Pandan Leaves

Pandan Leaves The pandan essence derived from the leaves is the Asian counterpart to vanilla essence. Yet it is no plain vanilla as it gives a sweet yet heady fragrance to many Nonya desserts, as well as to dishes such as nasi lemak. The pandan plant serves to repel mosquitoes and rows of them can be found in outdoor venues like the Jurong Bird Park.

For cooking, fresh leaves are preferred. They are commonly tied into a knot, gently crushed to release the essence and thrown into the pot. The leaves give a green colouring to various snacks like putri sarlat and kueh talam hijau. To extract the colour, the leaves are cut into half-inch pieces, and then crushed in a mortar to extract the green colouring and flavour.