Homemade Vietnamese Pho Broth

I regret that I didn't put more broth into my bowl above just for the photo. Perhaps the reason why I didn't was because the recipe I tried produced such small quantity for so much work involved and I didn't want to use all the broth in one eating. :p I started with six quarts of water and only got three quarts when I was done. The broth tasted good, but I was disappointed that it took so much work for such small results. I probably will not make pho broth from scratch again. I know I mentioned in my earlier posts the obvious reasons, but it's been at least ten years since I last made pho broth from scratch and wanted to see if I could improve. Just not worth the time or money. This recipe I tried was good, but it had too much salt to it (including the fish sauce). When I ate the pho, I didn't need to add any extra condiments except for the hot sauce. No fish sauce or hoisin. Nada. I wasn't used to that. It really didn't need it. I suppose that's a good thing, right? I guess not if someone doesn't like their pho to be on the salty side. Also, I skimmed the fat twice and it was still pretty greasy. I got tired of skimming it, so I quit at the second time. My broth came out darker than what I'm used to seeeing. I left the bag of spices in the whole time. I read from another recipe to take it out after 30 minutes. This recipe I tried did have a more intense flavor because the dried spices was simmered for at least four hours. Would I recommend this recipe? Yes. It was good. A lot better than some home made pho I have had before. I just wouldn't make this again because it was just too much work and ingredients. You can find the recipe from Andrea Nguyen. I also referenced Wandering Chopsticks and here.

Yellow rock sugar, star anise, whole cloves and cinnamon stick:


Charbroiling the onions and ginger in the oven under broil since I don't have open flame. Flavors are still there doing it this way:


Putting all the ingredients together in the pot. I used 2.5 lbs oxtails and the rest bones with marrow and tendon. I also put my spices in a pouch. You can use cheesecloth as well or use none at all. It's just easier to get them out later especially if you want the spices out earlier:


Make sure you submerge everything under water:


I skimmed the foam and and other impurities with this handy dandy tool that I found at the local Asian store. It works very good since the mesh is very fine:


After boiling for four hours and letting it cool, I put the pot in the fridge overnight and took out the fat that submerged to the top. I did this twice and it was still greasy. Seeing all this fat scared my husband, so he didn't even bother eating the pho I made for us. I told him this is how it's made and he doesn't believe me. He thinks pho broth just magically comes out clear.

Lazy Pho (Beef Noodle Soup)

Well, the broth is not home made at all, but this is how I make pho when I want that "homemade" taste without all that other work and it still tastes better than your instant noodle in a package. Also, because I have a small family of two adults and a small toddler, it doesn't make sense to make a batch of pho unless of course I plan to freeze the broth or eat pho all week. Besides, this is like making spaghetti from a jar. :) I still need to attempt to make pho from scratch again one of these days. My first time making it years ago was a disaster. It basically tasted like water with boiled beef and fat. The second attempt tasted much better, but I had leftovers for weeks and ingredients were just too much, so I never tried again. I was living by myself at the time.

I usually make my pho with the wide, fat noodles, but for some reason this Asian store didn't carry any (not even the dried kind). I don't know why, but I prefer the wide noodles when I eat pho at home, but don't mind the regular noodles when I'm at the restaurant. I also decided to buy the fresh noodles from the refrigerated section, and I did not like how the extra starch on the noodles diluted my broth. The noodles itself tasted better, but perhaps I should've rinsed the noodles more thoroughly.

Fresh noodles I tried today:



These are the fresh noodles that I would prefer and grew up eating. They make a difference to me:




Or course since I don't see the above fresh, wide noodles available very often, I have settled for the dried wide noodles and they taste fine. I forget the two brands I usually buy, but this is how they look similar to:


This is a great dish to make when you have extra or leftover ingredients laying around and you still want a hearty meal. Since I'm Asian, I usually have all these ingredients available. I just have to buy the broth and sometimes noodles. I usually keep a few cans and an extra package of pho noodles around for those days when I feel lazy to cook everything from scratch.

