita Ho said...

Gert .... de-ja-vu in Seattle! My sister made purple ondeh-ondeh in Melb a while back that looked exactly like yours, right to the grated coconut pieces because no electric spinner like those we have back home. Is yours done the same way? How do you scrape the coconut out of its kernel?

I can't find purple sweet potatoes here, all white ones. :(

Rita Ho said...

I asked David why your water turned green, he said something to do with its PH and explained it but I tak dengar all of it .... LOL!

ICook4Fun said...

Rita, what a co-incidence that your sister made the same purple ondeh ondeh :) I used frozen grated coconut. I do have some gagets to scrape the coconut but is too much work. Easier to just used to frozen one. You might be able to get purple potato from the Asian supermarket. David explanation must be too teachnical for you :) :)

Anonymous said...

Note : Can someone enlighten me why the boiling water turn into green when I boil the potato balls? There must be some scientific reason for that.

The purple color in vegetables is a result of a pigment known as anthocyanin which are also antioxidant flavonoids that protect many body systems. Anthocyanins are sensitive to acidity and are are extremely water soluble, changes in acidity (pH) cause the compounds to alter their structure. The compounds change and the acid is evaporated off the surface of the potato into the water.

ICook4Fun said...

Anon, thank you for the explanations.

Anonymous said...

urs is beautiful! i just use normal sweet potato and mine turned out to be dull yellow.

Karen said...

Wow, is the ondeh ondeh so easy to make... I go try it... just steam the sweet potato, mash it, put chopped up gula melaka inside & boil & coat with grated coconut & that's it?? I don't need to add flour or eggs or anything to the sweet potato? My last ondeh ondeh attempt came out quite nice initially then became really hard... & heaps more work too... hoping this will be real nice... :-) Thanks for sharing...

ICook4Fun said...

Renaye, thank you.

Karen, you have to add glutinous rice flour to the mashed potato. The amount of flour depend on what type of sweet potatoes you use. Some might need more and some need less.

Anonymous said...

Regarding the green color, the sellers of Stokes Purple potatoes write that when making things with purple potatoes and baking soda or baking powder, the baked products sometimes turn green. This makes me guess that it's the alkali nature of baking soda that does it. Also, the water in parts of the midwest and the west in the US tends to be alkali (due to calcium carbonate, a.k.a. limestone in the soil), so maybe if the water in your neck of the woods has a pH much above 7, that's what's causing it.

Karen said...

Hi sorry... is there actually a recipe that I can follow for quantities, etc... :-) I just realised I have the same purple sweet potato that you have & would sooo love to have this for our dessert tonight... :-) Thanks. Karen (same Karen that posted before too... I have finally found the purple sweet potato... just by chance... yay!)

Anonymous said...

Looks nice. Can you share the recipe? :)Thanks.