Teochew Glutinous Rice Png kuih 潮洲饭粿

This was done in 16 April 2015.  I posted in my Facebook.  I blog here so as to keep a record.

First try. I like the colour very much, just like my Hakka菜粄。Change the way of adding tapioca flour. Hopefully it turns out good. 

Recipe is from Gina Choong/Kitchen Capers.

Recipe link:

 http://forum.kitchencapers.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=9719

Reproduced here with slight adjustment:

Peng Kuih

Makes 12 pcs(using bigger mould)
Makes 24 pcs(using smaller mould)

Ingredients for the dough
300g Rice Flour
100g Tapioca Flour ** 
600ml Boiling Hot water
1 tbsp shallots oil(or cooking oil)
pinch of salt
pinch/drop of pink food colouring(powder or liquid) (I use liquid rose pink 3 drops, if not wrong)

Method for the Dough
1. Add flour, oil, salt and colouring into a mixing bowl.
2. Pour boiling hot water and quickly stir to mix together. 
3. Cover the bowl with a plate. Let it stand for 20 mins (to cool it)
4. Remove and knead to form a dough. (I added about 2T shallot oil during kneading. 后油法)

My Personal notes
**Tapioca flour – I took out about 15g as reserve (or more if you want) and add in a teaspoon at a time during kneading. You may not need all the reserve flour. A bit of sticky after complete kneading is ok. During shaping you can use the reserve flour as 手粉. This way you don’t have the tendency to add more tapioca flour, which will turn your kueh too chewy or hard. Just my thought.

Ingredients for the Fillings
200g White Glutinous Rice(wash, soak for 4 hours)
1 tin of Braised Peanuts 
100g dried shrimps(soak in water, drained)
2 tbsp Fish Sauce
1 tbsp Sesame oil
2 tbsp cooking oil
30 ml water
1 tbsp sugar
2 shallots(sliced thinly)

Method for the Filling
1. Use a claypot to heat up cooking oil.
2. Add shallots and fry till fragrant.
3. Add dried shrimps and stir fry till fragrant.
4. Add peanuts and rice and stir fry with rest of ingredients.
5. Turn off the heat. cover the claypot.
6. Put claypot into the MW oven and cook on HIGH for 10 mins.**
7. Remove and open the cover. fluff up the rice to let it cool completely before use.

** You can steam using wok or pot. Steam for 25 mins. After steaming, remember to fluff up the rice with a pair of chopsticks. Let it cool before using.

Method to Assemble
1. Take a portion of pink dough(about the size of a golf ball).
2. Flatten it and add 1 tbsp of cooked rice on it.
3. Roll up the sides of the dough to roughly seal the rice.
4. Put it on the mould.
5. Press and flatten it to cover all the mould.
6. Turn over, and knock on the side of the mould to release the dough.
7. Brush it with a little shallot oil, steam over rapid water for 10 mins.
8. Serve with sweet sauce or chilli sauce.

Hakka Kueh 河婆客家之元宝菜粄

Before the year end in a few hours, I better record this post as my personal achievement thus far.  At the same time, I'm also proud that this food had been selected by"MySingaporefood" and published here.

Unlike our better known dish, Hakka Thunder Rice 擂茶， selling in some hawker centres, you won't be able to find this pink kueh around easily.

This is a very traditional hakka dish well-liked by everyone in our family.  As the whole process is very tedious, it is considered a big project 大工程 in our family :D

All my siblings (including my 2 brothers) know how to shape the kueh, except the most important thing, the proportion of each flour for the skin...  After my numerous attempts, I'm glad that I've arrived at the skin texture that is very satisfactory and pretty similar to my mum's. This post is specially dedicated to my mum for her 铁沙掌 (iron hand)  in kneading the hot dough. 😊

Ready for steaming

Make  24 pcs (each abt 38g)

Fillings:

Turnips - washed, skinned n grate

carrots - washed, skinned n grate
black fungus (optional) - washed and soaked till expand n soften
Dried shrimps - washed and soaked to soften
Minced meat
Pork lard 猪油渣 ( optional, if you have time to extract the oil. This will definitely further enhance the finished kueh)

Seasonings:
Salt
Sesame oil

* The following is my way of frying. You definitely can fry it your way.

Method
1.  Heat up your wok. Add dried shrimps to remove residue water and prevent splatter.  Push aside. Heat up some cooking oil in the same wok. Return the dried shrimps to the hot oil. Fry till very fragrant (important).  Dish up without the oil.

