Ingredients
Jellies
- 80 ggreen pea flour or mung bean starch
- 20 grice flour
- 500 mlwater
- 80 mlpandan extract
- a pinch of salt
- a bowl of iced water
Coconut milk
- 400 mlthick coconut milk
- ¼ tspsalt
Syrup
- 200 gpalm sugar
- 100 mlwater
- 1pandan leaf
To serve
- plenty of crushed ice
Directions
- Blend fresh pandan leaves with a little water and strain the pulp hard to get the extract. Bottled essence is a coarser and more chemical flavour and it shows at once.
- Whisk the pea flour, rice flour, salt, water and pandan extract together until completely smooth.
- Cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens into a stiff, glossy, translucent paste, then keep going for 2 minutes past that point.
- Push the hot paste through a colander with round holes into a bowl of iced water, so it drops in short strands and sets the moment it lands.
- Hot paste into ice water is the whole technique. Anything warmer and the strands go limp and dissolve back into the bowl.
- Leave the jellies in the ice water for 10 minutes to firm up, then drain them.
- Melt the palm sugar with the water and pandan leaf into a thick syrup, then strain it and let it cool.
- Warm the coconut milk with the salt without letting it boil, then cool it. Boiled coconut milk splits and looks curdled sitting in a clear glass.
- Assemble in order: crushed ice, then the green jellies, then the coconut milk, then the palm sugar syrup poured over last so it sinks through in dark ribbons.
- Serve at once with both a spoon and a straw.
- It came to Suriname with Javanese contract labourers and is sold cold at markets; cendol in Malaysia and Indonesia is the same drink under another name.
Technique
- The syrup goes on last and is not stirred in. Stirred, the whole glass turns a uniform beige.
- Green pea flour, hoen kwe, gives the right slippery bite. Cornflour alone is softer and breaks up.
- Serve it colder than seems necessary. It is a hot-weather drink and it warms fast.
Substitutions
- Cornflour with tapioca starch, in a two to one ratio, in place of green pea flour.
- Any dark palm sugar for the syrup.
Variations
- With jackfruit or red beans in the bottom of the glass.
- Made with gula melaka for a smokier syrup.
- Served over shaved ice rather than crushed.
History
Javanese coconut-milk drink with green rice-flour jellies and palm sugar syrup, sold cold at Surinamese markets.
Frequently asked questions
What is Dawet?
Dawet is a drink from Suriname: iced coconut-milk drink with syrup, Javanese market refresher. Javanese coconut-milk drink with green rice-flour jellies and palm sugar syrup, sold cold at Surinamese markets.
How long does Dawet take to make?
Dawet takes 30 min of preparation and 20 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 glasses. It is rated medium to make.
What can I substitute in Dawet?
Yes, within limits. Cornflour with tapioca starch, in a two to one ratio, in place of green pea flour. Any dark palm sugar for the syrup.
What is the most important thing to get right in Dawet?
Hot paste into ice water is the whole technique. Anything warmer and the strands go limp and dissolve back into the bowl.
