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.

Hong Kong Egg Tarts (港式蛋挞)

The best tool for flattening pastry dough isn't a rolling pin but a plate. Just place a round blob of dough between two plastic sheets, then press it evenly with a flat-bottomed plate. Peel off the top sheet of plastic, then flip the dough into a tart mould.

Ease the dough into the mould, from the centre to the edges so that there're no air pockets. Trim the excess around the rim, and you're done. That's all there is to it. With this method, even a novice can quickly make pastry shells that are nicely thin and even. It is, for me, much faster and easier than how professional bakers do it. They just press a lump of dough into the mould without flattening it first.

Sieving the custard is necessary only when you plan to use it within a couple of hours. If you have time to let it rest half a day or longer, you can skip this step. Refrigerated, the egg and milk mixture may be stored for maybe one week.

A vanilla pod is good for flavouring the filling. Failing that, a high quality vanilla extract makes a reasonable stand-in. If vanilla is too vanilla for you, how about dark rum, brandy, kahlua or Bailey's? Hey, nutmeg is nice if you like nutmeg. Ginger juice would be appropriate if you're feeling windy.

On no account prick the tart shells to stop them from puffing up in the oven. If you do, they'll leak. Instead, prebake the pastry at a low temperature of 150°C and, if there isn't any air trapped underneath the dough, it should stay nicely flat even without pie weights. If you like, the tart shells may be chilled or frozen either before or after prebaking.

I like my egg tarts shiny, not matte. The shine comes from the slightly undercooked custard on top, which is done by giving the tarts less heat from the top than the bottom. And the heat has to be quite gentle, overall, so that the eggs and milk cook into a soft and silky smooth custard.

If photos and words are too abstract for you and you don't get the picture, here's my video to help you connect the dots:

HONG KONG EGG TARTS (港式蛋挞) Source: adapted from Aunty Yochana (Recipe for 20 tarts) Custard Filling 240 g eggs 160 g sugar   480 ml milk 1¼ tsp vanilla extract Tart Shells 125 g salted butter, softened 60 g icing sugar, sifted 15 g egg white 15 g egg yolk 1 tsp vanilla extract 210 g plain flour To make tart filling, whisk sugar with eggs till melted. Add milk and vanilla extract. Whisk till evenly mixed. Sieve to remove big bubbles, into something that can pour without dripping. Set aside till small bubbles subside, about 1¼ hours. To make tart dough, mix butter and icing sugar till smooth. Add egg white, yolk and vanilla extract. Mix till well combined. If dough is sticky, sprinkle with flour 1 tsp at a time and mix through. If dough is dry and crumbly, sprinkle with water instead 1 tsp at a time. Place dough in freezer till just firm, spread out to cool down faster. This should take 10 minutes or so. When lining tart moulds, remove dough from freezer ¼ portion at a time. To line tart moulds, smooth 2 plastic sheets so that there are no folds. Roll 30 g dough into a ball. Place ball between plastic sheets. Press evenly with flat-bottomed plate to form a circle 2 mm thick and 10 cm wide, checking thickness and evenness by touching dough with palm. Remove top plastic sheet. Place 8 x 2.5 cm tart mould on dough, rim side down. Flip mould, along with dough and remaining plastic sheet, to face upward. Press dough into mould, from centre to rim. Remove plastic sheet. Trim excess dough around edges. Run fingers round tart mould, gently pressing to even out thickness and remove air pockets if necessary. Trim again if there's excess dough. To bake tart shells, preheat oven to 150°C. Place shells on baking tray. Bake 15 minutes in middle of oven. Increase temperature to 180°C. Continue baking till slightly brown, another 5 minutes or so. Remove from oven. Leave on wire rack to cool down completely. To bake tarts, preheat oven to 165°C. If you want to line your baking tray with foil, it should be shiny side down. Pour custard into shells, to 2 mm from rim. Bake 15 minutes in bottom of oven. Reduce temperature to 150°C. Move tray to middle of oven. Top up filling to make up for evaporation. Bake till custard is just slightly wobbly in the middle when shaken, another 15 minutes or so. If custard puffs up during last few minutes but is still too watery in the middle, remove tarts from oven to cool down till custard subsides, then continue baking. Watch custard closely towards the end to make sure it doesn't overcook. Serve hot, or at least warm. Leftovers should be refrigerated. Tarts may be reheated at 120°C using bottom heat only for 10 minutes or so. Pastry isn't soggy at all if reheated without moulds.

Soon Kueh/Turnip Dumplings (II)

Making 笋粿 is a hell of a lot of work! There, I've said it before anyone moans about soon kueh being a hell of a lot of work. Even if you have a food processor, which I don't, and you're not making a video of the whole process, which I was, all that stir-frying and rolling is still a lot of work. Are you counting? I just said "a lot of work" three times . . . make that four times.

Nobody makes soon kueh because he's hungry, even if he's hungry for soon kueh. It's far easier to just buy some or eat something else. You make soon kueh because you want to MAKE it, not because you want to eat it.

