The versatile Malligai (a treat for the taste buds!)
Oh, How Versatile is the Malligai!
When used as an ingredient in certain types of cuisine, this versatile flower takes the discerning gourmet on an exciting culinary adventure. And, there’s a bonus: the malligai can be incorporated in several easy-to-make dishes, the recipes of some of which are featured here.
But first, a step-by-step guide to making the base — malligai syrup — which stars in all these recipes!
Malligai Sherbet
Serves 4
Ingredients
Lime 2
Chilled water or soda 4 glasses
Malligai syrup (Click here) - 8 tablespoons
Ice cubes (optional)
Squeeze the lime, mix the juice with all the other ingredients, and serve chilled.
Jasmine and Coconut Milk Custard
Serves 4
Ingredients
Coconut milk 2 ¼ cups
Corn flour 4 tablespoons made into a paste with ½ cup water
Jasmine syrup (Click here) - 7 tablespoons
Fresh fruit for garnishing
1. Heat the coconut milk in a saucepan.
2. Add the corn flour paste and cook, stirring till it starts to thicken and coats the back of a spoon.
3. Remove from the heat and add the jasmine syrup. Mix well.
4. Pour the custard into individual glass bowls and chill well.
5. Garnish with fresh fruit and serve.
Sago in Jasmine Scented Coconut Milk
Serves 4
Ingredients
Sago 100 gm
Warm water 3-4 cups
Coconut milk 400 ml
Jasmine syrup (Click here) - 5 tablespoons
Water chestnuts for garnishing
1. Soak the sago in 2 cups of warm water for one to two hours, till they swell up. Drain.
2. Simmer the soaked sago in one cup of water for five to seven minutes.
3. When cooked, remove from the heat, add coconut milk and jasmine syrup and mix well.
4. After it cools, pour it into individual glass bowls and chill.
5. Just before serving, add water chestnuts.
Jasmine Flavoured Sticky Rice
Serves 4
Ingredients
Sticky rice (cooked) 2 cups (cook the rice according to the instructions on the packet)
Soya milk 1 cup
Jasmine syrup (Click here) - 5 tablespoons
1. Cool the cooked sticky rice.
2. Mix in the soya milk and jasmine syrup.
3. Put it into small serving bowls, or use fancy moulds if you wish, and refrigerate for two to three hours.
4. When ready to serve, if you’re using the moulds, place them upside-down on individual plates
lined with a piece of fresh banana leaf. Tap gently so that the rice slides onto the plate.
Lemon Grass and Jasmine Tea
Serves 4
Ingredients
Water 1 litre
Lemon grass 70 gm
Fresh jasmine flowers 200 gm
Honey according to taste
Bring the water to a boil. Add the lemon grass and continue to boil for ten minutes. Add the fresh jasmine flowers and turn off the heat. Leave it to steep for five minutes. Strain it, sweeten with honey, and serve hot or cold.
Malligai Syrup
To make 4 litres of syrup
Ingredients
Unsprayed Jasmine 600 gm
(use only partially-opened buds as they retain the fragrance better)
Sugar 4 kg
Water 3 litres
Milk ½ cup -- to remove the 'scum'
Lime ½ (squeeze the juice) -- to remove the 'scum'
1. Buy the jasmine buds the day before you make the syrup.
2. Wash and bundle them up in a wet muslin cloth and keep this in the refrigerator until required.
3. The next day, start by putting the sugar and water in a large vessel and bringing it to a boil. Let it boil for 15 minutes.
4. Then add half the milk and continue to boil the syrup.
5. Remove any 'scum' that rises to the top.
6. Continue boiling the syrup for a further 15 minutes.
7. Add the remaining milk and keep boiling the syrup.
8. Remove any more 'scum' that might form.
9. Add the lime juice and keep the syrup on medium heat until it thickens. This is likely to take 1-1 ¼ hours. Do not turn up the heat to hasten the process as this could make the syrup caramelize. When the syrup thickens a bit and turns sticky (it should resemble the texture of thin honey), remove it from the heat.
10. Immediately add the jasmine buds to the hot syrup.
11. Close the vessel with an airtight lid, and allow the jasmine to 'sit' or steep in the syrup till the next day, or at least for 12 hours.
12. Then take a large vessel and tie a clean muslin cloth at the top, as shown.
13. Strain the syrup through the muslin cloth.
14. Squeeze the contents of the muslin cloth well, in order to extract the essence of the jasmine.
15. Pour the syrup into bottles. (You will find it convenient to use four 1-litre bottles.)
The syrup will keep for up to 6 months,
if refrigerated.
Handy Hints : If the syrup is too thick, you will get less than 4 bottles.
If you get more than 4 bottles the syrup is too thin, which means it could spoil quicker.
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