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Rabu, 29 Mei 2013

Chwee Kueh (水粿; Steamed Rice Cakes)

There're several types of steamed cakes made with rice flour. If you want to learn how to make these traditional delicacies, chwee kueh would be a good start. It doesn't take long and the ingredients are cheap, so you don't waste much time or money if you fail.

The first step in making chwee kueh is mixing the batter. The main ingredient is rice flour but that alone would make a rather hard kueh. To soften it, you need to add some starch. Some people use tapioca flour; I prefer a mix of cornflour and wheat starch. Of course, the amount of water in the batter is crucial to the success of the steamed kueh. If the ratio of water to flour/starch is wrong, the steamed cake will be too hard or too soft.

If you have a good recipe, the only tricky part in making chwee kueh is the second step, when you thicken the batter. If the consistency is too thick, the steamed cake will be hard, and mushy if it's too thin.

You need to judge when to take the pot off the heat. How do you do that? By observing the batter. Once it's thick enough to coat the sides of the pot thinly, put the pot in a water-bath to stop the cooking.

Chwee kueh should have a slight depression in the middle after it's steamed. That's the classic hallmark of chwee kueh. In fact, it's the water collected in the depression that gives chwee kueh its name, which means "water cake".

Where does the water come from? The batter which, if it's thin, releases water when it's heated, creating a depression in the process. Thick batter doesn't do that because the water can't break away from the starch.

If the steamed cake doesn't have a depression and is level, that means it isn't as soft as it should be. Mind you, that's not always a bad thing. A cake that's a bit harder than it should be may be ready to eat straightaway after it's steamed. A soft cake, OTOH, needs to cool down and set before you can eat it. If you like your chwee kueh piping hot, you'd have to re-steam it.

To make a good topping, you must avoid overcooking the chai poh. It becomes chewy and tough if it's heated for too long, and it'll stick to your teeth. How do you tell when the chai poh is done? Just mix it with a wee bit of dark soya sauce for colour, then fry it with some minced garlic. It's done when the garlic is nicely golden brown.

What sort of chai poh should you use? Salted, not sweet. The latter isn't really sweet but is just kind of tasteless because it's been washed, excessively, to get rid of the salt. Of course, not all of the salted variety is good. The bad ones (like Pagoda brand) are mushy, have none of the fragrance of chai poh, and taste only of salt. Chwee kueh is nice only when the topping is crunchy and fragrant.

Between orh kueh, chai tow kway, lor bak gou and chwee kueh, orh kueh is the easiest because it's quite forgiving. Orh kueh is nice whether it's a bit harder or softer.  

Chwee kueh is OK too. If you get it right, you eat it as chwee kueh. If it's hard, you can make it into char kway, i.e. chai tow kway sans chai tow, fried.

Chai tow kway is the most difficult. If it's too soft, it'll turn to mush when you fry it, and it's not nice if it's too hard. You have to get it just right.

Lor bak gou isn't too bad. Like orh kueh, it's got a lot of tasty ingredients which help make the job easier. I'll be doing a post on lor bak gou soon . . . ish. Meanwhile, here's the video for chwee kueh:



CHWEE KUEH (水粿)
Source: adapted from honeybeesweets88
(Recipe for 20 pieces)
Kueh
150 g rice flour
12 g wheat starch
12 g cornflour
½ tsp salt
2 tsp oil
300 ml room temperature water
400 ml boiling water
Topping
150 g chopped chai poh (菜脯; salted turnip), Twin Rabbit brand
30 g garlic, peel and chop roughly
¼ tsp dark soya sauce
120 ml vegetable oil
2 tbsp sugar

To make kueh, thoroughly whisk rice flour, wheat starch, cornflour, salt, oil and 300 ml room temperature water. Add 400 ml boiling water. Whisk again. Cook over medium-low heat till just thick enough to coat sides of pot thinly, stirring constantly. Place pot in water-bath. Stir till half-cool.

Bring steamer to a boil. Place perforated tray in steamer. Arrange moulds, measuring 6 x 2 cm, slightly apart on tray. Fill moulds with batter to 3 mm from edge. Cover and bring steamer back to a boil. Steam 20 minutes over rapidly boiling water. Uncover. Cakes should have some water on top. If there is, steam uncovered till water evaporates, 1-2 minutes. Remove cakes from steamer.