2.  In the same wok, fry the minced meat till dry and slightly brown.Dish up.

3.  In the same wok, add some oil. Stir fry the black fungus a while. Prepare to take cover!  Dish up.

4. In the same wok, heat up some cooking oil. Add turnips and carrots and stir fry over high heat for abt 5 minutes.  Lower the heat.  Add salt and sesame oil. Mix well. Add black fungus, minced meat and dried shrimps, pork lard if using.  Mix thoroughly. Adjust taste accordingly to your preferred saltiness. Drizzle some more sesame oil if you want.  Remove to a big bowl and let it cool completely before using.

Dough ingredients
300g Rice flour
80g Tapioca flour
1t salt
Pinch of sugar
3 drops of rose pink colouring (optional)

600g boiling water

1T cooking oil (any flavourless cooking oil)

20g Tapioca flour (reserve flour 手粉 - may need more)

Method (by stand mixer)
1.  Add rice flour, tapioca flour, salt and sugar together. Mix well.  If possible, sieve the dry ingredients.
  
2. Pour the dry ingredients in the mixer bowl. Drizzle 3 drops colouring.  Switch on your mixer on low speed.
3. Pour in the hot water along the edges as the dough hook is mixing.   Use a rubber spatula to scrape the side of the mixing bowl to bring the lumpy flour closer to the dough hook. Mix till the flour n water are smooth.

4.  Add in the oil. Mix till incorporated.

5.  Transfer the semi-cooked dough to a floured work top. Give a few knead to smoothen the dough.  If sticky, sprinkle some reserve flour.

6.  Divide dough into equal portion. Cover with a cloth to prevent the dough from drying.

7.  Rolled into oval shape.  Make a well in the centre of the dough like a nest.

8.  Using your thumb n index finger,widen the nest, thinning the edges n sides as you go along.  Leave a thickness of about 0.5 mm at the bottom.

9.  Fill the nest with your fillings. Overlap the left and right flap to close the dough.  Set aside. Continue with the rest of the dough.

10.  Arrange the shaped kueh on a greased tray.  Steam in a wok with rapid boiling water. High heat. 12 mins or till cooked.  Done !

11.  Serve hot or cold over a cup of pipping hot MILO.  

Method (by hand)
1.  In a big mixing bowl, add rice flour, tapioca flour, salt and sugar together. Mix well. If possible, sieve the dry ingredients.

2.  Pour the hot water along the edges of the bowl. Using a spatula, stir quickly to incorporate the flour and hot water.  It will appear lumpy.  Cover the bowl with a plate.  Let it stand for about 10/15 mins.

3.  Remove from bowl and transfer to a floured work top.  Knead in the cooking oil till well incorporated and smooth.

4.  Divide dough into equal portion. Cover with a cloth to prevent the dough from drying.

5.  Rolled into oval shape.  Make a well in the centre of the dough like a nest.

6.  Using your thumb n index finger,widen the nest, thinning the edges n sides as you go along.  Leave a thickness of about 0.5 mm at the bottom.

7.  Fill the nest with your fillings. Overlap the left and right flap to close the dough.  Set aside. Continue with the rest of the dough.

8.  Arrange the shaped kueh on a greased tray.  Steam in a wok with rapid boiling water. High heat. 12 mins or till cooked.  Done !

9.  Serve hot or cold over a cup of pipping hot MILO.  Heavenly! 

Red Yeast Rice Ang ku kueh 红曲米花生红龟粿

Red Yeast Rice Ang ku kueh 红曲米花生红龟粿

My maiden attempt: Peanut  'Ang Ku kueh' using natural colour, red yeast rice. 红曲米花生红龟粿

Made these kueh for my mum's birthday celebration in advance on 23 August 2015.

With the help of my 2 teenage boys,  I managed to complete them in time.  Was very glad that they stayed soft n moist hours later.  The imprint was distinct too!  :D

The whole recipe (from dough skin, colouring and peanuts fillings) comes from 3 different links, of which peanuts fillings from Kenneth Goh with some adjustments to suit our family taste buds.

First of all the dough skin.  The secret ingredient comes from one of our common pantry item - our humble potato!  Potatoes do wonder not only in this kueh by making it soft and moist,  but also in bread making!