Serves 2-4
Ingredients - pho is one of those foods that you can easily opt out or add your favorite ingredients. The most important ingredients are the broth, and of course, you need the noodles. Everything else is simply there to complement. Why do you think instant noodle packages just come with noodles and a packet? :p

1 package of wide rice noodles (dried or fresh)
2 cans of beef pho broth (I tried a couple and the one I pictured is the best so far)
Meat of your choice such as thinly sliced beef, meatballs (found in the Asian market freezer section), chicken, and even seafood such as shrimp. (I prefer to eat beef pho with just beef, but I have added chicken to it as well and tastes just as good.)
Fresh herbs such as cilantro, green onions, and basil
Lime wedges
Jalapeno peppers, sliced
Fish sauce
Hot sauce such as sriracha sauce
Hoisin sauce

Method:
1. Soak the dried noodles in hot water in a large bowl while you prep the other ingredients.
2. Shop your cilantro and greens onions. Slice jalapeno peppers. Assemble the herbs, peppers and lime wedges onto a plate or serving trays.
3. Prep and cook your preferred meat. I usually just boil all my meat. Pretty simple and easy.
4. I usually heat up two pots. One for the broth and the other to make boiling water to soften the noodles even more. You want your noodles soft, but not too soft that they break easily. When the broth boils, turn down the heat to low to keep warm.
5. Simply assemble a large bowl with the soften noodles, then broth and add your other favorite ingredients.

Hearty, easy and still has that home made taste. Yum.

Make Fresh Spring Rolls Stay Fresh (longer)

This past weekend was my son's first birthday, so I was on a mission to cook a lot of food by myself. I even planned to bake his own mini cake with cupcakes, but then I got sick and didn't feel like doing all that cooking anymore. I decided a day or two earlier to cater half the food and order a cake. Fortunately I did that because even after waking up at 4:30 in the morning, I almost didn't finish cooking everything. And fortunately for my guests, they got to eat a yummy cake since I am not the best baker. :P It just feels good to make something yourself, especially for your little one, you know? Oh well, next time. Since I bought so much ingredients, I might as well attempt to make some cupcakes from scratch this week.

One of the things I did make were fresh spring rolls. I think the best spring rolls are the ones you make at home, because you can put anything you like in them and they are truly fresh. I have since learned of a new method to help keep them stay fresh longer. This is important if you're making them for a potluck or a large crowd and they won't be eaten right away. In any case, spring rolls are meant to be eaten the same day, within hours. They are not meant to be refrigerated or saved for the next day. Try it and you'll find out! :D

I've been making these for several years, but they just never turn out how I like them to. I even made them once for my husband's potluck at work and he told me they didn't look too good by lunch time. I woke up at 5AM to help him kiss ass for nothing. :p I think I finally found the
secret(s). After prepping them 5AM in the morning, and people didn't eat until after 1:00 afternoon, the ones I made this past weekend still stayed fresh. By fresh, I mean the wrapper did not tear (as bad) and the wrapper stayed soft (not rubbery like some in the past). Having the wrapper stay in tact is important because it helps keep the rest of the stuff inside stay fresh as well.

Makes about 30 rolls

Ingredients:
Rice Vermicelli Noodles

1 lb pork loin chops
Salt
2 tbsp Hoisin sauce
1 tbsp Oyster Sauce
1/2 tsp Soy Sauce

1 lb uncooked shrimp, deveined and peeled

Red leaf lettuce
2-3 Cucumbers
3-4 Carrots
2 bunches of cilantro

1 package of spring roll rice paper, must be Three Ladies Brand

Method:
1. Cook the vermicelli noodles according to package instructions. Make sure the noodles come out soft and rinse it under cold water to get rid of the extra starch. Drain the noodles and set aside. It's important to have the noodles (air) dry. This is why I do this step first, but I'm usually multi-tasking. ;)

2. Set the oven to broil at 500 degrees. Mix the sauces and set aside. Prep the pork by seasoning it lightly with salt. Broil the pork for about 15 minutes on one side until cooked (fat around the meat should be brown and almost crispy looking). Turn the meat over and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes or until cooked through. Once the meat is browned, this is when you put the sauce on the meat (I use a basting brush). Let it cook for less than a minute until the sauce starts to sizzle and brown on the meat. Turn over and repeat. Once the meat is cooled, slice the meat into thin strips. Set the cooked meat aside.

3. Boil the shrimp in a pot of boiling water until pink. Drain and set aside. You'll need to slice the shrimp in half. You can do it now or later.

4. Wash all the vegetables and cilantro. After washing the lettuce and cilantro, I use a salad spinner to spin dry them. It really makes a difference. If you don't have one, you can use paper towels to pat dry the lettuce and cilantro. It's important to have all your ingredients dry (except for the cucumbers, of course).

