Ang Ku Kueh with Love, The Sunday Times Times, 19 April 2015

40
taste
thesundaytimes April 19, 2015
Still a fishy favourite
Saucy kicks
Posh Nosh
Tan Hsueh Yun
Food Editor
A Posh Nosh item on sardines some
months ago garnered an unexpected flood
of e-mail from readers and that tells me
that this humble food is still very much a
favourite.
At Little Provence, I find four excellent
kinds of tinned sardines, featuring plump
fish and interesting flavours.
Tapenade, with chopped black
olives, is so good on tangy rye crackers, which provide a counterpoint to
the rich olives and sardines.
Muscadet, a type of white wine
made in the Loire Valley, flavours another version and it also contains slices
of carrot and cornichons. This one is bright
and citrusy, good with a leafy salad.
The other two, with chillies and tomato sauce,
are more conventional but no less delicious. Mash
them up and use as sandwich filling for wellbuttered bread.
Sardine sandwiches are such a throwback, and a
delicious one too.
Canned sardines, $9.90 for a 115g tin, from
Little Provence, 02-K2 Tanglin Mall, 163 Tanglin
Road, tel: 6887-3841, open: 10am to 8pm
(Monday to Thursday), 10am to 9pm (Friday,
Saturday and Sunday)
hsueh@sph.com.sg
facebook.com/tanhsuehyun
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ST PHOTOS: DANIEL NEO
Maybe it is the retro styling of the bottles
or the names of the sauces, but when I
clap eyes on these at the supermarket, I
know I have to get them. They are perfect
with grilled sausages or as a dip for fat
chips.
Sweet Curry Sauce is exactly as the
name implies. Sugar and plum puree are
the dominant ingredients and supplying
the curry vibe is coriander, turmeric and
cumin. Naturally, the cumin is front and
centre, but that is not such a bad thing.
Eat this alongside grilled sausages and
caramelised onions or use as a marinade
for pork chops before they go onto the
barbecue.
The Tomato & Habanero Chilli Sauce
is made for people who need to have both
ketchup and chilli sauce with their chips.
Take the habanero tag with a big pinch of
salt – it is not blow-your-head-off spicy.
Instead, there is a pleasant tingle of
spice in the midst of fresh tomato sauce. I
Breakfast biscuits
Green tea latte in sachets are
everywhere these days, but I
stumble on something a little
different, perfect for
breakfast. It is roasted green
tea latte from Muji.
Hojicha, as it is called,
has a wonderful smoky
flavour from the roasting
process and that translates
into a very aromatic cuppa.
I wish it were less sweet,
but the aroma of it keeps me
making cup after cup.
Instant Roasted Green Tea
Latte, $6.90 for a 120g pouch,
from Muji stores. For a list
of locations, go to
www.muji.com/storelocator/?c=sg
The thought of having biscuits for breakfast sounds
terribly decadent, like having cake for the first meal
of the day. But Marks & Spencer’s Breakfast Biscuits
are not the sweet, crisp treats you devour at tea time.
They are a lot more substantial, so the individual
packs of two biscuits each provide a reasonably
filling breakfast on the go.
The Cranberry & Raspberry version is easier to
like, as it is studded with dried cranberries and
freeze-dried raspberries. Concentrated prune juice
and prune puree add some sweetness, together with
demerara sugar. Delicious with a cup of milky tea or
a takeout latte.
More health food-like is Honey & Oat. The
biscuits, aside from flour, also contain wholewheat
flour, oat flakes and malted toasted oats. The honey
is discernible, but not particularly strong.
Breakfast Biscuits, $5.90 for a 180g box, from
Marks & Spencer. For the list of locations, go to
global.marksandspencer.com/sg
MAKE IT YOURSELF:
ANG KU KUEH
INGREDIENTS
For the filling
150g split mung
beans (soak for 1
to 11/2 hours)
2 pandan leaves
100g white sugar
20ml water
3 Tbs olive oil
For the
dough skin
400g orange
sweet potatoes,
cut into 5cm-thick
pieces
400ml water
2 to 4 knotted pandan leaves
1
/2 Tbs caster sugar
80ml sweet potato water
150g glutinous rice floor
20ml olive oil
1
/2 tsp red food colouring
1 banana leaf, about 15cm
Avid cook Gladys Foo learnt to
make ang ku kueh so she could
give the rice flour cakes to her
mother on her 70th birthday
Singapore Cooks
Kenneth Goh
G
Great British Sauce Co sauces,
$4.85 for a 320g bottle, from Tanglin
Market Place, B1-02 Tanglin Mall,
163 Tanglin Road, tel: 6734-0105,
open: 9am to 10pm daily
Green tea latte
full of aroma
Ang ku
kueh
with
love
rowing up, Ms Gladys Foo found
cooking a chore.
At 13, she had to cook dinner for
her family of seven after school.
Her father, who was a businessman and the family’s breadwinner, died from
cancer in his early 40s when she was seven. To
ease the family’s financial load, her mother
worked as a seamstress and her elder siblings also
started working.
The fifth of six siblings, Ms Foo learnt to cook
dishes such as fried fish and stir-fried pork with
vegetables from her mother, and took turns with
her two sisters to make dinner.
Now 44, the senior programme and services
manager at non-profit organisation Young
Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) recalls:
“Back then, it was cooking for the sake of eating.”
However, the bubbly mother of two daughters
aged 11 and six started having fun in the kitchen
when she got married 15 years ago.
