"This is so creamy and yummy!" he added after finishing the last slip of his bandung with a satisfying ahhh...
Bandung? For those who don't know, it is the name of a drink popular in Singapore and Malaysia. This icy cold pink drink is typically made of evaporated milk or condensed milk flavoured with rose cordial syrup which is usually available in pink in Singapore and Malaysia.
Whenever we go to Singapore for our holidays, my son love love love attacking the refreshing and sweet ice cold bandung throughout our entire trips. As we don't drink bandung in Melbourne, I choose to shut one eye and allow my son to indulge with these sweet syrupy drinks. However, I often get reprimanded by husband for buying many cups of bandung and feel guilty after seeing my son's deeply stained extremely bright pink tongue when he finishes his intensively coloured drink.
I hate the thought of consuming too much artificial colouring. Well, it is ok to consume a little colouring sometimes but definitely not excessive... Now that I can make my own bandung with this fantastic recipe, I don't have to worry about consuming bandung with too much pink colouring!
In fact... This bandung is so good that I reckon that any bandung-loving person won't want to drink bandung from the shops anymore!!! It is so good that it will be a shame if I don't share this recipe!!!
Homemade Ice Blended Bandung
To start, I made this syrup on the day before. Ideally, this syrup is infused with pandan overnight in the fridge.
Then, combine these...
... plus these natural food colouring and rose water
Top with ice to form a total of 650ml and blended until the ice is fine and milk is slightly frothy.
Sweetie, here's your bandung!
Unlike the bandung we drink from the shops, I can assure you that this Bandung that I made is very honest being naturally creamy and yummy! It contains the least amount (or even NO!) artificial colouring and additives if you uses the right kind of ingredients to make your drink.
... but don't freak out if you can't find or buy any natural food colouring or rose water, you can use any food colouring or rose water that you can find as I promise you that you won't need to add too much of these into your drinks!
Here are the recipe that is mostly adapted from the book, Best of Malaysian Cooking by Betty Saw
Serves 2
125ml (1/2 cup) water30g caster sugar (original was 100g! and 30g is sweet enough!!!)
2 pandan leaves, roughly shredded lengthwise and knotted
375g can evaporated milk, preferably the lighter 2% fat kind*
1 pinch salt
2-3 drops natural food colouring
2 tbsp rose water**
enough ice, to top all to a total 650ml
* Personally, I think that the original evaporated milk with 9% fat is a bit too rich for me.
** According to here, you can make your own rose water from scratch but I didn't do that. Mine is the kind that is commonly found in most supermarkets. I wouldn't say that this is the best kind with the best quality as it is mainly made of water, a good amount of rose oil and contains preservative. The better ones that I have used before expired too quickly and I decided to downgrade my choice to this. Nevertheless, it is always wise to choose rosewater that is transparent, clear and most importantly the contents must be properly labelled. Interestingly, the original recipe from Betty's book didn't use rose water at all. Instead, it makes more than 1 liter of drinks and uses 1.25L commercial ice cream soda (the sweet and fizzy kind).
In a large saucepan, bring water, sugar and pandan leaves to boil. Cook until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. When the syrup to cool to room temperature, transfer syrup (with the pandan leaves) into a cup or a deep container. Cover the cup or container. Leave pandan leaves to infuse in the syrup in the fridge for at least 4 hrs or preferably overnight.
Remove and discard pandan leaves. Combine syrup with the rest of the ingredient and use a blender to process until the ice are finely crushed. Serve and enjoy immediately!
Enjoy this lovely summery drink.
Please support me and like me at Facebook...This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Doreen from my little favorite DIY and me, Bake for Happy Kids and hosted by Sharon from Sweet Home-Chefs at this post
Our Little Thumbs Up event starts on the first day of the month until the last day of the month. To join, simply cook or bake any recipe with the theme of the month which is CHRYSANTHEMUM and edible flowers for Feb 2016 and link with us at this post anytime until 29th Feb 2016.
What after Feb 2016? Joyce from Joy 'N' Escapade will be back to be the next hostess of Marc 2016 and her theme is Honey.
Don't forget your thumbs up or display this badge! And make sure that: (1) Your post must be a current post preferably within this month. (2) Please mention Little Thumbs Up in your post and link back to Bake for Happy Kids, my little favorite DIY and Sharon from Sweet Home-Chefs
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To welcome the Year of the Red Fire Monkey, 10 cooking bloggers have come together to bring you the chance to win a SGD$500 (USD$350 / AUD$500 equivalent paypal cash prize) ang pow! This giveaway is open to ALL participants!!! And you can be the lucky winner!!!
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