Some people go mountaineering or scuba-diving, others knit, play golf, whatever. Me, I make soon kueh. It's a hell of a lot of fun. I'm sure you think so too because why else would you be reading this post, right? (If you say it's because of my wit and wicked sense of humour, I WILL blush.)

Making soon kueh is time-consuming. But it's not difficult because one, I have a good recipe and two, I have a video to show you how step-by-step.

 Wanna learn how to roll dough into perfect, thin circles? You have come to the right place.



The recipe is here. Good luck, and have fun.

Fried Spring Rolls (Video #135)

Regular readers of this blog would know I made my first cooking video last week. So why is this video #135 instead of #2? Heh . . . heh . . . heh . . . . Because I'm following a Chinese custom.

In the old days far, far away in China, an abundance of male heirs to carry on the family name was considered good fortune. So much so that if someone had only one or two sons – which was tantamount to a tragedy – he'd say he had 11 or 12. IOW, it was how many he actually had, plus 10. Hence, the eldest son became #11, and the second son #12. Note that the creative accounting applied to sons only. It was perfectly alright to have only one daughter, or even none at all.

Since we're inflating the numbers – COOKING the books! – why stop at 10, right? OTOH, if I said I've made 34,347,595 videos, no one would believe me. So I'm going for something that's impressive but within reason. I reckon 135 sounds good.

Jokes aside, here are a few tips for making fried spring rolls (not that you need any, or that spring rolls are difficult to make):

 When buying turnip, pick the smaller ones. These tend to be younger and, hence, sweeter and less fibrous starchy than the big ones. They're also easier to peel and cut if you have small hands like me.

If you're using a grater, make sure it's razor-sharp. Otherwise, the turnip will be mushy.

 You don't need a lot of oil to stir-fry turnip because it's sweet and crunchy, not bitter or fibrous.

The filling should be crunchy. Don't overcook the turnip.

Drain the filling well before wrapping. If it's too wet, the spring roll pastry will tear.

Use the maximum heat possible for stir-frying the filling. If the wok isn't hot enough, the juices from the turnip won't evaporate and will have to be drained off. That'll be a waste of the flavour.

 To keep spring rolls for frying the next day, put them in the fridge, uncovered on a wire rack, so that water doesn't condense on or underneath the pastry. Or you could do the wrapping just before frying.

You might be tempted to embellish the filling with dried mushrooms, fresh prawns or fried beancurd. But it's really not necessary if the turnip is cooked with good quality dried prawns, and a good amount of sugar and ground white pepper. That's my mother's recipe, btw.

Frozen spring roll pastry comes in various sizes. The Goldilocks size – not too big; not too small – is 19 x 19 cm (7½ x 7½ inches).

You don't have to make spring rolls with the filling. It's delicious eaten with rice or porridge, or you can use it to make soon kueh.

POPIAH (SPRING ROLLS; 薄饼/春卷) (Recipe for 20 pieces) 40 g dried prawns (⅓ cup) wash and soak in 2 tbsp hot water till soft, about 15 minutes; squeeze dry, reserving the water; chop roughly 1 kg turnip (aka 沙葛, jicama and yam bean) wash and peel, leaving about 900 g; cut matchstick size 120 g carrot cut matchstick size wash and peel, leaving about 100 g; cut matchstick size 3 big cloves garlic peel and mince finely vegetable oil for stir- and deep-frying 2 tbsp light soya sauce 4 tsp sugar ¾ tsp ground white pepper 19 x 19 cm frozen spring roll pastry thaw to room temperature; separate 20 pieces and cover till ready to wrap; refreeze unused pastry Prepare dried prawns, turnip, carrot and garlic as detailed above. In a very hot wok, heat 2 tbsp oil till just smoking. Add dried prawns and fry over maximum heat till lightly golden. Add garlic and fry till nicely golden brown. Add turnip and carrots. Stir-fry till heated through. Add light soya sauce and sugar. Mix thoroughly. Drizzle with water used to soak dried prawns. Stir-fry till evaporated. Turnip should now be cooked but still crunchy. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary, then sprinkle with ground white pepper Mix through and turn off heat. Push everything to one side of wok to drain off sauce. When cool, transfer filling to a bowl, minus sauce. To wrap, spread out pastry in a diamond shape. With a Chinese soup spoon, place 1 heaped tablespoonful filling (40-50 g) near bottom corner. Fold bottom corner upwards, then left and right corners. Roll upwards tightly. Set aside, seam side down. Repeat with remaining pastry. Heat oil in a wok till just smoking. Deep-fry spring rolls over medium heat till golden brown. Drain. Serve immediately.

Orh Kueh/Steamed Yam Cake (I)

Making good orh kueh starts with choosing yam that's light for its size. Lighter ones have less water, and less watery ones are nicer because they're more fluffy, powdery and fragrant.

Next, be generous when trimming the yam. The outer parts are usually waxy and tasteless, especially when the yam is a dud. I usually cut 2-3 cm off the top and bottom, and 1-2 cm off the sides.

To enhance its fragrance, the yam should be fried and then seasoned lightly with salt and five-spice powder. Don't let the yam brown or it'd be leathery.