6. Peel the carrots and cucumbers and cut them into matchsticks. I've been using the Titan peelers to peel all my fruits and veggies as well as to julienne my carrots and cucumbers. I love it. :)


The cucumbers will be the wettest/moistest ingredient. If it has too much liquid you can simply drain out some of the liquid, but not too much since that's part of the taste. When rolling, I usually put the cucumbers in the middle anyway, so it doesn't touch the wrapper. Here's all my ingredients lined up on the table and I am ready to wrap and roll. I didn't cut my shrimp in half in these pictures because I had so many leftover and decided to use the whole shrimp. I actually like the taste of a half shrimp better, so I would stick with that. Also with the cilantro, you can use the sprigs of cilantro as pictured or simply use the leaves.





Now, comes the "secret" part after doing some Googling and experimenting. What I used this past weekend was a package of already cut quarters of the spring roll wrappers. I forgot to take a picture of these, but I drew a line here to show how they would look like when you see them in the stores. The Three Ladies Brand carries this and that is what I used. In the pictures below, I cut them in half as per other instructions, but honestly, cutting them in quarters tasted better to me. Some people might just use two wrappers entirely, but I do not like the taste of a thick wrapper and that's why the quarter sheet is the way to go.




The quarter sheet should be placed in the middle along with the full sheet and dunked in hot water. The quarter sheet helps hold the rest of the ingredients better and avoid the tearing in the spring rolls, without that extra wrapper taste.



Initially, I start out with hot water only because it's my first wrapper and it softens it quickly. I use the same water for about 10 rolls and start with fresh hot water all over again. I usually place new wrappers in the water as I am rolling the other that I just prepped.


Take out the sheets and place it onto a large plate that's been covered with a clean dish cloth. The dish cloth helps absorb a lot of the water and this is an important step as well. Sometimes, I use an extra dish cloth to absorb the excess water on the top of the wrapper.


Start out by placing a lettuce leaf on the bottom of the wrapper (I like to just use the outer parts of the leaf because it's softer and won't tear the wrapper), followed by some noodles, cucumbers, carrots, cilantro and pork.


Roll, tighten, roll...place the shrimp and ready to roll them over as well.


Wrap in the sides of the wrapper in and tightly roll.

When I made these for a large gathering, I place them in one of those large aluminum catering trays that come with a plastic top. I try not to place the spring rolls close to each other, and never on top of each other without placing something in between them. I used parchment paper in this case and that worked well. Instead of the saran wrap, I just put the plastic dome/top over the tray and that helped (along with other steps mentioned above) made the spring rolls stay fresh for hours. Using the Three Ladies Brand produced that soft texture that I like. Some other brands taste rubbery-like to me. Hope this helps you out!

*Sauces*
Sauces deserve their own posting, so one of these days I'll make a posting about the different sauces that can go with spring rolls, egg rolls and rice rolls. Everyone likes theirs a little different.

In the meantime, this is one of the quick sauces I use for spring rolls as well as egg rolls. Sometimes I add a little fish sauce, lime juice, Thai peppers as well as peanuts to this sauce. It's one of the quickest and yummy sauces you can make!

Betel Leaf-Wrapped Sausages with Rice Noodles

I first tasted these at a Vietnamese restaurant on Nicollet Avenue that is now out of business. I was bummed when they went out of business because I thought they were the only place that made these. I had no idea what they were called and often looked for a description in menus from other Vietnamese restaurants, but couldn't seem to find it. I was fortunate enough to run into some food blogs recently and finally found out the recipe. I used the recipe from Andrea Nguyen since I have tried other recipes from her and they have been good. I've been meaning to make these earlier when I first started my blog, but never had the time to go all the way to Saint Paul to see if they sold the betel leaves. I finally stopped at Dragon Star in Saint Paul and found the leaves. Even when I was there, there were no labels and I just went by what I remember them to look like. I was even afraid when I went up to the register and it rang up "chapou leaves" instead of betel. I guess I should've asked a Vietnamese person there, but all the ones that passed by didn't seem to speak English. However, I felt reassured once I came home and Googled again for betel leaves and compared it to the ones I just bought. They looked exactly the same.

