Es Cendol
“A cooling West Javanese iced dessert drink of green pandan rice-flour jelly worms swimming in sweet coconut milk and dark palm sugar syrup over shaved ice.”
Where it comes from
Es cendol is the Southeast Asian iced sweet of green rice-flour worms in coconut milk and palm sugar; in West Java the full iced version is known as es cendol. Cooling and sweet, it is the antidote to a tropical afternoon.
On the plate
Cold and slushy, the drink is creamy with coconut and deeply caramel-sweet from gula merah, while the soft pandan jellies are slippery and faintly grassy. It is dessert and refreshment in one frosty glass.
How it works
Mung bean or rice starch gelatinizes when cooked then sets soft on cooling, and pressing the hot paste through holes into ice water shocks it into the signature tadpole shapes.
Variations
Dawet (Central/East Java), cendol with durian, with jackfruit or red beans, Bandung-style with bread
On the Palate
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
7 steps · Show ↓25 min active · 30 min waiting
How it's made
7 steps · Show ↓- 18 min
Blend pandan leaves with water and strain to extract green juice.
- 212 min
Cook rice flour, tapioca and pandan juice into a thick, smooth paste.
- 38 min
Press the hot paste through a colander into iced water to form short jelly worms.
- 430 min
Let the cendol set and firm in the cold water, then drain.
- 510 min
Simmer palm sugar with water and a pinch of salt into a dark syrup.
- 65 min
Lightly salt and warm the coconut milk, then cool it.
- 73 min
Assemble cendol, palm syrup and coconut milk over a glass of shaved ice.
