Peche Peche

During the South Arm Older Adults Cooking Club Christmas theme cooking session, we shared our favourite recipes instead of gifts.

Peche Peche is a recipe shared by Doleres. It is a Filipino dessert. It is similar to a Malaysian dessert called Onde-Onde but using cassava instead of glutinous rice flour.

I made this for a Christmas/New Year gathering.

Ingredients

• 1 package of grated cassava (1 pound)
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon pandan extract
• unsweetened shredded coconut for coating (about 100g)

Source: this recipe is adapted from Doleres recipe. Doleres, thank you for sharing.

Filipino Cassava Cake with Coconut String

Minoo shared a Filipino Cassava Cake recipe for dessert at the South Arm Multicultural Community Kitchen.

This is a sweet and sticky cake. Refrigerate the cake will make it a bit firmer.

This recipe uses frozen grated cassava. The grated cassava is from the root of a woody shrub. Cassava is a major source of carbohydrates. When dried to a starchy, powdery form, it is called tapioca.

Coconut string is the flesh of young coconut. You can buy the above coconut string from stores that carry Filipino products like Great One Supermarket, 99 cent Dollar Store, Wah Shang Supermarket, etc.

Ingredients

• 4 cups grated cassava (from 2 packets of 454g)
• 2 cups coconut milk
• 1 small  can (380g) condensed milk
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup sugar; omit this if using coconut string (Makapuno)
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 jar (340g)  coconut string, divided

Source: via Minoo

Vietnamese Cuisine: Cassava Strips Dessert (Che Khoai Mi)

Doris made some Cassava Strips for dessert. Doris served the Cassava Strips Dessert with a Coconut Milk Topping called Nuoc Dua in Vietnamese.

The Cassava Strips is lightly chewy. According to Doris, the authentic Cassava Strips should be rolled in freshly grated coconut which is more moist than those store-bought grated coconut.

Doris is so sweet that she also brought some Vietnamese coffee to share with us.  Doris had just return from Vietnam and the coffee is 100% Vietnamese coffee. This bag of 1kg ground coffee costs about CAD10.  Vietnamese coffee is strong and best serve with condensed milk.

Ingredients for Cassava Strips:

• 2 packs of frozen grated cassava
• 5 ounces coconut milk
• 1 cup sugar
• a dash of vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 cup water
• 4 tablespoons glutinous rice flour
• 1 teaspoon salt

Ingredients for Coconut Milk Topping (Nuoc Dua):

• 1 can coconut milk
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 to 2 teaspoons rice flour, dissolved in some water as thickener

Cassava Coconut Dessert

Andrea made this rich dessert which she learned from her sister-in-law who is a Vietnamese. I called it a rich dessert because it is made with coconut milk.

Cassava or Yuca is a very hardy tuberous root. Cassava brings back my childhood memory where cassava grew wildly at our backyard. It is very easy to grow them. You just simply cut a portion of the stem and stick it to the ground and a new plant will grow from there. We simply enjoy the cassava by just boiling them in some salt water or make Cassava Cake.

The Cassava Coconut Dessert can be served warm or cold. Andrea’s husband even like it just out from the freezer in a hot summer day.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs cassava, peel and cut into 1 inch piece; soak in water overnight and drain
• 1 can coconut milk
• 400 ml regular or skim milk
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (reduce sugar by half if the coconut flakes is sweetened.

Click on the link below for the instructions.

Instructions

Combine the drained cassava, coconut milk, milk and sugar in a pot.

Bring it to a boil and lower heat to simmer for 30 to 40 minutes until the cassava is tender.

Turn off the stove and stir in the coconut flakes. Andrea, thank you for sharing this simple and yet delicious dessert. I simply love it. I totally understand why you said you have a soft spot for this dessert and cant stop eating it.

Cassava Cake (Kuih Ubi Kayu)

Cassava Cake is another dessert cake commonly found in the morning market in Malaysia. I’ve been searching for the recipe and found a few variations which some involve steaming the cake first before baking them. Then I remembered my friend Jessica who brought the Cassava Cake for last year’s Chinese New Year gathering. So I got this recipe from her which is the simplest Cassava Cake recipe of all.

Cassava Cake is soft and chewy and fragrance. Ben loves this dessert.

Ingredients

• 1 tin coconut milk (398ml)
• 2 packets grated cassava (you may find this in stores which carry Phillipines products)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine

Click on the link below for the instructions.

Indian Vegetarian Curry

My good neighbour, Zee shared with me how to make a vegetarian curry dish. Zee is of Indian descent but she was born in Kenya. The Vegetarian Curry dish is a very versatile recipe as you can use an assortment of ingredients.

For this recipe, Zee used kidney beans and cassava. Cassava is grown for its enlarged starch-filled roots, which contains a high concentration of starch. Cassava is used much like potato.

Click on link below for Ingredients and Cooking Instructions.