The sausages were pretty easy to make, but even after making a pound of the meat, it didn't seem to make enough. I barely had any left over to bring to lunch for the next day. I served these with rice stick noodles and the Vietnamese dipping sauce to make these as a Vietnamese bun dish. That's how the place where I initially ate these served them and I like it that way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Start out by cooking the rice stick noodles, prepping the fresh vegetables followed by making the dipping sauce. That way the sausages will be freshly cooked and everything else is already made.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

-1 package of rice stick noodles, cook according to package
-Vegetables of your choice such as lettuce, pickled carrots and daikon, and cucumbers
-Fresh herbs such as basil and mint
-Vietnamese dipping sauce, recipe follows
-Betel beef sausages, recipe follows

Vietnamese Dipping Sauce (nuoc cham)


Yields 1-1/2 cups

1 clove garlic
1 to 2 Thai chilies cored, seeded, and minced
1/2 tsp. ground chili paste
2/3 cup hot water
1/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp fresh lime juice

In a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic and fresh chilies to a paste. (Or mince them together with a knife.) In a small bowl, combine the garlic and chili mixture with the chili paste, hot water and sugar. Stir well. Add the fish sauce and lime juice and combine. Let sit for at least 15 minutes before using. Store leftover covered with Saran wrap in fridge.

Betel Leaf-Wrapped Sausages
Recipe courtesy of Andrea Nguyen of vietworldkitchen.com

Makes about 30 sausages

30-40 fresh wild betel leaves (some leaves came pretty small and I just used two to wrap one sausage)



1 lb ground beef, chuck preferred
2 tablespoons finely minced lemongrass (about 1 medium-small stalk)
2 teaspoons Madras curry powder, Sun brand preferred
1/4 cup minced scallion, green and white part
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons oyster sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1. In a bowl, combine the beef with seasonings. Use your fingers to mix well. Set aside to marinate while you prepare the leaves.
2. Use scissors or your fingers to detach the leaves from their center stems. Make sure to keep the leaf stem attached to the leaf. You’ll need it later for creating the rolls.
3. To make the rolls, put a leaf on your work surface, matted side up. Take a bit of meat (about 2 tablespoons) and use your hand to shape it into a small sausage of sorts. Place the meat on the leaf, about 1/3 of the way below the pointy tip. The length of the sausage doesn’t need to span the full width of the leaf because the leaf shrivels during cooking.
4. Then roll up the meat in the leaf, poke a hole in the leaf with a toothpick, and use the little stem to seal it up. The roll will keep its shape. Place the finished roll on a foil-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining leaves until all the beef is used. Rub a bit of oil on each roll when all of them are done.



5. To cook, position an oven rack on the top third of the oven and preheat to broil
(425 degrees). Slip the baking sheet into the oven and broil for 6 to 8 minutes, turning them frequently to cook evenly and prevent too much charring of the leaf. The cooked rolls will feel firm, look a bit shriveled, and be slightly charred at the edges.
5. Transfer to a plate. Leftovers reheat well in a toaster oven preheated to 350F.