Cakes should be mushy just after steaming. Leave to cool down and set. Resteam just before serving if you prefer hot/warm chwee kueh. If batter is overthickened before steaming, cakes may be set or half-set whilst piping hot.

To make topping, rinse chai poh twice. Drain in sieve, pressing to remove excess water. Transfer to mixing bowl. Add garlic and dark soya sauce. Mix thoroughly. Heat wok till hot. Place chai poh mixture in wok. Add enough oil to almost cover mixture, about 120 ml. Fry over medium-high heat till garlic is golden brown. Reduce heat to low. Add sugar and stir till dissolved. Turn off heat. Taste and if necessary adjust seasoning.

To serve, unmould chwee kueh and top with fried chai poh, along with some oil. Add sambal on the side if you like your chwee kueh spicy.

Minggu, 14 April 2013

Chai Tow Kway (菜头粿; Fried Carrot Cake)

If you're looking for a good chai tow kway recipe, you've come to the right place. How do I convince you my CTK is good? By comparing to one that's bad, here, from The Little Teochew in a guest post for Rasa Malaysia

I've read many recipes for various sorts of steamed cakes made with rice flour, such as chwee kueh, orh kueh, lor bak gou, pak tong gou and, of course, chai tow kway. What's the one common feature they all have? The batter is cooked on the stove before it's steamed. The Little Teochew, unlike everyone else, mixes rice flour with room temperature water, then steams the batter straightaway. Why do the rest of us do extra work? Because unless the batter is thickened before it's steamed, the rice flour would sink and form a hard layer at the bottom of the cake. If you steam rice flour batter without thickening it first, your kway is doomed for failure.

Besides thickening the batter before steaming, recipes for steamed rice cakes have another common feature. What's that? There's a bit of oil in the batter. TLT's recipe, unlike everyone else's, has no oil. An oil-less cake would be gritty, not smooth.

The Little Teochew says,

"Feel free . . . to adjust the proportions of radish, [rice] flour and water.  Unlike baking, there are no hard and fast rules to making [chai tow kway], and a  little more (or less) here and there will not hurt."

A little more or less of water will not hurt? Sorry, that's utter nonsense. For the 200 g of rice flour in her recipe, even a bit more or less of water makes a big difference to the cake's texture. If you've never made steamed rice cake before, imagine it's 200 g of rice you're cooking and it's got the exact texture you like. Now imagine cooking the rice with an additional tablespoonful or two of water. Would the rice be edible? Of course. Would it still be perfect? Of course not. Naturally, what's perfect for you may not be perfect for me. You may use a bit more or less water than me. But you wouldn't want to use a bit more or less water than what would make the perfect rice for you.

Btw, my CTK recipe is adapted from Honey Bee Sweets' chwee kueh recipe, which has none of the a-bit-more-or-less-won't-hurt nonsense. She tells her readers to boil 1,020 ml of water, allow 20 ml for evaporation, and use 1,000 ml to make the batter. The chwee kueh made with her recipe is, I tell ya, as good as the best money can buy.

If you don't change the amount of water and cook the batter before steaming it, could TLT's recipe work? No way. Why? Because her water to flour ratio is wrong. I estimate her recipe has only 2.9 parts water (including the juice released from a craaaazy amount of radish) to 1 part rice flour. In comparison, my orh kueh uses 4.2 parts water to 1 part rice flour even though orh kueh is set a bit firmer than chai tow kway. With a ratio of 2.9, TLT's chai tow kway would be way too hard.

Why do I compare TLT's CTK to my orh kueh instead of CTK? Because my orh kueh, like her CTK, is made with only rice flour. My CTK, in contrast, is made with a mix of rice flour, cornflour and wheat starch. When you use only rice flour, the cake is harder. With a mix of cornflour and wheat starch added, it's softer (all other things being equal). And it's slightly gooey after it's fried. You'll never get the soft gooeyness if you use only rice flour, no matter how much water you add.

