Es Cendol Jawa Barat - West Java Style Iced 'Cendol'

The ‘es cendol’ is considered a ‘sweet drink dessert’, a beverage that is usually ordered just before or right after meal. Cendol is made from fine rice flour ‘spaetzle-like’ but a little bit softer. The dough mixture consists of finely ground rice flour combined with chalk water (boiled chalk with water) to make the dough really soft and spongy when it is cooked in boiling water. Use a strainer or sieve or a special ‘cendol’ sieve to produce the same fine particles. The ‘cendol’ usually comes in green and white color.

Combine the other ingredients: black jelly (cincao), boiled red cassava pearls, pandanus flavored coconut milk, pandanus flavored palm sugar and shaved ice.

The term ‘cendol’ came from Malay-Patani language (the language is used in South Thailand) ‘horn dooi’ means ‘help’ which is needed when preparing this drink because it is a bit complicated to make. Travellers from Southern Thailand in the early 1900s would cross the border to Malaysia and from there to Indonesia and to other region. The original ‘cendol’ is green in color, served with palm sugar, some coconut milk and shaved ice. This tasty drink was probably the base for the creation of ‘ais kachang’ and ‘ais batu campur’ in Malaysia as well as ‘halo-halo’ in the Philippines, where all of these types of drinks have similar ways of preparation and in appearance.

The ‘es cendol jawa barat’ is but a bit more complicated to prepare as there are more variety of ingredients to add. The Chinese style black jelly cincao, colorful cassava pearls and the flavor of pandanus leaf is predominant. This shows that there are so many cross culture influence in this particular  ‘glass of drink’ so I call it a cross-culture drink.

Ingredients for the ‘cendol’

1 cup fine rice flour

2 ½ tablespoons cassava flour

1 ¼ cups ‘suji’ leaves juice (this leaf looks like a pandanus leaf)

a pinch of salt

Combine the rice flour with the cassava flour and salt. Add ½ cup of the ‘suji’ leaf juice and mix well. Meanwhile, heat the remaining ‘suji’ juice to boiling point and add the flour mixture. Stir in to cook until it becomes very soft ‘jelly-like’ dough. Remove from the heat.

In another pot, boil water and place a ‘cendol’ strainer to sift the dough to form the ‘cendol’. With the use of a scraper, push the dough through the strainer to the boiling water to cook further the dough in a form of tiny green ‘pasta-like’ soft dough.

Prepare also a bowl of ice water to cool the cooked ‘cendol’. As soon as the ‘cendol’ float, you should scrape and take it out from the boiling water and allow to cool by placing it in the ice water so that it will not be overcooked and become saggy.  Then remove from the water as soon as the ‘cendol’ is cold and store in a container.

Repeat the process until the entire dough is cooked properly.

For the coconut milk syrup

4 cups coconut milk

1 ¼ cups sugar

1 piece pandanus leaf, crushed

Combine the coconut milk, sugar and pandanus leaf and bring to boil. Remove from  heat and allow to cool. Keep in the fridge.

For the palm sugar syrup

1 cup palm sugar

1 tablespoon white sugar

½ cup water

1 piece pandanus leaf, crushed

¼ cup chopped ripe jackfruits

About the image above: simple 'cendol' presentation in one of 

the restaurant in Vietnam; the cendol 'Jawa Barat' probably more

classic presentation and of course the taste will be

unforgettable especially if you try it in the region itself

like Bandung or other area in West Java

Combine the palm sugar, white sugar, water and pandanus leaf and bring to boil until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Add the chopped fresh jackfruits and keep for later use.

To serve

¼ cup boiled cassava pearls (red color)

¼ cup black jelly ‘cincao’

shaved ice to chill

Prepare a bowl or a tall glass to serve this ‘cendol’. Fill the bowl or glass with enough ‘cendol’ and add the cassava pearls, black jelly, coconut milk syrup and the palm sugar syrup. If you want a sweeter drink, you may add more sugar. And finally, top the drink with shaved ice just before serving. Enjoy this icy yummy treat!