Orh kueh would be too monotonous if it tastes of only yam. Dried prawns, dried mushrooms and deep-fried shallots add a variety of flavours, textures and aromas. They are the indispensable supporting cast, without which yam would be a rather dull one-man show.

To make outstanding orh kueh, forget about water. That's what orh kueh that sells for $1 uses. The homemade type wouldn't taste homemade without pork or chicken stock. A good quality stock is the foundation of great orh kueh (. . . as well as, I kid you not, family ties and nationhood).

Readymade deep-fried shallots can't possibly compare to the one made at home. Likewise, a good stock doesn't come out of a can or bottle, or fall out of the sky. And there's a whole lot of mushrooms and dried prawns that have to be soaked, sliced and chopped. If making good orh kueh sounds like a lot of work and a lot of ingredients, that's because it is.

On the other hand, if you want some rice flour mixed with water and then steamed, that's real quick, easy and cheap. That's the type of orh kueh that sells for $1, which is actually quite expensive considering it's just rice flour and water. If you want to find yam in the $1 orh kueh, you'd have to send it for lab tests or at least use a microscope. Of course, the tasteless kueh comes with the obligatory chilli sauce because it wouldn't be edible otherwise.

Once, the chilli sauce on the orhless orh kueh I bought tasted of mould because it was made with mouldy dried prawns. I ate one mouthful and stopped. Since I wasn't the first and last person to buy the kueh, I guess there were lots of people who didn't mind the mouldy dried prawns. Amazing, isn't it?

Truth be told, I'm quite happy eating steamed yam seasoned with a bit of sea salt. But homemade orh kueh is nice once in a while when I feel up to it. "It" being the making, of course; the eating part is never a problem.

29 May 2012 Update
Here's how I make orh kueh:

STEAMED YAM CAKE (ORH KUEH; 芋粿/芋头糕) Source: Majorly adapted from Cooking for the President (Recipe for 24 pieces) 40 g dried prawns rinse and soak in 60 ml water till soft, about 15 minutes; squeeze dry, reserving the water; chop roughly 30 g Chinese dried mushrooms rinse and soak in 180 ml water till soft, about 30 minutes; squeeze dry, reserving the water; slice thinly, then cut 1 cm long 500-600 g yam (aka taro)* peel and trim to yield about 300 g; rinse; cut corn kernel-sized 100 g shallots peel, rinse and slice thinly 80 ml vegetable oil ½ tsp salt ¼ tsp five-spice powder 1½ tbsp light soya sauce ½ tsp ground white pepper 200 g rice flour 240 ml water top up water drained from dried prawns and mushrooms to make 240 ml 600 ml pork or chicken stock, boiling Garnish 2 tbsp spring onions, roughly chopped 2 tbsp coriander, roughly chopped ½ red chilli, julienned; or 1 tsp toasted white sesame seeds * How much you trim from the yam depends on how good it is. You should discard the white part, under the peel, that doesn't have much red veins. Click here for more tips on making orh kueh. Prepare dried prawns, dried mushrooms, yam and shallots as detailed above. In a wok, stir-fry shallots in hot vegetable oil over medium heat till lightly golden. Turn off heat. Continue stirring till nicely golden brown. Remove shallots with a skimmer and set aside. You should have about ⅓ cup. Reheat wok and oil till warm. Over medium heat, fry yam till just soft (but not brown), 2-3 minutes. Turn off heat. Remove yam to a big bowl. Immediately sprinkle with ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp five-spice powder. Toss till evenly mixed. Set aside. Remove all but 2 tbsp oil from the wok. Reheat till very hot. Over medium-high heat, stir-fry dried prawns till lightly golden. Add mushrooms and stir-fry till fragrant and lightly golden. Add light soya sauce and ground white pepper. Stir till evenly mixed. Turn off heat. Add mixture to yam along with all of fried shallots except 2 tbsp. Stir till evenly mixed. Line bottom of 20 x 20 x 5 cm cake pan with parchment paper, leaving some overhang. Top up water from soaking dried prawns and mushrooms to make 240 ml (1 cup). Pour liquid into wok and stir to deglaze. Add rice flour. Stir till smooth. Add boiling chicken or pork stock. Stir till evenly mixed. Turn on heat to low. Stir continuously, scraping sides and bottom of wok. Reduce heat to very low as batter gets hot. If lumps appear, turn off heat immediately, stir vigorously till smooth, then turn on heat again. When batter starts to thicken, add fried ingredients (except the 2 tbsp shallots set aside). Stir till batter is thick enough to coat a spoon/spatula thinly. Go for a thinner consistency if you like your orh kueh softer, and vice versa. Turn off heat. Transfer batter into pan. Smooth and level batter. Steam over rapidly boiling water till inserted skewer comes out clean or almost clean, depending on consistency of batter before steaming. This should take about 40 minutes. Remove kueh to a wire rack to cool down, an hour or so. Unmould by running skewer around edge of pan, then lifting kueh onto a plate. Discard parchment paper. Cut into 24 pieces. Serve garnished with spring onions, coriander, red chilli or sesame seeds, and remaining shallots.