Why on earth does TLT steam the radish for 30 minutes? God only knows. I just boil mine. Five minutes is all it takes.

The Little Teochew calls chai tow kway radish cake. Please lah, dat is so anal! Every true blue Singaporean knows chai tow kway is carrot cake in English even though there's no carrot in it. Every true blue Singaporean also knows there's  usually no radish in chai tow kway unless it's homemade. And no true blue Singaporean makes chai tow kway at home except a few crazy ones like yours truly. So what's the point of calling chai tow kway radish cake, right?

The texture of the rice cake depends on not only the balance of flour, starch, water and oil, but also the consistency of the batter after it's cooked on the stove. Thicker batter makes a harder cake, and vice versa, even if the ingredients are exactly the same. You must therefore learn to judge when the thickness of the batter is just right. With my recipe, the kway is very soft but not mushy if the batter is cooked to the right consistency.

To get the frying part right, you need good quality ingredients. How fragrant is the garlic you buy? What about the spring onions, chai poh, eggs, fish sauce and light soya sauce? Your CTK can't possibly be fragrant if the ingredients are substandard. Good quality stuff would need just high heat and sufficient time to brown properly to give you kick-ass CTK.

After steaming your kway to perfection and carefully selecting the best ingredients to fry with, your efforts will go to waste unless you use the right wok. You should use one that's well-seasoned or the kway will turn into mush as you try your damndest to pry it loose.

How do you tell if your wok is well-seasoned? If you need to ask, then it probably isn't! In that case, please do what The Little Teochew recommends. Which is? Use non-stick, of course. I tend to think non-stick is for wimps but I'm sure that's just me. Anyways, did TLT actually make the CTK in her photos? If she did, why is her recipe so bad? Heheheh . . . heh . . . . Maybe she bought the CTK from some hawker centre! Oh well, it's none of my business. I just make CTK my way, for fun.

If you have Singaporean or Malaysian friends/relatives living somewhere where CTK isn't available, please send them this video and tell them to follow my recipe, not the one on Rasa Malaysia's blog:



CHAI TOW KWAY (菜头粿; FRIED CARROT CAKE)
Source: adapted from Honey Bee Sweets' chwee kueh recipe
(Recipe for 4 portions)
Steaming
250 g grated white radish
480 g water

150 g rice flour
12 g cornflour
12 g wheat starch
¾ tsp salt
2 tsp vegetable oil
220 g water
Frying
100 ml lard, melted
replace with vegetable oil if you're a Muslim, Jew or wimp; if you're Muslim or Jewish but not a wimp, use duck or goose fat
40 g minced chai poh (菜脯; salted radish), Twin Rabbit brand
rinse twice; soak 2-3 minutes in enough water to cover; taste and soak longer if too salty; drain 
20 g garlic, peel and mince roughly
2 tsp light soya sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
sambal (chilli paste) to taste

4 eggs
2 tsp light soya sauce, add to eggs and whisk thoroughly
200 g bean sprouts, rinse and drain thoroughly
40 g spring onions, wash and chop roughly

To make steamed kway, place radish in a small pot. Add 480 g water. Weigh pot and contents. Take note of weight. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, covered, till radish is soft, about 5 minutes. Turn off heat. Remove cover. Wait till evaporation stops, about 10 minutes. Weigh pot and contents again. Weight should be lower by 100 g. Top up with water or discard excess liquid as necessary.

Whilst radish is simmering, assemble rice flour, cornflour, wheat starch, salt, oil and 220 g water in a wok. Stir batter till smooth. When radish is ready, add radish liquid. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, till batter is creamy. Add cooked radish. Continue cooking and stirring, reducing heat to low as batter thickens, till batter is thick but not thick enough to hold its shape. Pour batter into 18 x 5 cm round cake pan. Level and smooth top.

Image If you have difficulty smoothing the batter, that means it's too thick and your kway will be hard. If the top is smooth without human assistance, the batter is too thin and your kway will be mushy.

Steam batter over rapidly bubbling water till cooked, i.e. inserted skewer comes out almost clean. This takes about 40 minutes.