Dough recipe is taken from here:  Jane's corner

Colouring idea from here: Peng's Kitchen


Peanuts fillings from here: Kenneth Goh/ Guai Shu Shu


Dough Recipe [with slight adjustment]

Yield abt 13 pcs ( Abt 60g per piece - Ratio dough to fillings- 1 : 1 )

Ingredients A
170g glutinous rice flour
1T sugar
Pinch of salt (not in original recipe)

Ingredient B
120g Mashed Potatoes (I used my chopper to mash till smooth)

Ingredient C
50g - 60g hot water (I used the water from cooking potatoes)
15g red yeast rice ( grind into powder or use red yeast rice in powder)

Method
In a bowl, add the red yeast powder + hot water from the cooking potatoes. Mixed thoroughly and pass through a fine sieve. Measure out the  required water. If not enough, add some more water. If  the water has cooled down, warm up it up. This will be your ingredient C to be mixed with the flour mixture.

Ingredient D
2T Cooking oil

Method (I'm using my stand mixer)
1. Mixed Ingredients A thoroughly.
2.  Add mashed potatoes (ingredient B) and red yeast water (Ingredient C)
3. Mix thoroughly to form a dough follow by adding the cooking oil (ingredient D). Knead till it form a soft dough.
4.  Divide dough into equal size, wrap in your preferred fillings.
5. Press into your mould and knock it out carefully.
6.  Place the kueh on a piece of lightly greased banana leaf and steam for 7 minutes over medium heat.
7. I lightly greased the kueh only after it has completely cool down.

Note
You may need more or less water for the dough. Pls adjust accordingly.
The final dough should be soft and not sticky. If stickly pls add some glutinous rice flour. A little bit sticky is fine.

Peanuts fillings (adapted from Kenneth Goh)

300 grams coarse peanut (粗花生碎)
120 grams of coarse sugar (粗糖）
20 grams of roasted sesame seeds （芝麻）
50 grams of plain water （白开水）
10 grams of peanut oil or other cooking oil (花生油）
2 tablespoons of plain flour （普通面粉）


Method
1.  Blend your coarse sugar a few second, if they are too coarse.

2.  Blend the coarse peanuts to powder form. You may take out some to slightly blend to maintain some crunchy bite.

3.  Pour all the peanuts powder to a large mixing bowl. Add the coarse sugar, roasted sesame seeds and flour. Mix thoroughly.

4. Add in the water and peanut oil. Stir or use your hand to mix thoroughly to form a firm dough.

5. Form into equal balls. Set aside.

Note
Am using coarse sugar as we like the texture of biting the unmelted sugar while munching 😀. It is so yummy!  At the same time, we are also trying to replica the texture of a particular ang ku kueh we tried before with a firm grounded peanut in the centre.

妈妈祝您生日快乐，身体健康！:D

Steam Hakka "Ki Ban"

This is a hakka snack. For our hakka clan, we call this "Ki Ban". "Ki"- means "rise" and "Ban" means "kueh". So this is something like a "Huat Kueh" or "Fatt Koh". Some bakeries do sell this, but is labelled as "Ang Bao". However, it is not available most of the time.

For hakka, we usually buy this to pray to our ancestors. So last week I volunteered to make this for my mum for her praying during the "Qing Ming Jie". All went well except the colour.


Everything was done at my mum's place, except the dough starter. She had the rose pink powder form which I wasn't used to. As I hand kneaded the dough, the powder was not fully dissolved and as a result, we added more powder ... :( When I open the wok, I see RED instead of pink! Anyway, my mum was happy to see that the "Ki Ban" did "Rise"! For older generation, due to superstitious, if the "Ki Ban" never "Rise", it symbolises not bad luck but "BAD OMEN"!

I made another batch yesterday at my home. With the convenient of a mixer, the dough was ready in a very short time. This time I used the liquid rose pink, mixed together with the water before adding to the dough. And I was able to get the pink that I want. :) but not the shape! :( The whole process was very straight forward but I found it was not easy to round up into a pretty shape. Recipe over Aunty Yochana. Hers is so much prettier and smoother too.

Sponge dough (@ 9.40 pm): after mixing, very sticky

The next morning (@ 8.30 am): after proofing overnight

After mixing the sponge dough with the main dough (@ 9 am)

After 1 hour (@ 10 am), the dough expanded.

This was how the dough looked like, after 4 hours of proofing (@ 1 pm).

Shaped dough waiting for steaming. (Next time must remember not to apply too much oil on the dough.)

Finally, the steamed "Ki Ban".

The texture of "Ki Ban" - Soft & chewy.

This batch was specially made for my father's death anniversary tomorrow! I'd never made anything for him in my life.... I hope he likes it! 老爸，这是女儿亲手做的，献给您。。。