Kaya, at long last!

For those of you who troll Facebook or Twitter, you may have glimpsed that a certain Malaysian mother living in a certain small town in Washington has been trying her hand at making kaya, Malay for coconut egg jam. This Malaysian delicacy has in recent weeks plagued my every waking moment, even as I sneezed and coughed my way through the last week or so, pink-eyed, diseased children in tow. All I could think about was green, sweet, sticky nyonya kaya slathered generously on a slice of crispy warm Texas toast (American-speak for kopi tiam equivalent thick-sliced bread).

So motivated was I that I actually went out and assembled the ingredients required to make some (no small feat since it is my daily endeavour not to stray into the kitchen).

The first time was a disaster. I’d used a “speedy kaya” recipe from some idiot who managed to convince a desperately homesick (and lazy) woman that a microwave and 30 mins was all it took. I’d also used powdered santan (coconut milk) – not good.

Today, I bought some frozen Masagana coconut milk (not the grated version) from Ranch 99

and my wonderful, handsome, extremely sexy husband managed to find me some essence of pandan in lieu of the real thing (such a turn on).

I followed the portioning of this recipe, but the method didn’t make much sense, so I pretty much felt through the whole cooking part of it myself, heating the sugar and the coconut milk until it thickened and then streaming the beaten egg in slowly, slow-cooking the mixture to perfection around 30 mins later over a 2-4 heat until it bubbled and thickened more to a paste. You add in the pandan essence about 10 mins after the egg.

And there it is!

Lokes taste-tested it and remarked, “Mmm! Can sell!”. That’s the Tan family equivalent of “this kicks ass!”.

So excited to “intro” kaya to the girls for breakfast tomorrow!