Remove cake from steamer. Leave till cool. Refrigerate overnight. Cut into bite-sized pieces.

To fry kway, heat well-seasoned wok till very hot. Place 1/3 of lard in the wok. Heat till just smoking, swirling so that lard coats bottom of wok.

Add steamed kway. Spread in a single layer. Fry over high heat till lightly golden. Turn over. Drizzle with a little lard. Fry till second side is also lightly golden, stirring to check if it is.

Add chai poh and garlic. Drizzle with more lard. Stir to mix thoroughly. Drizzle with 2 tsp light soya sauce and 1 tsp fish sauce. Stir thoroughly. Alternate frying and stirring till kway is nicely brown and aroma of chai poh is released, drizzling with more lard when wok looks dry.

Add eggs, followed by yet more lard. Turn over when bottom of eggs is golden brown,  pressing lightly with spatula after flipping to help eggs stick to kway. Fry till golden brown again.

Add sambal. (If you prefer black CTK, add sweet sauce now, about 1 tbsp per portion.) Stir till thoroughly mixed.

Add bean sprouts, then more lard. Stir till bean sprouts are heated through but not wilted.

Add spring onions, leaving aside 1 tbsp or so. Stir through. Quickly taste and, if necessary, adjust seasoning with pinch of sugar if too salty or a few drops of fish sauce if too bland. Plate, sprinkle with remaining spring onions and serve immediately.

Kamis, 14 Maret 2013

Ang Ku Kueh (紅龟粿; Kuih Angkoo)

I've just made some 紅龟粿. Is it good? Heheheh . . . heh . . . . Is your mother a woman?

It's my virgin attempt but the results are as good as the best store-bought ang ku kueh in town. The mung bean filling is uber smooth, has a very strong "beany" fragrance and isn't too sweet. The "skin" is very chewy and yet very soft. I tell ya, this 紅龟粿 is really to die for.

I'd like to think my kick-ass AKK is because of my brilliant culinary talent and all that. But the truth is the success is due to the excellent recipe from none other than Cooking for the President. I just followed the instructions (more or less).

C4P's dough recipe is quite unusual. The ingredients are roughly the same as other recipes but the method is very different. First, glutinous rice flour is combined with water and then refrigerated overnight. Second, coconut milk is cooked with rice flour, oil and sugar into a paste before it's mixed with mashed sweet potato and the wet glutinous rice flour. Other recipes don't have these two steps. Instead, the ingredients are just mixed together.

I think the extra work in C4P's method is the key to the chewy and soft "skin", which is so good I shan't bother to try other recipes. It doesn't get better than this, seriously.

What about the mung bean filling? That's less complicated compared to what it's wrapped in. It's not rocket science but a lot of people get it wrong. Why? Because of their obsession over cutting down as much fat as possible. Compared to other recipes, there's a lot of oil in C4P's filling. The amount is absolutely necessary to give the mung bean paste its velvety smoothness and strong fragrance, without making it overly rich.

I've made 紅龟粿 all of one time but, hey, I already have quite a few tips for conquering the traditional kueh. Here we go:

Don't soak split mung beans for too long. The longer the beans sit in water, the more flavour (and nutrition) they lose. An hour is ample, IMO. C4P says three hours, which might be ok. Some recipes go for an overnight soak. That's definitely too long.

A lot of recipes, including C4P's, have the soaked mung beans steamed. I think boiling is better because it's faster but you mustn't discard the cooking liquid which has heaps of flavour. Instead, let the beans boil dry. That allows the flavour released into the water to be absorbed back into the beans. The same argument applies to the sweet potato used for the dough.

How good the mung bean filling is depends on, besides the quality of the beans, how much sugar and fat there is. If there's too little, that means it has more water to get the right consistency. Water doesn't taste of anything and it dilutes the flavour of the beans. Sugar and fat, OTOH, enhance the flavour.

How long does it take to steam 紅龟粿? No time at all because the filling is cooked and the dough is very thin and partly cooked. The ones I make, which are pretty small, take about six minutes over low heat.

