LAV@NUS: Vietnamese Dessert: Chè Đậu Xanh(Sweet Green Bean Soup)

Chào các cô, chào các bạn,

Nhóm các em có năm người, là Việt, Bắc, Bình, Xuân và Huệ. Chúng ta muốn nấu ăn chè đậu xanh, vì chúng ta thích ăn cửa ngọt. Bây giờ̀ chúng ta chia vật kinh nghiệm các em với các có và các bạn.

Ngày mai, chúng ta đi nhà thầy Minh để nấu ăn!

Thời gian (Time):
Chúng tôi đến nhà thầy Minh lúc tám giờ sáng.

Địa điểm (Location):
Nhà thầy Minh

Nhiệm vụ (Task):
Nấu ăn: Chè đậu xanh (green bean sweet soup):

Danh từ chè đậu xanh (Green bean soup recipe) for 10servings:
500 g Skinned split mung beans, soaked in water for more than 3 hours and drained
500ml Coconut milk
100 g Caster (superfine) sugar
Pinch of salt
Pandan leaves
Soaked sago pearls (optional)
Toasted coconut shavings (optional), to serve

Phương pháp (Method):

1. Put the mung beans and pandan leaves
in a pan and pour in 1 litre of water.

2. Bring the water to the boil, stirring
constantly, then reduce the heat and
simmer until all the water has been absorbed.

3. Press the beans through a sieve
(puree them in a blender for better results).

4. In a heavy pan, heat the coconut milk
with the sugar, stirring until the sugar
has dissolved.

5. Gently stir in the pureed mung beans,
(add salt and soaked sago pearls),
making sure the soup is thoroughly
mixed and heated through.

6. Wait for the chè đậu xanh to cool

and then put it in the fridge to chill.

7. Take it out of the fridge when it is
ready to be served. (Alternatively,
the chè đậu xanh can also be served
warm.)

Our group had arranged to meet at Bukit Panjang Bus Interchange at 7.45am, but everyone was late. In spite of that, we were still the earliest group to reach thầy Minh’s house. We were so early that we even caught a glimpse of their family in pyjamas. We had fun playing with his son before we started with our cooking.

We experience a few drawbacks while of cooking. The first major hiccup was the recipe which we had found on the internet. We were really suspicious when we saw that we were supposed to add 1 litre of coconut milk. We thought it looked very much like some coconut soup recipe instead! We asked cô Quỳnh and cô Bích for advice, and they suggested that we reduce the amount of coconut milk by 3/5. We were too focused on improving our ‘coconut soup’, so much so that we forgot about the sago pearls which we were cooking in another pot. When we finally remembered its existence, the sago pearls had disappeared and in its place, we saw a pot of glue! Oh My God. Just imagine how horrified we were! We decided to just not include the sago pearls in our soup since it was optional. Later, we requested that cô Bích try our soup to see if it tasted alright. We were dealt with yet another blow when she commented that our beans were not entirely cooked and that it was supposed to be really soft and smooth. But it was too late, what is done is done and we had to hand the kitchen over to the other groups that were waiting to use the stove. Although our mung beans were slightly uncooked, our soup still tasted very good.

Since we were one of the first groups to finish cooking, we went down to the poolside with some other groups while waiting for the rest to be done. We spent some time making vietnamese flags out of coloured paper and toothpicks, as part of the decoration and presentation of our chè đậu xanh.

After that, cô Lê introduced to us a Vietnamese game which the Vietnamese play during the new year. We had fun “gambling” (only with sweets of course!) and bonding with our friends as well.

At the end of the eating and tasting session, our pot of chè đậu xanh was empty, thanks to die-hard fans of our soup. Thank you so much for your support, we love you people!!! :D We enjoyed ourselves very much and will try to improve our signature dish!!