Kueh Bengka Ubi (II)

If you can buy ready-grated tapioca and ready-squeezed fresh coconut milk, it'd criminal not to make kueh bengka ubi. It is so easy, so quick, so good.

It's hard to come up with tips for making kueh bengka ubi because the Malay/Nyonya cake is really straightforward. Even after eating lots of kueh to fuel my brain, I can think of only a few which anyone with some common sense/knowledge would know:

There're two types of tapioca (aka cassava): yellow and white. If you use the one that's yellow, your kueh will be yellow without artificial food colouring.

 If you use a dark-coloured cake pan, the bottom and sides of the kueh will brown better.

If the kueh browns quicker around the edges, cover it with a piece of aluminium foil with a hole cut in the middle.

If you find that the kueh is too soft after it has cooled down, you can bake it again to make it firmer. KBU is very forgiving!

If the kueh tastes bitter, don't eat it. The bitterness comes from the cyanide in raw tapioca. When it's cooked, cyanide is not bitter. More importantly, cooked cyanide is harmless unless you're eating lots day in, day out over a prolonged period.

Some people drain and discard the liquid in grated tapioca to reduce the bitterness. I don't think that's necessary since, as I just said, the bitterness goes away when tapioca is fully cooked.

One day, I'll write a story about a woman who kills her philandering husband by feeding him half-cooked kueh bengka ubi.  

Heh . . . heh . . . heh . . . . *rub hands with glee*

That'd be nice, wouldn't it? "That" being the killing, not writing . . . . Ok, maybe both.

Hmm, should I make a video of the killing?



Click here for the recipe.