Making Tau Suan

I like the beans to be powdery. The broth shouldn't be too sweet. It cannot be too starchy and needs to have the subtle aroma from panda leaves; the beans and broth should somewhat mix or blend together and shouldn't appear to be separated. And it should be served piping hot with crispy yet chewy, and salty youtiao. That's how I like my tau suan.

Mom wanted to make some angku kueh, so she bought some split mung beans to make the tau sar filling by herself. To make tau sar, the first thing to do was to steam the beans. Once cooked, she reserved some for her tau sar; the rest she scooped up to make tau suan. 

Mom's homemade angku - bright orange natural coloring from orange-hued sweet potatoes

I was surprised! Mom had never made tau suan before! But then, Mom's tau suan was superb that evening - powdery beans and aromatic broth with a congee-like consistency. I was so hooked on the tau suan that I proceeded to make some myself the next evening!

Theoretically, it is easy. Just steam the beans and then mix into a pandan-flavored broth and thicken with potato starch. Or so I thought. Though I succeeded in cooking the tau suan, the result was far from perfect, not as I had liked it to be. My tau suan paled in comparison to Mom's. 

My homecooked bowl of tau suan

First of all, the beans were steamed for too short a time, so it did not disintegrate to produce that powdery texture and rich flavour. Then, I cooked too much broth! Too much water and not enough beans - so that affected the consistency ... Sigh. Plus, I cut down on the sugar, so it did not taste as satisfying.

So, it's seemingly simple, yet so complex. I still need plenty of practice in order to cook a perfect bowl. Indeed I am humbled by the process of cooking tau suan. I have a lot to learn!