Cendol Delima is a dessert – kind of milky with jelly-gummy-seedy like dough as its main ingredient. I guess its resemblance to the seedy buah delima or pomegranate, the fruit, gave it its name.
My mother used to make the cendol delima when I was a lot younger. It was a weekly fare at the table especially during the fasting month of Ramadan.
I suppose that it did not cost too much to make was a primary point but then again it is definitely a colorful dessert. Not to mention that it is delicious too. You take to it when you see it. The eye rules the mind. That’s what some people say. When it comes to food, the saying hits a home run.
I used to live in a kampung and whenever my mother made the delima I was told to keep an eye on the chickens. Chickens? Yes, chickens! My mother did not want the curious chickens to get too near the delima when she was drying them out in the sun.
Chickens used to be free-range back then and no area was out-of-bound. Not even the table on which the delima was drying. The delima was atractive to the chickens but it was going to be our dessert. So a battle of will would follow …
Sometimes, I do see etchings of footprints on the dried delima. Could the chickens have gotten the better of me? Nah … not possible … definitely not on my watch. But still, sometimes I wonder … hehehe …
How about making this simple dessert again? Maybe it will bring back home some memories – of people, of events that touched us in so many beautiful ways in the days gone by.
It’s easy enough to make and here are the steps:
1. Make the delima – Mix about 200 gm of tapioca flour with just enough water for it to firm up in a tray. Have enough depth. The flour mixture I mean.
2. Brush it red with food coloring. And dry it out in the sun. Now you don’t have to contend with inquisitive chickens. But do keep an eye on the birds …
3. Cut the dried delima into small pieces and put them into the boiling water
4. Boil coconut milk with sugar and put the delima into the coconut milk mixture. You can add buah kabung, if you want to. It would enhance the taste.
There, your cendol delima is ready for your Iftar. Put in some ice if you like. It will be fresh and invigorating.
If cendol delima does not bowl you over because of some hard to pinpoint reasons, how about Cendol Gula Melaka? Would you take to it? It’s yet another traditional dessert of ours.
The eye rules the mind.
I guess this enticing dessert requires a special post of its own.