Lek Tau Suan

As a child, I used to have this dessert as mid-morning, sold by a middle aged man on a push cart. It must be eaten hot, delicious with crispy chinese cruller topping. The following is a recipe by Chef Lee Weng Eng, scaled down for a smaller family. If you use purchased crullers, cut them to pieces then crisp them up under the grill in the oven.



Ingredients:
Ingredients
150g skinned, split green beans
1/2 fresh orange
50g rock sugar
50g castor sugar
1 litre water
1 pandan leaves, knotted
2 teaspoons water chestnut (ma tai) powder, mixed with some water into a solution Chinese doughnut, sliced thinly

Method:
Soak the beans in water for 30 minutes. Drain and steam on high heat for 20 minutes.
Peel the orange and reserve flesh for some other use. Slice the orange peel.
Bring the rock sugar, castor sugar, water and pandan leaves to a boil. Add the beans, orange peel and water chestnut solution. Cook until the soup thickens slightly and has a translucent look.
Serve with the thinly sliced Chinese crullers.

Serves 3-4