Kuih Seri Muka/Kueh Salat (II)

To live up to its name, kuih seri muka must have a layer of custard that's smooth as a baby's bottom because "seri muka" means beautiful face.

Unlike humans, kuih doesn't need cosmetics, plastic surgery or botox. All it requires is low, gentle heat whilst it's cooking, and the "muka" would be "seri" as can be.


Do you know why kuih seri muka is also called kueh salat?

Because some impatient cooks steam the kuih on high heat, resulting in a custard with a pimply, wavy top. The worst ones even have holes inside.


When kuih seri muka has an ugly rather than beautiful face, the kuih is sala, which means wrong in Malay.

"Kuih sala! Kuih sala!" everyone would say.

Over time, "kuih sala" has been corrupted to "kuih salat".

Um . . . hmm . . . you know what? I just made that up, totally.

*laugh evilly . . .*

Making kuih salat is easy, especially if you have a steam oven or electric steamer with temperature control. If you have a big rice cooker, you might squeeze a small kuih in there. The warm mode is ideal for steaming the custard layer.

If, like me, you have to use a wok or big pot that fits a cake pan, you can still make a beautiful kuih seri muka. Just keep the steaming water for the custard layer a bit below boiling point by leaving the cover slightly ajar, and the kuih/kueh should be fine.

The recipe is here. Just follow the instructions and your kuih salat will be anything but sala. And that's the honest truth.

 



Click here for the recipe.

Cereal Butter Prawns (II)

Tips for making cereal butter prawns:

⋈ I've come across recipes that use oat which, if you think about it, isn't crisp before you cook it. So you fry it in butter and it's supposed to crisp up? No way! It just turns into a soggy mess. When you see recipes that use oat, run!

⋈ What you should use is Nestum cereal, which is actually flakes of baked flour with a milky fragrance. It comes out of the bag (or tin) crisp, and it can absorb some moisture without going soft. Hence, curry leaves fried with Nestum cereal are dry and crunchy. Likewise, deep-fried prawns that still have a bit of moisture would also crisp up nicely but don't dry out. And that's why you need quite a lot of cereal in the recipe, because there must be enough to suck up excess moisture from the curry leaves and prawns. Plus, everyone loves eating it anyway.

⋈ Be careful when you're frying the cereal. It burns easily, so use low heat. And the wok should be warm, not hot.

⋈ Don't use small prawns because they overcook easily. Big ones require some skill to get them evenly done. Medium size is the easiest.

⋈ To deep-fry medium-sized prawns, use the maximum heat possible on your stove, in vegetable oil heated to just smoking. Fry just once, not twice.

⋈ Go easy on the bird's eye chilli. It dries out as it's fried, and that makes it really hot.

Cereal butter prawns is really quite easy and straightforward. If you don't overcook the prawns and you don't burn the cereal, then the success of the dish depends on the recipe. Where can you find a good one? Right here, and here's my step-by-step video:



Click here for the recipe.

Learn How to Make Kueh Lapis in 5 Minutes

Knock knock!

Who's there?

Kueh lapis!

Kueh lapis who?

Kueh lah, please make some kueh!

OK, I know you don't want to hear stupid knock-knock jokes. You want to know how you can MAKE KUEH LAPIS IN 5 MINUTES, right?

I hate to tell you this but . . . heheheheh . . . it's . . . um . . . the learning . . . heheheheh . . . that takes 5 minutes, not cooking.

*laugh evilly . . . fall off chair*

Are you re-reading the post title – "Learn How to Make Kueh Lapis in 5 Minutes" – to check what it means?

Go ahead and roll your eyes. So not funny, eh?

Seriously though, kueh lapis doesn't take long if you don't count the "inactive" steaming time.

I'm sure you can spend the 5 minutes between making one layer and the next productively, enjoyably, or both.

After enjoying the video, please click here for the recipe.