How to make famous Hong Kong-style sago dessert at home with easy steps and several different ways. Summer is coming and this will be a lovely addon to many of your soups, desserts, or milk teas.
What's sago
Sago (西米) is made from sago palm tree stem starch. Although not native to China, we love to cook this as a dessert. Raw sago has a pure and lovely white color and cooked sago presents a lovely transparent pink color. I think that color is quite dreaming. Unlike the chewy boba balls made from tapioca starch, sago is much softer.
In China, a dessert shop originating from Hong Kong has bought sago to our attention. One of their top popular desserts is mango sago (Chinese Name: 杨枝甘露). Traditional Hong Kong-style mango sago uses mango, coconut milk, cream, grapefruit, or pomelo. Now, those yummy, soft, and transparent pearls are served with other popular dessert ingredients (grassy jelly, tofu pudding, taro balls) in lots of restaurants as a basic dessert to form a great combination of flavors and texture. Cooking a sago dessert at home is easy and can be quite enjoyable on warm days.
💭Use a lot of water to cook sago
Rule No.1: don't wash your sago pearls.
Cooking sago with a larger amount of water and a higher fire (keep the liquid boiling) can save you time in stirring and watching. Using a large amount of water can help to avoid messed sago.
Never cook sago with other ingredients
Never cook sago along with your dessert. They can turn your dessert soup cloudy and starchy.
Rnising needed after cooking
Sago should be rinsed before adding it to desserts for a clean texture and soaked in liquid after cooking.
How to cook sago
You will only need sago and water.
- ½ cup sago
- water, recommend 10 times water
Bring a large pot of water to a boil on medium to high fire. Place sago in. Use a high fire to re-boil the liquid and then use a medium fire and keep the liquid boiling during the whole process. Give several stirs to make sure the pearls are not sticky to the bottom.
Cook for 10 minutes and cover the lid and let it stay for another 15 to 20 minutes. Check whether the peals are completely transparent. In most cases, they should be well-cooked and transparent. If not, continue cooking with a high fire for several minutes until well cooked.
Strain and rinse under running cold water to remove residual starch.
During the time of cooking sago, blend the mango smoothie and tune the coconut milk. Once the sago is well-rinsed, assemble it as soon as possible. Following are some of the recommended ways of using sago.
- With a mango smoothie base. You can add sago to the mango smoothie base and top it with other types of fruits.
- Add it to red bean soup. This is a new trend nowadays and it is super delicious.
- Add it to mung bean soup and coconut milk. Super comforting.
- Add some coconut milk with fresh fruits.
Ingredients
Sago
- ½ cup sago
- water
Mango sago for 2 servings
- 2 ripe large mango cubed and pick some beautifully cut for topping
- ¼ cup coconut milk
- ¼ cup evaporated milk or coconut milk if you prefer
- Other seasonal fruits strawberries and kiwi fruit for decorating
- 4-6 tbsp. cooked sago
Coconut sago
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 4 tbsp. cooked sago
- 2 tbsp. honey
Instructions
How to cook sago
- Bring a large pot of water to a boiling on medium to high fire. Place sago in.
- Use high fire to re-boil the liquid and then keep the liquid boiling during the whole process. Give several stir to make sure the pearls not sticky to the bottom.
- Cook for 20 minutes and cover the lid and let it stay for another 15 to 20 minutes. Check whether the peals are completely transparent. In most cases, they should be well cooked and transparent. If not, continue cooking with high fire for several minutes until well cooked.
- Strain and rinse under running cold water to remove residual starch.
Mango sago
- Blend mango cubes with milk and evaporated milk until really smooth in a blender.
- Transfer to serving cups, scoop the cooked sago in and top with fruits.
Coconut sago
- Mix coconut milk with honey. You can chill this base for a chilled version. Add cooked sago and fruit cubes.
Maureen Haslam
I need to save these recipes Thank you.
Elaine
Which tool you use?