Kuih Ketayap

I haven't had this kuih in a long time, in fact you can say years. To be honest, I've never been a fan of this one but because some friends suggested it as something easy for a potluck lunch, I decided to make it. Not having fresh grated coconut, I tried making the filling with desiccated coconut, after caramelising the sugar I added the coconut with more water and from then on it was a bit of an experiment. I can't quite remember how 'wet' the filling should be so I decided to go for the dry to touch but when squeezed it's still oozes with the syrup...makes sense? Good!!

Oh, I also halved the recipe as I always end up with lots of batter but lo and behold..I ended up with only 10 pieces of kuih! Yikes! But lucky for me there some no shows so with meagre portioning ..all had a taste! Phew! Now best I go note down that half portion makes only 10 pieces on the recipe for future references!

 

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Angku kuih

I was making ang ku kuih again... This time for a friend's friend's daughter's birthday, so they had to be perfect! I made some changes to the recipe I used previously which was already good but I needed the ang ku to stay nice and soft for longer. With the changes, which I have now written down before I forget which tips worked, the angku stayed soft till the next day! Wow, even I was impressed, hahaha... The ones I made for the party was with the mini moulds, no pictures as I had to rush them off in time for the birthday party. After the delivery, I can home and made up some more with the medium sized mould, these are the ones in the picts.

Inside, green bean filling

Glossy and chewy!

 

 

Pulut Tai Tai or Pulut Tekan

One of the recent things that I have on my 'shopping list' for trips back to Malaysia is the blue pea flower or bunga telang. It is mainly used to colour food naturally. By crushing the petals and squeezing the juice out..normally just a few drops, you get pretty shades of blues and purples. So now, everytine I get back to malaysia, I'll get a bag or two of these flowers in their dried form.

So this time, I'm making Pulut tai tai which is steamed glutinous rice topped with kaya (a coconut kind of jam). This is also the first time I'm attempting to make kaya, as it turned out, the kaya recipe that I used was great if I may say so. I will definitely make more.

 

Pandan angku (tortoise cake)

Time for another potluck, this time it's to say farewell to a fellow Malaysian who will be leaving for Brunei. I remember she mentioned that she liked eating angku and since I bought mini angku moulds the last trip I was home, I decided it was time I learnt to make this kuih. Angku is normally bright orange in colour though 'ang' really means red and 'ku' means tortoise as this kuih is shaped liked a tortoise. Angku also has its significance as it is usually given by the parents of newborn babies when they reached the month milestone as well as eaten during birthdays to signify good fortune and longevity. Mine however, was green from pandan as I love the aroma of pandan as well as it is a natural colouring rather than an artificial colouring. Anyway, good luck to you Gaye and your family and may you have good fortune in your new home!

The ladies at Gaye's farewell

 

 

Kuih Lapis

Kuih lapis or as it is known in Chinese as nine layer kuih is basically what it is called that is a kuih which is made up of nine layers. It is normally made with alternate layers of pink and white batter with the last layer a bright red but as I was looking for a recipe to try, I came across one that was made using the bunga telang or blue pea flower, this means that the kuih can be made without using artificial colouring and looks lovely and unique too. And since I was due to go back to Malaysia for my annual holiday, it was timely for me to get some dried ones to bring back. So after a trial run in Penang, I made another tray of the lovely fragrant kuih when I came back....one last thing, this kuih must be eaten by peeling each layer off, don't ask why it's tradition!

 

 

Kuih Talam Gula Melaka

It's been one of my aspirations to make kuih talam, finally I decided to take the plunge and go for it. Unfortunately, it happened to be on a day when I've cleared my freezer and didn't have any pandan leaves! So on to plan B, which is to use pandan extract and cheat with some green food colouring. Alas, it was looking like it was not to be as the supermarket was out of green food colouring, all the colours of the rainbow except for green...sigh! But I really wanted to make this kuih, so on to plan C, palm sugar kuih talam....now palm sugar is something I had in plenty, yay! After much stirring over the hot pot, recipe said to stir till thicken but didn't specify that it took a long time! And then steaming, I think I had to steam 3 times the specified time, my kuih talam was done! Taste test = yummy! But something still wasn't satisfied, I think In my mind I was still thinking of the green pandan kuih talam....we shall prevail and try again, soon I think!

 

Chai Kueh

One of my favourite kuih from Penang is the Chai Kueh, translated it basically means vegetable 'snack', I have yet to find an accurate translation for the word kuih/kueh to English. Anyway back to this kueh, as 'seng kuang' is a rarity here, I was experimenting with waterchestnuts, it turned out to be a good substitute, only caution would be that it remains cruchier and is sweeter after cooking so the amount has to be slightly reduced. My chai kueh turned out pretty good I must say... translucent chewy skin but not rubbery, if you get what I mean. Dunked in chilli sauce, they are lovely little morsels!

Steamed in authentic bamboo steamer

My version is a simple mix of carrots and waterchestnuts

Pulut Inti

It's Wai Leng's birthday and time for a potluck lunch at her house. I needed something that is easy and does not require a lot of attetntion when cooking, I decided on pulut inti. After making two unsuccessful trips to the chinese supermarket to buy banana leaves and pandan leaves (no stock), authenticity had to be abandoned. I used pandan flavouring and had to resort to plastic bags for wrapping. For ease of eating, I made them bite sized.


Wrapped in plastic and ready to go

Curry Puff (Karipap)

This variety of karipap that I've made is known as Karipap Pusing or Spiral Curry Puff. This is due to the nature of the pastry which has a spiral look. This variety stays crunchy for much longer than the normal karipap. At home, karipaps are sold all through the day, particularly during breakfast and teatime.

Soya Vadai (Fritters)

I made tau foo fah and before getting there I had to make soya bean milk (tau sui) which left me with lots of soya 'waste' after blending the soya beans to get the milk. I recalled a friend of mine made good use of the leftover soya by using it to make prawn fritters so I looked up a recipe for vadai. The resulting mixture was a bit awkward as it wouldn't 'clump' together easily but once it gets into the oil for deep frying it was fine.

Loh Pak Ko (Radish Cake)

After the 'failed' attempts of making koay kak, I decided to turn the rest of the radish into radish cake. This is one of the kuih that one would get from the nonya kuih man/woman/stall/ thingy! I do not know if the origin is nonya but it makes a nice breakfast snack!