Recipe: Chilled mango cream with sago pearls

In a Chinese restaurant, it is common to end the meal with a plate of fresh fruits (or deep fried sesame balls or a simple tong sui (sweet soup dessert) at a Chinese wedding dinner). Most of the time, we would just skip dessert but if we see chilled mango cream on the menu, we would most definitely order it! 

Served cold, this dessert is creamy yet light and refreshing! My parents got us some nice mangoes a couple of weeks ago and I instantly thought of making this dessert at home for all to try. 

Chilled mango cream with sago pearls

For this dessert, I used this recipe I found on Kuali.com as a rough guideline- I found it quite strange that the original recipe calls for very little mango and coconut milk, but I just prepared extra ingredients for "standby" just in case. Luckily I did, because if you follow the original recipe, you will get quite a watery dessert with very little mango taste. I just used my common sense and tweaked the taste to my liking (I ended up using a whole small mango). I have also reduced the sugar amount as I find that the mango is naturally sweet enough.

Along with the cubed mango, sago pearls are also added to the chilled mango cream. Sago pearls is a starch extracted in the spongy center, or pith, of various tropical palm stems. The way to cook this is to place them directly in a pot of water and bring it to the boil until translucent. I find that soaking it before cooking will cause them to be too soft, so I skipped this step. The sago pearls adds some texture to this dessert.

Now I no longer have to wait until I visit a restaurant to enjoy this dessert, as I can make it at home too! ;)

A great Chinese classic dessert 

Chilled mango cream with sago pearls
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 20-25 minutes
Cooking time: 8-10 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
150ml hot water
20g caster sugar
100g ice cubes
25g whipping cream
100g thick coconut milk, freshly squeezed
220g mango, pureed
30g sago, cooked
200g mango, cubed
4 scoops vanilla ice cream (optional)


1. To cook the sago pearls, place them in a medium saucepan with cold water and bring to the boil. Then, lower to medium low heat and simmer until the sago pearls turn translucent, about 6-8 minutes. Remove with a fine sieve and hold sieve under running tap water to cool cooked sago and separate any clumps. Drain and set aside.

2. Combine the hot water and sugar in a bowl and stir until the sugar dissolves.

3. Add the ice cubes and stir until the ice melts. Add the whipping cream and coconut milk. Mix well and add the pureed mango and sago. Mix again and add in the mango cubes.

4. Chill until ready to serve. To serve, pour some mango cream in a small bowl and place scoop of ice cream on top.

You can serve it without vanilla ice cream if you prefer

But I do like it WITH the ice cream;) (makes it even creamier)

*This recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel's FB page on 9 Nov 2012.