Tired is the word. Ever since a family member has turned ill, everyone in the family has become jittery and stressed. Hospital has somehow become a 2nd home too. So in order to de-stress, mom and I decided to make some Ang Ku Kuehs. Cooking and baking is indeed a very good form of therapy that take our minds off the unrest moments for the time while keeping us engrossed in preparing for these kuehs. And because it’s 2 pairs of hands at work, the process was much smoother than expected too.
Traditionally, such kuehs are known as Ang Ku Kuehs, which literally means they should be red in colour. Initially, we wanted to go for something more natural and that’s the “green” from the pandan juice. However, the end result was a very pale green dough despite the intensity of the pandan juice. Hence, we added some pandan flavouring in the end in order to achieve the desired colour that we were looking for.
Pandan Ku Kuehs taste the best just when they have been freshly steamed. Because the skin will have the desired chewiness and QQ texture when it is still lukewarm. Because such kuehs entail a large portion of glutinous rice flour, they will generally turn hard if left uncovered or overnight. To overcome this problem, do try and steam them up for a couple of minutes before consumption again but never attempt to re-heat them more than once as the texture of the skin will probably deteriorate thereafter.
These Pandan Ku Kuehs are ideally at its best when they are freshly made and eaten on the spot !! Enjoy !!
- 50g rice flour
- 210ml pandan juice (extract from 20 pcs of pandan leaves with some water)
- 3½ tbsp oil
- 300g glutinous rice flour
- some red/green colourings as desired
- Additional : 50-70ml of water/pandan juice to mix into dough
- 150g green peas without skin, washed and soaked for around 4 hours
- 2 tbsp cooking oil
- 100g sugar
- dash of salt
- 1 big piece of banana leaf, cut into smaller pieces (to the shape of the Ang Ku Kueh)
- some cooking oil, for brushing the banana leaf and skin of the kuehs
Cut the pandan leaves into small pieces. Blend them with some water, strained it through a fine mesh to obtain pandan juice.
Steam the green peas in a wired mesh basket for around 20 minutes or till they turned soft.
Process the softened green peas in a food blender or process till they resembles fine crumbs.
Heat up a pan with 2 tbsp of cooking oil. Add in the green peas from the previous step and add in the sugar and salt.
Keep stirring the green peas till the sugar has all melted and the filling has turned mashy. Remove from flame and set aside to cool.
Combine the rice flour, 210ml pandan juice and 3½ tbsp of oil in a pot. Stir and cook it over a small flame till it boiled. Allow the mixture to cool slightly.
Add the rice flour mixture from the above step to the glutinous rice flour. Add additional 50 to 70 ml of water or pandan juice to mix into a pliable dough. Cover the balance dough with a damp cloth while working on it.
Weigh around 30g of skin dough and flatten it. Use it to wrap a 20g filling from Step 5.
Lightly dust the ang ku kueh mould with some glutinous flour. Press and flatten the dough from the previous step into the mould.
Knock the edge of the ang ku kueh mould on the tabletop surface to unmould the ang ku kueh. Place it on a piece of greased banana leaf.
Continue with the rest of the skin dough and filling until all are used up. Place them all into a steamer.
Steam it over medium high heat for approximately 3 minutes.- Remove from heat and brush the surface of the ang ku kueh generously with oil.
Serve hot immediately.
2)
Unmould the ang ku kueh by knocking the part (as shown in the picture) on the tabletop, and not knocking the entire mould. This will allow the kueh to be unmoulded easier.3) Cooking the rice flour prior to mixing it with glutinous rice flour will allow the skin to achieve a more chewy texture and prevent the skin from tearing when wrapping.
4) Adjust the amount of water (or pandan juice) if using from 50ml onwards when mixing the glutinous flour into a pliable dough. The amount of water needed will vary slightly depending on the humidity of the environment.
