UPDATE: The edited video of the live stream is finally out! It includes the recording that Lusiana and I did when the live stream failed so do watch the full episode to see how this amazing dish got made! The video is also embedded below.
Hey hey hey! On the weekend of 14th March, I had the amazing @Lusianaa as my special guest for the second live-stream of Local Guides Kitchen! If you’ve been following her many posts on Connect, you would know that she is a very capable cook! 
So it’s not a big surprise to have her for the live-stream!
Some of Lusiana’s food related posts:
- Valentine’s Day Strawberry Dessert Ideas
- The Viral Drinks in Jakarta
- Let’s make Christmas steamed buns!
- Making Gangan fish soup at home: Bringing travel memories to my kitchen
- Delicious Breakfast Idea: Spinach and Corn Cannelloni Bread
- 8 Types of Indonesian Sambal
I decided to go for the moss pudding dish because it’s a very typical and popular Asian dessert using ingredients that are also very common in South-East Asia: Lusiana is from Indonesia by the way! Plus, it is a fairly simple dish…or so I thought! 
Just when I thought I was prepared for anything, then the Internet gremlins 
showed up! Unfortunately, minutes into the live stream (it’s not very watchable), I started to notice a lag starting to build up and eventually it got to the point that neither the live audience nor even my guest could see the video!
After 20 minutes (?) or so and after checking that my local recording was also affected, I made the decision to end the live stream and just focus on doing a recording. If I continued on as it was, I would end up with both a YouTube and a local recording that are not watchable. Anyway, long story short, with the live-stream terminated, I managed to get a decent recording but it’ll take me a while to edit the videos into a watchable format so that’s why I don’t have any videos to share at this point in time. But stay tuned!
Back to cooking, moss pudding is also known as lumut (moss) pudingin Indonesia or as I accidentally called it, mulut agar-agar. Mulut means mouth in both Bahasa Indonesia and Malaysia (national language in our respective countries) which made for a bit of a laugh! Note to self: brush up on my Malay language! 
It is made using agar-agar, a plant-based gelatine that is used to create the jello like texture. The sugar obviously gives it a sweet taste. Pandan (screw pine) leaves give the green colour and unique flavour. Coconut milk also contributes to the flavour but also makes it more *lemak (*translation: fatty). What that means is that you would usually feel full faster compared to agar-agar pudding that does not use coconut milk.
Lusiana’s post gives really good and clear instructions, especially the tip about not pouring the mixture too soon in the mould otherwise the moss bits will float to the top. I totally missed reading that!! And in an earlier batch that I had made for the live stream (it takes at least an hour in the fridge for the agar-agar to properly set so I needed a quick “here’s one I made earlier” switcheroo), I just couldn’t get the moss pattern to form properly!
For the show, I changed the recipe slightly as I wanted to try out layers so I made a smaller batch of agar-agar minus the pandan juice to have a solid white colour and to have a dominant coconut flavour. Because I was using a cupcake mould, I thought it would be quite cute to have the moss pudding come out with a nice white top.
Ingredients:
I’m basically using half the amount specified in Lusiana’s post but because of the extra batch that I made, and for clarity, I’m just listing it here.
Main batch:
- 10 pandan leaves
- 125g sugar (refined white sugar)
- 7g agar-agar powder
- 100ml coconut milk (santan), with 100ml water to dilute it
- 1 egg, whisked
- A pinch of salt
- 450ml water
Small batch:
- 60g sugar (refined white sugar)
- 3g agar-agar powder
- 50ml coconut milk (santan), with 50ml water to dilute it
- 100ml water (possibly less as I had some leftovers)
My brief review of moss pudding (out of 5 stars):
Taste; huge fan of the pandan flavour
Texture; perfect firmness
Presentation; I love the moss effect which I presume comes from the egg
Ease of making; can be a little bit tricky if you’re not familiar with the agar-agar that you’re using.
Some things that I’ve learned:
- If there are any instructions, read them carefully! It would have helped me figure out how much cooling is needed before I start pouring into the mould
- I had problems blending the pandan leaves and it turns out that I needed more water than mentioned in the recipe. However, Lusiana pointed out after the show that she noticed that my pandan leaves were broader and longer. To me, they just looked like pandan leaves that I normally get in Malaysia…so there are some size differences! In other words, I was using too much pandan, hence, the extra water required
- Use white sugar to retain a neutral colour in the agar-agar (it will come out opaque). In an earlier test, I used brown sugar and I ended up with a muddy looking agar-agar which was not good for the green/white finish that I wanted.
- The agar-agar puddings can last quite long so there’s no big rush to gobble them up so quickly! Also, one to note, eating too much agar-agar gives a laxative effect!
- Your whole house will smell of pandan and coconut!
Coming up next:
Seeing how late this post is, the next episode (20th March) was already streamed and I will do a recap post for that pretty soon. I have two episodes planned for this coming weekend so it will be busy, busy, busy! Episode 4 will take place on Saturday, 27th March, 1PM (GMT+0). And Episode 5 will be on Sunday, 28th March, 10AM (GMT+0). Two different guests with two different dishes! So, do drop by and check them out!
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this recap. Apologies again that the video is not quite ready yet and I’m working on it as quickly as I can. As always, if you have any comments/feedback, do leave them below: let me know if you’re enjoying the show and if you want more of this kind of light entertainment! And I leave you with a quick life hack that my parents use: if you have bad smells that you’re trying to get rid off or to mask, take a couple of pandan leaves, tie them into a knot to leave around. It’s like a natural scent…obviously, assuming you like the pandan smell to begin with! 
but not the full laughter I ‘hear on Connect’, this Saturday, don’t read comments, I will be poking you, alot! 
I can definitely say that I’m learning sooooo much! And I’m also pleasantly surprised that (when I am following a recipe properly and under the guidance of my amazing guests), the dishes that I make tastes amazing!