Wrapped sausages before cooking:


~~~~~~~~~~~~
Serve by assembling noodles into a large bowl and top it with fresh veggies and herbs, 6-10 sausages and a side of the dipping sauce. When ready to eat, pour the sauce over dish, mix and enjoy.

Rice Rolls (fawm kauv)

These are one of my favorite appetizers. Actually, I just eat them as a meal since eating a couple of them really fills me up. I'm not sure where these originated from. I know Vietnamese make these too. I'll just give credit back to the Chinese since they invented everything ;). I love eating these, but I hate making these. It sure takes a long time and by the time I'm done making them, there's only a few left because there's usually other people (or myself) eating these as I make these. It takes a lot of practice to perfect the wrapper. I've been making these for years, and they still don't come out consistently perfect each time. I always have a few that don't turn out. The first and last ones are usually the worst ones, which ends up being tossed. However, ever since I found this brand of flour, my wrapper has been turning out pretty good each time. I hope they don't discontinue or change anything about this flour because it's the best flour I have used so far. The instructions to mix is even right on since I've always used more water than what the instructions on the bag says. Excuse the poor picture quality. I made these at dinner time and I don't know why I didn't use my flash. Taking good pictures and cooking at the same time is more difficult than I thought.


Pretty simple ingredients...I like to use Jimmy Dean sausage; it gives a lot of flavor. I usually just use the Regular kind, but I had the Hot kind in my freezer.


This is the brand of rice flour I use. It's the best one I have used. NOT ALL BRANDS OF FLOUR ARE CREATED EQUAL.


Put sausage and ground pork in pan at high heat.


Cook meat until cooked through, stirring constantly until meat is no longer in large clumps.


Drain the meat once cooked to rid the juices and grease.


Put drained meat back into pan and add 2 tbsp of hoisin sauce and 1 tbsp of oyster sauce. Stir until mixed well with meat.


Add 2/3 cup of chopped cilantro and 2/3 cup of sliced green onions.


Cook until cilantro and onions are tender, less than a minute.


In a large bowl, mix the flour according to package instructions. Scoop up a full laddle of the flour mixture and put it into a non-stick pan that's been heated on medium heat.


Using the pan, stir the flour mixture until it forms a good circle around the pan. It is important to use a good non-stick pan (very few or no scratches!).


Cover the pan for about 1-2 minutes. Wrapper will be ready when it is somewhat bubbly and you can see it lifting off the pan. (Sorry, I forgot to take a pic of this). As you can see, I had two pans going...it helps make these things faster. Once it is ready, transfer it immediately to a flat surface such as a plate or you can use foil. If it does not come off of pan easily, it's probably not ready yet and try putting it back on the stove (covered) for a few seconds.


Wrapping is pretty easy. Just spread enough meat around the wrapper and roll away. I like to use a lot of meat in mine because I like it that way!


Serve with a side of sauce of your choice. I just buy the ready-made sweet chili sauce and add some chopped peanuts, more Thai chilis, and some fish sauce to it since I like it a little more spicy.

Makes about 40 rolls (or 20 per package)

Ingredients

Filling:
1 lb of ground pork
1 package of Jimmy Dean Regular sausage (1 lb)
2 tbsp of hoisin sauce
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
2/3 cup of chopped cilantro
2/3 cup of chopped green onions

Wrapper:
2 packages of steamed rice flour
9 cups of water
2 tbsp of vegetable oil

Sauce:
sweet chili sauce
chopped peanuts
Thai chilis to taste
fish sauce to taste


Method:
1. Cook sausage meat and ground pork in pan on high heat until cooked through.
2. Drain the meat so juices and oil run off. Once drained, put meat back into pan. Add hoisin and oyster sauces. Stir to mix well with meat.
3. Add cilantro and green onions to the pan and cook until both are tender, less than a minute.
4. Mix the flour mixture according to package instructions (4 1/2 cups of water and 1 tbsp of oil per package) in a large bowl. Stir until the flour is completely dissolved. It's important to keep stirring the mixture each time you pour a new laddle into the pan so that the flour keeps dissolving (it tends to form back).
5. Set a good non-stick pan on medium-low heat. Once the pan is warm, pour a laddle of the flour mixture into the pan. Using the pan handle, stir mixture until it forms a circle in pan. Cover immediately. Cover for about 1-2 minutes or until wrapper turns somewhat bubbly. Wrapper will be ready when you can see it lifting off the pan.
6. Once wrapper is ready, immediately transfer it onto a flat surface such as a sheet of foil or a flat pan. If wrapper does not come off of pan easily, put pan back on stove and cover for a few more seconds.
7. Spread a spoonful of meat over the wrapper until evenly distributed around wrapper. Start wrapping by folding in the left and right sides of the wrapper, then fold in the top over to form a roll.

This is one of the sauces I make for my rice rolls. I buy this ready sauce from Amazon or your local Asian grocery store, and add some fish sauce, more Thai chili peppers, lime juice, garlic and peanuts to it.


Another sauce I make is simply just pound garlic with red Thai chili peppers. Then add roasted peanuts and pound it together in a mortar until well blended. Add fish sauce, lime juice, and a dash of sugar to it. Add water to the sauce if you prefer a more liquid sauce. I tend to like mine on the pasty side.

