Every time it's Chinese New Year, I long to be home in Singapore with my family, enjoying the feasts and snacks that go with this holiday month.
This one isn't a CNY snack, per se, but it's a snack unique to where I'm from - Pandan Chiffon Cake. It's an easy recipe, one that takes less time than pineapple tarts (that I'm craving like mad right now) and since I recently got some pandan leaves from Interasian Market here in town, I thought I'd go ahead and treat myself to a cake!
You can find the recipe for the cake here. As for pandan juice, here's how I made it:
10 oz of pandan leaves 2 tbsp of water
- Rinse and chop the pandan leaves into 1" wide bits
- Using a blender or food processor, blend the leaves and water till it looks like lawn clippings.
- Using a mueslin cloth or a very clean cloth, squeeze the juice out with your hand. You can also use a strainer but I think that takes longer and you don't get all the juice out.
- Loosen up the leaves in the cloth, and squeeze again till nothing's left.
It's kind of messy so you have to scrape the sides down. My food processor almost couldn't handle the bulk but be patient and scrape, pulse, scrape, pulse.
Don't forget to also invert your cake pan after you're done baking and let the cake cool completely before removing.
Enjoy!
