SINGAPORE (THE NEW PAPER) - Eating potong ice cream sends me right back to my childhood days.
My favourite flavour is red bean and I must say, it is fun to make and delightful to eat. I couldn't find a popsicle mould to make that rectangular block on a bamboo stick, but that is just aesthetics.
For a little twist to the traditional red bean potong, I added dried tangerine peel. That is usually used for making red bean soup. Potong purists may see red at this, but I like that citrusy flavour.
To give the potong ice cream a pop of colour, I added two drops of rose pink food colouring. This is completely optional.
The most wonderful part about making your own red bean potong ice cream is that you can make sure it is chock-full of red beans.
If you like your potong ice cream totally smooth, you can blend all of the red beans. I prefer the textured bite of red beans in the potong lolly.
RED BEAN POTONG
INGREDIENTS
500g red beans
2 litres of water
400ml coconut cream
10 pandan leaves, knotted into two bunches
1 piece of dried tangerine peel
2 drops of rose pink food colouring
150g sugar
½ tsp salt
METHOD
1. Soak the red beans for at least two hours.
2. Wash and rinse the red beans.
3. Place the red beans in a pot and fill with two litres of water. Bring to a boil.
4. Add the knotted pandan leaves and orange peel to the pot. 
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5. Simmer for about two hours. Stir to prevent the beans from getting stuck to the bottom of the pot and burning.
6. Before the end of two hours, add the sugar and salt. Remove the pot from the heat.
7. Set aside about half of the red beans.
8. Remove the pandan leaves from the pot and discard.
10. Add two drops of rose pink food colouring. Continue to blend until the colour is even.
11. Put the mixture back on the stove and bring it to a simmer. Turn off the heat.
12. Add the reserved red beans. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.
14. Freeze overnight.
15. To remove the potong ice cream from the mould, let the mould stand in a water bath (without the water coming into contact with the potong ice cream) for 2 or 3 minutes.
Yields about 16 popsicles.
