Traditional Resipes

Kuih Seri Muka

Kuih Seri Muka is one of my favourite nyonya kuih. When I lived in Singapore, I was a regular customer of a pastry shop that is famous with their nyonya kuih-muih. Two must buy items from that shop were Kuih Seri Muka and Kuih Getuk Ubi (mashed tapioca topped with coconut). Talk about Kuih Getuk Ubi, I miss it a lot!

"Eh, you made mahjong kuih!" This is what T said when he saw Kuih Seri Muka when he came back from work yesterday. The colours and shape (the way I cut) of this kuih looked like mahjong tiles to him. He liked the bottom layer very much, especially with sambal. As for the little one, he is always my fan. He ate a small piece when I was cutting the kuih. Then, grabbed another 2-3 pieces from table after my photo shooting.

I found many recipes online, similar recipe for the bottom layer but many variations for the top layer either with eggs or without eggs. Finally I settled on a recipe called for less amount of egg as I did not want my top layer to be too egg-y.

Ingredients (8" x 8"):
Bottom Layer
250g Glutinous Rice, soaked for 4 hours and drained
170ml Thin Coconut Milk
¼ tsp Salt

Top Layer
2 no. Eggs
150g Castor Sugar
120ml Pandan Water (Blend about 10 pandan leaves with 120ml water)
400ml Coconut Milk
120g All-purpose Flour
3 tbsp Tapioca Flour
¼ tsp salt
Green Colouring (optional)

Methods:

1. Bottom Layer: Steam glutinous rice with coconut milk and salt for 30 minutes. Rest for about 10 minutes, then transfer and press steamed rice onto a bottom of a 8" square pan.
2. Top Layer: Beat eggs with sugar until sugar is dissolved. Add in pandan water, coconut milk, salt and green colouring. Mix well.
3. Sift in flours and whisk till well combined. Strain the mixture and rest for 10 minutes.
4. Pour the mixture in the pan with pressed glutinous rice (1) and steam over medium heat for 30 minutes.
5. Cool completely before serving.

Kuih Ketayap/Crepes with Coconut Filling

This is, without a doubt, one my very favorite kuih. A soft green crepe roll that has caramelized coconut filling in it. This is one of the very first kuih (cake) I’ve learned to make during home science class. I remember my partner and I had to pound the pandan (screwpine/pandanus) leaves to make the green coloring for the batter and trying very hard to make a perfect piece of crepe as years ago we don’t have a non-stick pan.

Most of us don’t make this kuih anymore as it’s so easily available at most food courts and also from the street stalls during the morning and evenings in Malaysia but here in US we don’t have the luxury to go out and buy some so whatever we want to eat we have to make it. I prepared a whole lot of these for a pot luck BBQ party last weekend and lucky Diana is there to help me out. It turns out really good and well received by my friends.

Ingredients for crepes

1 cup of flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup of coconut milk
1 cup of water
1 tsp of salt
2 tbsp of oil
1 tsp of pandan paste




Ingredients for filling:

2 cups of grated coconut
1 piece of palm sugar (about ½ cup) – roughly chopped
¼ cup of water
A pinch of salt


1. To make the filling, in a pan combined water and palm sugar and bring it up to boil. Once sugar melted add in the grated coconut. Once the coconut is moist and shiny and all the water is absorbed, take it off the stove and set it aside to cool.
2. For the crepe, mix all the ingredients until the batter is smooth. Heat up a non-stick pan, brush the pan with a bit of oil, pour some batter to the pan and swirl the pan around so that the batter completely covers the base.
3. Cook the crepe until you see the side is lightly brown and crispy. Flip it over and cook the other side for about 20 second. Remove from pan.
4. Put some filing on the pancake and roll it up like a spring roll. Serve as dessert or for tea time.