A taste of home – Ang Ku Kueh [紅龜粿]

Ang Ku Kueh is a small red oval-shaped Chinese snack which soft sticky skin is often wrapped with sweet filling in the centre.  The oval-shaped of the cake is designed to resemble tortoise or turtle.  The name of the snack comes from a literal Hokkien translation – Red Tortoise or Turtle Cake.  A simple snack but it comes with a symbolic and ritual value for the Chinese; we use this for a variety of reasons: celebration of a child’s birth, an elderly birthday or for offering during key religious events.

I usually find making of Chinese desserts and snacks very challenging for they often contain ingredients that are rather difficult to source in Geneva or put it plainly, there are too many steps for this lazy person to follow.  ;p  So when I saw S’s photo of the Ang Ku Kueh that she made on Facebook one day, I was tres impressed!  Better yet, I was invited to her place to learn how to make this.

Just as I guessed, it wasn’t easy to make Ang Ku Kueh at home.  I’ll take the easy way out and pay for these when I’m back in Singapore or just rely on the Man’s grandmother who also makes these at home.  But when you are overseas and there’s a craving for these snacks, I guess you just have to make it from scratch. After about 2 odd hours of ‘roughing’ it out in the kitchen, we were greeted with a sea of delicious red Ang Ku Kueh snacks filled with green beans and peanuts.

Ang Ku Kueh [紅龜粿] Recipe

Ingredients:

Green Beans Filling

• 300g Split Green Bean (Washed and soaked for 6 hours)
• 
200g Fine Sugar
• 4Tbsp Oil

Method:

1. Steam green bean over boiling water for 30-40 minutes till soft.
2. Blend or mashed green bean till become a paste.
3. In a wok, combine green bean paste, sugar and oil. Stir on low medium heat till thick and do not stick to your hands.
4. Cool it and shaped into 30 balls of about 20g. ( The size of filling will depend on the size of your mould).

To make the skin of the Ang Ku Kueh

Ingredients:

• 1/8 tsp Wilton orange coloring
 or Red powdered colouring
• 200g Wheat starch ( Tung Mein Fun)
• 150g Water
• 500g Boiling Water
• 
4Tbsp Sugar
• 
500g Glutinous Rice Flour
• 100g Mashed Orange Color Sweet Potato
• 250g Water
• 120g oil

Method:

1. Mix coloring, wheat starch and water. Stir till blended.
2. Add in boiling water and mix till smooth and become translucent.
3. Add in sugar, glutinous rice flour, sweet potatoes and water gradually. Knead till combined.
4. Slowly add in oil and keep on kneading till smooth and do not stick onto your hands.

To assemble the Ang Ku Kueh:

Method:

1. Prepare 1 banana leaf, cut into rectangular shapes so as to fit the Ang Ku mould
2. Prepare 3 Tbsp of oil in a small bowl. Lightly grease the cut banana leaves with oil.
3. Divide skin dough into 30 pieces. Flatten each dough into 1/4 inch thick and wrap the filling inside. Roll into a ball.
4. Lightly dust the Ang Ku mould with glutinous rice flour. Press the dough ball into the mould and lightly knock it out.
5. Place Ang Ku on the banana leaf.
6. Steam over boiling water for 10 minutes.
7. Brush the surface of the cooked Ang Ku Kueh with oil to give it a glossy look.

Sounds complicated?  It sure is!  But these snacks made with our very bare hands tasted so good for they are precious and really hard to come by here in Geneva.  I know for sure that the Man was very happy today for he got to sink his teeth in one of his favourite snacks.  I hope he doesn’t ask me to make more of these here.. I rather stick to making macarons for now.  Hehe

Beyond bread and butter

One of the best things about being back in Singapore is without a doubt the yummy local food that our little red dot has to offer.  It is hardly any secret that we Singaporeans love to eat.  Eating is probably our national hobby and because we are so passionate about eating, we can eat at any time of the day!  Years ago, when our friends from Slovenia visited us, they were amazed at the amount of food that we could pack in during our 3 meals.  After the 3 day visit, they declared that they needed to detox and diet for they had never eaten so much back home. Hehe…

For the past 3 months that we’ve been away from home, I’ve been dreaming of Singapore delicacies.  To me, the best part of the day will have to be breakfast.  I guess nowhere in the world comes quite close to the wide variety of breakfast choices that Singapore has to offer!

So let’s go beyond bread/butter/muffins/cereal and let me show you how my day starts with a happy (but ain’t so healthy) meal:

Roti Prata is a type of Indian pancake made of flour.  It comes with a variety of fillings including egg, cheese, onions or eat.  It usually is served with hot curry gravy.  I usually like my prata plain, dipped with sugar and curry.  Strange, but I like!

蝦麵 or Prawn Noodles is basically noodles served with prawns, pork, kang kong, fried shallots in a rich flavoured dark soup stock made primarily with dried shrimps and plucked heads of prawn. I actually prefer the dry version but as I was still nursing a sore throat, the soup version was more favoured.

Chee Cheong Fun (Rice Noodle Roll) is a thin roll made with rice noodles.  You can eat them plain or with different fillings of shrimp, pork and chicken.  I usually like mine with a little sesame oil, sweet soy sauce and chilli but I chanced upon a stall at the Marine Terrace Hawker Centre just the other day and decided to order the Fried Chee Cheong Fun home to try.  It was so sinful but yummy for it was fried with an egg and topped with oily bits of Chai Poh (salted turnip).

I’m a big fan of the Vegetarian noodles from this particular stall at the Marine Terrace Hawker Centre. My order would always be half portion of the thin braised rice vermicelli noodles and braised instant noodles served with vegetables, various gluten delicacies plus an extra serving of fried tau kee (bean-curd skin).

Another favourite dish of mine that can be eaten at any time of the day – Bak Chor Mee!  It’s basically thin egg noodlles served with minced pork and fishballs.  Served dry with lots of vinegar and chilli is how I enjoy this dish.

When I arrive to work, colleague would buy for me a cuppa Teh (Malay word for tea) O which by the way is great morning beverage to start the day with.  And on days when I have the craving, I hop on down to Toast Box and get me a cuppa Teh C Gao Siu Dai (Thick tea with less sugar and evaporated milk).

Feeling hungry already?  I know I am just by writing this post!  But at least, I can hold on to these memories while chomping on vegetable sticks when I return back to Geneva and start my detox diet.