How do you know when the ang ku kueh is done? When it expands a little. If you continue steaming beyond that point, the dough becomes too soft, resulting in a flat, collapsed kueh without any distinct motif. To lower the risk of overcooking, 紅龟粿 should be steamed over barely simmering water.

The shell of a real tortoise is hard but the make-believe tortoise's shell needs to be propped up. The "supporting role" is played by the filling which must be able to hold its shape when it's hot. If it's too soft, the "tortoise cake" would flatten into a pancake once it's heated.

The ideal filling to dough ratio is 1:1. The capacity of my mould is 40 g, so I wrap 20 g of filling in 20 g of dough. C4P actually uses 27 g of dough for 20 g of filling. That would make the "skin" a bit too thick, methinks.

How do you find the mould's capacity? Put it on your kitchen scale, tare, then fill it with water. The weight of the water multiplied by 1.33 is the mould's capacity.

To reheat chilled ang ku kueh, bring some water in a rice cooker to a boil. Put the kueh in the pot, on the steaming tray. Cover and switch the cooker to warm mode. Ten minutes would be just right.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself using my new wooden mould. I felt very authoritative (!) whacking it against the chopping board – TWACK! and out came a perfectly formed ang ku kueh, like magic. I'll definitely make AKK again but it won't be anytime soon 'cause it's a hell of a lot of work . . . . Oh hang on, what am I saying? It's a hell of a lot of FUN, not work! I'm making AKK again this weekend . . . I think . . . .



ANG KU KUEH (KUIH ANGKOO; 紅龟粿)
Source: Adapted from Cooking for the President
(Recipe for 21 pieces)
Filling
160 g skinless split mung beans
115 g sugar
80 ml peanut oil
Dough
60 g young, light green pandan leaves
wash and chop roughly
60 g undiluted fresh coconut milk
2¼ tsp rice flour
1 tbsp peanut oil
2 tsp castor sugar

1 medium-sized yellow sweet potato (aka yam in the US, I  think)
wash and peel; slice 110 g ½ cm thick
150 g glutinous rice flour
mix evenly with 125 ml water; refrigerate overnight, covered

banana leaf
scald in hot water; drain and blot totally dry; cut into 21 pieces each slightly bigger than your AKK

rice flour, for dusting
peanut oil, for glazing

Image If you prefer red AKK, you should: (1) use an orange instead of yellow sweet potato; (2) omit the pandan leaves for the dough; (3) add red food colouring instead, enough to get a shade of red that's significantly darker than what the AKK looks like when it's cooked (the colour fades a fair bit when heated); and (4) cook the mung beans with a few pandan leaves.

To make filling, soak mung beans in 480 ml water till expanded, about 1 hour (in tropical weather). Drain, rinse and drain again. Cook in 180 ml water, uncovered, till soft and dry, about 20 minutes. Mash beans roughly with spatula. Add sugar. Mash till dissolved and evenly mixed. Add oil. Mix till combined. Blend mixture till silky smooth. Fry in a wok over maximum heat possible, stirring constantly, till thick enough to hold its shape. Leave till cool. Divide and roll into balls weighing 20 g each (adjust to suit size of your mould if necessary; mine is 6 x 5 x 2 cm).

To make dough, blend pandan leaves with coconut milk till finely minced. Squeeze to yield 60 g green milk. Place milk in a small pot. Add rice flour, oil and sugar. Mix till smooth. Cook over low heat, stirring, to make a smooth paste. Leave till cool.

Cook 110 g sliced sweet potato in 120 ml water till soft and dry, about 15 minutes, to yield 100 g. Mash roughly. Add green coconut paste. Continue mashing till paste is smooth. Add wet glutinous rice flour made earlier. Knead thoroughly till evenly mixed. Divide and roll into balls weighing 20 g each (adjust if necessary to equal weight of filling).

To assemble, lightly dust AKK mould with rice flour. Flatten ball  of dough, to about 6 cm wide. Place 1 piece of filling in the middle. Cupping top of kueh with corner of right thumb and forefinger (for right-handers), nudge and press dough to seal filling. Roll gently between palms till round, dusting lightly with rice flour if too damp. Place in mould. Press to flatten and level top. Turn over mould and whack hard against worktop so that kueh falls out, onto shiny side of banana leaf.

