Homemade Pandan Extract

A few weeks ago, I pruned my big Suji plants and gave away 50 sticks of the cuttings.  I really hope fellow gardeners will be able to root and pass it forward.

Many years ago, I was trying to find this plant, been to countless nurseries and none sell it.  A lady overheard me asking the staff from one of the nurseries and she proudly declared that she has such a plant in her garden.  Being so desperate, I actually approached her to ask for cutting but she behaves as if I am after her money.

I was sharing this nasty experience with a friend and guess what, she promptly found me a cutting from an Indonesian friend.  I was so happy and the rest is history.  From then on, for years, I have been sharing to friends who enjoy baking pandan cakes or jelly.

As I do not like to feed my family with too much artificial colouring, the Sugi plants actually can give me a nice green hue on top of the pandan.  Pandan itself does not have a strong green.  Very often, commercial bakeries do add some colouring to heighten up the colour.  With Sugi working together with Pandan, I can omit this artificial colouring.

Why I am so desperate back then, I was looking for natural colouring that I can feed my family with. My son has eczema when young, so I tried to abstain artificial colouring for him.  At 20s, I am proud to say he has baby soft skin with no outbreak.

So today, I will show you how I do my Homemade Pandan Extract.

I will be using this to bake Ondeh Ondeh cake and from there you will see how deep this colour is and it is all-natural!

Top layer already filtered - pandan water

Bottom layer: concentrated pandan extract. 100% natural

What you need:

150g pandan leaves, washed and cut
40g suji leaves, washed and cut
200g water

Method:

In a blender, blend the leaves with water.  You might need to do it batches.

Filter out the juice and add it back into the blender with a batch of leaves.  Continue this step until all the leaves are blended.

Using a ricer, extract the juice.

Pour into a container and let it rest in the fridge for 2 or 3 days.

You will see a layer of concentrated pandan juice at the bottom.

Slowly pour away the water and you will be left with the pandan extract.

Use within a week or once green turned into a light brown.


Enjoy!