Her husband, a 45-year-old creative director in
a media company, is an adventurous cook who
whips up creative dishes such as Bacon Explosion, a sinful baked dish of minced pork and
cheese wrapped around a layer of weaved bacon
strips and slathered with barbecue sauce.
The couple also organise cook-outs with
friends.
His whimsical cooking style has rubbed off on
her. These days, Ms Foo whips up an eclectic
variety of dishes, from pizzas and burgers to
bibimbap (a Korean mixed rice dish in a hot
would simply drag a pile of chips through
the sauce, but you might want to add
some to homemade barbecue sauce or to
a pot of beef chilli.
ST PHOTOS: DANIEL NEO
As ang ku kueh symbolises longevity in Chinese culture, Ms Gladys Foo made 60 pieces for her mother’s
70th birthday.
stone pot) and Vietnamese spring rolls. She also
cooks Peranakan dishes such as babi pongteh and
chap chye and makes kueh such as kueh salat
and kueh kochi.
The self-taught cook gamely tries recipes from
family members, cooking books and websites
such as Noob Cook.
She says: “You never know what to expect
from trying recipes – it can be a pleasant surprise
at the end of the process. If it is not successful, I
will find out what went wrong and try again.”
This keen sense of curiosity led her to ask for
her aunt’s recipe for ang ku kueh, a traditional
steamed glutinous rice flour cake with mung
bean filling, nine years ago.
Ms Foo made 60 pieces of ang ku kueh for her
mother’s 70th birthday in 2006. She says: “It is
meaningful for a daughter to make ang ku kueh
for her mother’s significant birthday, instead of
buying them.”
Ang ku kueh symbolises longevity in Chinese
culture.
The recipe calls for a small amount of sugar, as
most of the sweetness come from the mung bean
filling. Ms Foo also notes that the dough is less
chewy because it contains more mashed sweet
potato than glutinous rice flour.
One challenge was getting the texture of the
filling right. Ms Foo says: “The filling has to be
firm enough to stand on its own as you need to
roll it into balls. If you overcook it, it becomes dry
and crackly.”
Her recipe for ang ku kueh is one of 36 recipes
featured in the YWCA Recipe Journal, which was
published last month to commemorate the
association’s 140th anniversary.
It has recipes from YWCA volunteers and staff.
Some recipes, such as Devil’s Curry, a fiery
Eurasian dish and curry puff, date back to 1932.
All proceeds from the sale of the cookbook go
towards funding community initiatives by the
YWCA.
Ms Foo, who worked in the information
technology industry for nine years before joining
the YWCA, hopes to pass on her love for cooking
to youth and children from disadvantaged
backgrounds through cooking and baking
lessons.
She says: “It is fulfilling to see that cooking
can boost their self-esteem and create a difference
in their lives.”
kengohsz@sph.com.sg
The YWCA 140th Anniversary Recipe Journal
costs $15. Call 6223-1227 for details.
METHOD
1. Rinse split mung beans thrice and soak them in water in a large
bowl for 1 to 11/2 hours.
2. Drain the water with a strainer, add pandan leaves and place bowl
in a steamer on high heat for 15 to 20 minutes.
3. In a food processor, add cooked split mung beans, sugar and 20ml
water. Blend till mixture becomes a smooth paste.
4. Transfer paste into a non-stick frying pan. Fry the paste with 3 Tbs of
olive oil on high heat for 15 minutes. Stir the paste constantly while
frying so it becomes thick and firm enough to hold on its own. Leave
the paste to cool.
5. Roll the split mung bean paste into small balls – each weighing
about 20 to 22g. Set aside. The filling can be kept in the refrigerator
for up to two weeks.
6. In a pot on high heat, cook sweet potatoes in 400ml water with two
to four knotted pandan leaves for about 15 minutes. Drain the sweet
potatoes and set aside. Reserve the sweet potato water.
7. With a food processor, mash the cooked sweet potatoes with sugar
till fine. Add 80ml sweet potato water if mixture is too dry.
8. In a large bowl, mix glutinous rice flour gradually with mashed
sweet potato and olive oil. Add 1 Tbs of sweet potato water at a time if
dough is too dry. Fold in mixture with hands and mix contents
thoroughly. Add 2 Tbs of flour if the dough is still sticky. The dough
mixture should be firm enough to hold on its own.
9. Add red food colouring to the ball of dough. Mix the dough with
the colouring to ensure it is spread evenly.
10. Pinch the dough into smaller pieces and roll each piece into a
small ball, each weighing about 23 to 24g.
11. Flatten the dough into a palm-sized shape and use it to wrap
mung bean filling. Roll the mixture into a ball and dust it with
glutinous rice flour.
12. Press the dough mixture firmly into the ang ku kueh mould. Turn
the kueh out by hitting the edge of the mould on a table cushioned by
books.
13. Cut banana leaves into 6cm by 6cm squares and brush them with
olive oil. Place kueh on an oiled leaf. Brush oil on the kueh.
14. Wrap the lid of the steamer with a cloth to prevent water from dripping on the kueh when steaming, which may cause its imprint to fade.
15. With the steamer on high heat, add a plate of kueh and cook for
10 to 12 minutes.
16. Remove the kueh from the steamer, brush some oil on it and let
cool for 10 to 15 minutes.
Makes 14 to 15 pieces
Source: The Sunday Times © Singapore Press Holdings ltd. Permission required for reproduction.