To steam, bring steamer to a rolling boil. Place kueh in steamer, on a perforated tray. Cover and reduce heat to very low so that water barely simmers. Steam till kueh is slightly expanded, about 6 minutes. Remove kueh to a plate. Brush lightly with oil. Leave till cool. Trim excess leaf around kueh.

To serve, wait till there's a birthday celebration . . . . Just kidding. AKK is good any day of the year but if you have a red one on your birthday, you'll live as long as a tortoise. And when your baby is one month old, you absolutely must give your friends and relatives some "red tortoise cakes" as a celebration. The red colour brings good luck and the tortoise shape symbolizes longevity.

Minggu, 23 September 2012

Kueh Ko Swee (Kuih Kosui)

Knock knock!

Who's there?

Kueh hamba!

Kueh ham . . .  who?

Kueh hamba, aka kueh ko swee and kuih kosui!

I think very few people have heard of kueh hamba. I certainly hadn't until I came across the unusual name in Cooking for the President.

Did you know "hamba" means slave?

Hmm . . .  slave cake . . . .

Next time there's a party in the office, why not have some slave cake. Know what I mean?

Kueh ko swee is half and half tapioca starch and rice flour sweetened with gula melaka and sugar.

A bit of lye gives it bounce and bite, and pandan leaves add a subtle fragrance.

Freshly grated coconut enhances the texture, colour and taste.

If you like, you can use some brown food colouring or black treacle to darken the kueh. The contrast between white and dark brown makes the kueh quite pretty.

The batter for kueh ko swee has to be cooked on the stove till quite thick before it's steamed.

The original recipe uses a water-bath but I don't. Provided the heat is very low and I whisk very vigorously, the batter doesn't turn lumpy. Cooking over direct heat takes only a few minutes; with a water-bath, it'd be maybe 20 minutes. The thickened batter is then steamed. Just 10 minutes would do, so kueh ko swee doesn't take long from start to finish.

I used to think making Nyonya/Malay kueh was very difficult. Then I discovered kueh bengka ubi which was as easy as a cake mix. That gave me the confidence to try other recipes, so my repertoire of kueh-kueh is growing. I stick to the easy ones though, like kueh ko swee. If, like me, you want a kueh that's not too challenging, "slave cake" is a good choice. Here's my video to make it really easy:



KUEH KO SWEE, AKA KUIH KOSUI (STEAMED PALM SUGAR FUDGE)
Source: Adapted from Cooking for the President
(Recipe for 25 pieces)

250 ml water
4 young pandan leaves
50 g dark brown palm sugar
40 g sugar

45 g tapioca starch
45 g rice flour
⅓ tsp orange lye
160 ml water

½ tbsp black treacle, or ¼ tsp brown liquid colouring

150 g grated fresh coconut, without peel
⅛  tsp salt
4 young pandan leaves

Bring 250 ml water, pandan leaves, palm sugar and sugar to a boil. Simmer gently, covered, for 5 minutes. Turn off heat. Discard pandan leaves.

Whilst simmering, whisk tapioca starch, rice flour, orange lye and 160 ml water till smooth.

Pour batter into sugar solution. Add black treacle or brown food colouring. Whisk till smooth. Turn on heat, very low. Whisk vigorously. Once whisk feels heavy, turn off heat immediately. Keep whisking vigorously till residual heat dissipates. Batter should now be just thick enough to form thick ribbons when whisk is lifted. If not, turn on heat again and whisk as before.

Scrape batter into 15 x 15 x 5 cm cake pan lined with parchment paper. Wet spatula and smooth top of batter. Steam 10 minutes over low heat. Remove from steamer. Leave till cool.

Sprinkle grated coconut with salt. Mix evenly. Place pandan leaves in middle of coconut. Steam 10 minutes over high heat. Discard pandan leaves. Remove from steamer. Leave till cool.

Cut kueh into 25 pieces with scissors. Dredge in grated coconut till thoroughly coated. Serve as snack or dessert, sprinkled generously with grated coconut.

Minggu, 19 Agustus 2012

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.

 Image



Click here for the recipe.