Lazy Bun Bo Hue

I tried this at a Vietnamese restaurant a couple of weeks ago and liked it. It's similar to pho, but the noodles are different and the broth is much spicier and hotter. My favorite type of foods are Thai, Vietnamese and Italian so you will see a lot of those kinds of variety here. I make semi-homemade pho similar to this. I just buy the ready-made broth, make or prep my own meat and noodles and top it with my favorite herbs, veggies and sauces.
Since I do not have a large family and it's always been me or me and my husband, this is how I make certain foods. Making everything from scratch would take too long, too many ingredients and make too much leftover food for just the two of us. Someday I will try to attempt to make home made pho and bun bo hue broth if I can just find a really good recipe. They cost too much to make for trial and error, especially for just two people.



Serves 2

Ingredients
1 can of Soup Bun Bo Hue broth
thick rice vermicilli noodles
cooked beef
cilantro
green onions
Thai basil leaves
mint leaves
bean sprouts
lime
ground chili garlic oil

Method:
1. Cook vermicilli noodles according to package or until noodles are soft. Drain and rinse with cold water. The ones pictured were the only ones I had in my pantry, so I decided to use these. The ones I had at the restaurants are thicker.

2. You can use leftover meat for this, but since I didn't have any, I just bought a a piece of inexpensive beef from the store and slow cooked it for an hour to make it more consistent to what I had at the restaurant. The meat I chose had fat and tendon on it and went well with the soup.

3. Pour can of soup broth into saucepan. Bring to a boil and then turn down heat to low.

4. Assemble noodles and meat into bowl. Pour broth and top with herbs, bean sprouts, optional lime and ground chili garlic oil. You shouldn't need to add any other sauce to this soup, but I added the garlic oil to make it even more spicy.

Vietnamese-Style Tri-Color Dessert (Nab Vam)

I'm not sure what they call this dessert in Vietnamese (update: It's called Che Ba Mau). Whenever I go to the Vietnamese restaurants, I always ask for "tri-color" and they know what I mean. I always wondered how the restaurants manage to make the sugar syrup so sweet and creamy without that burned sugar taste that I usually taste with the sugar and water mix I make at home. I read somewhere on a forum to boil condensed milk and coconut milk. I tried that earlier this week and it worked the very first time that I tried it. Too bad I didn't measure it the first time because I had to measure it a couple of times to get the right consistency again. The ingredients in this dessert can vary from person to person depending on what you like. The key ingredient is the sugar syrup. If you get that right, then you can mix and add anything you like. I usually just make mine with the agar agar jello and tapioca balls. Sometimes I like to add the other store bought items such as jackfruit and coconut gel. This time I decided to add sweetened beans to make it more similar to the Vietnamese dessert.



Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 can 14 fl oz coconut milk, 3/4 can of sweetened condensed milk (Eagle Brand)
1 tbsp of agar agar powder, 2 cups of water, green food coloring
1/2 cup of tapioca pearls
Fruit Mix (beans, coconut gel, jackfruit)
Ice

Method:
1. Boil about two cups of water into small pot. Add agar agar powder to boiling water and stir to mix well. Add food coloring at this time if you would like. I like to make mine green. Once mixed well (about 2 minutes), pour into a deep container and keep cool in fridge until the mixture turns into a firm, jello-like consistency. Keep in mind, however, that this will be firmer than the jello that you're used to seeing. I didn't really time this, but after 2 hours in the fridge (when I did check) the agar agar was nicely firm. It may take a shorter time than this.

2. Bring a pot of water to boil on high heat, then add the tapioca pearls. Reduce heat to medium and boil for about 15-20 minutes. The pearls are ready once they turn transparent. You can also sample a few to see if they are ready. Make sure you take a small spoonful and pour it into cold water before tasting. The pearls are ready when they are soft. Once ready, drain the pearls and pour immediately into a container of cold water. Cover the container and store in fridge until ready to serve. Note: The tapioca pearls will absorb a lof of the water and will become larger. You may want to add more water just so the pearls do not stick together, but it is not a huge problem if they do stick as you will be adding the sugar syrup to the dessert.



3. To make the sugar syrup, mix the coconut milk and condensed milk into saucepan and bring to a boil on medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and stir constantly for about 5 minutes or until mixture is smooth and mixed well. Pour into a container and cool in fridge until ready to serve. Note: The first time I tried this, I tried with Eagle Brand regular condensed milk (not the non-fat one as pictured) and that one seems to be sweeter. I also tried the Longevity brand from the Asian stores and that one I do not recommend as it had a funny taste to it. If this syrup is to thick or sweet for you, you can dilute it with a little water. I already get that from the ice, but it's up to you.

4. Once the agar agar is firm and ready, it's time to slice them into pieces.


5. Assemble fruit mix (drained), jackfruit (sliced and drained), agar agar, and the tapioca pearls (drained) into a dessert cup. Pour sugar syrup on top of the mixture and top with ice to make this a cold dessert.