Kuih-Muih Recipes You Can Do at Home

As Malaysians celebrate the nation’s 57th year of independence, we thought what better way to embrace our love of food than making sweet and savoury kuih. So what is kuih? They are bite-sized snack or dessert that are are usually made from rice or glutinous rice. With that said, we have compiled our favourite kuih recipes for you to try at home!

Cekodok Pisang

Ingredients

• 300g ripe bananas
• 50g rice flour
• 50g wheat flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 baking soda
• 1 tablespoon of sugar (adjust according to sweetness of banana)

Method

1. Mash banana.
2. Mix all ingredients (except sugar) to the mashed banana. By adding sugar just before frying, the cekodok pisang will be crispier on the outside.
3. Heat up oil at medium to high heat.
4. Put in a spoonful of banana mixture into the hot oil. Allow it to sink and using another spoon, try to separate the cekodok pisang from the pot. It shall float by itself.
5. Before it browns, shape the cekodok pisang quickly into the shape of balls using a spoon.

Onde-Onde

Ingredients

• 60g glutinous flour
• 30g tapioca flour
• 25g sugar
• 60ml pandan leaf extract
• 50g desiccated coconut
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of water
• Filling: gula melaka or palm sugar

Method

1. Pour the water and salt over the desiccated coconut. Mix it well and steam the mixture for 15-20 minutes.
2. Then, mix the glutinous rice flour, tapioca flour and sugar evenly before adding the pandan leaf extract to create a dough. If the dough is too soft, add more glutinous rice flour.
3. Divide the dough into 14 little balls.
4. In each dough, put the chunks of gula melaka or palm sugar in it. Be careful not to make a thin layer of dough which coats the filling as the skin will expand when boiling. Hence, this may result in a torn dough which allows the filling to flow out.
5. Put the filled dough into a pot of boiling water. Once it floats, you can dish it out but leave it for another 5-10 minutes if you want the filling to melt even more. This will create a fluid sugar filling as you bite into the Onde-onde.
6. Coat the Onde-onde with the steamed desiccated coconut.
7. Leave it to cool and enjoy!

Seri Muka

For the rice base:

• 1 1/4 cup glutinous rice, soaked for 4 hours or overnight if you have some time
• 2 cups coconut milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

For the custard layer:

• 3/4 cup castor sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 4 whole chicken eggs
• 1/4 cup plain all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoon corn flour
• 1 cup thick coconut cream
• 1 tablespoon pandan essence (If you cannot find pandan essence, you can extract pandan juice by placing pandan leaves in a food processor and then squeeze out the juice using a fine muslin cloth. You will need about 100ml of pandan juice for this recipe.)

Method

1. For the rice base, drain glutinous rice and add salt and coconut milk to the rice. Cover 8 inch round loose bottom tin with baking paper. Spread rice mixture evenly over tin and steam for 30 minutes. Once rice is steamed turn off heat and leave to rest.
2. For the custard layer, combine water and castor sugar in a small saucepan, place over low heat and stir until mixture is dissolved. Leave to cool. Crack eggs into bowl and then add all purpose flour, corn flour, coconut cream and pandan essence. Using an electric mixer, mix ingredients until you achieve a smooth custard mixture. Pour sugar mixture into bowl together with the other ingredients and beat further to combine ingredients. Using a double boiler, fill bottom bowl with water and add custard to the top bowl. Alternatively you can boil a pot of hot water and add custard onto glass bowl which sits above the boiling water (making sure the glass bowl does not touch the boiling water). Stir custard with a wooden spoon for about 20 minutes until it thickens. Turn off heat and leave custard on the bench top.
3. Pour custard through a sieve onto cooked rice layer. Even out the layers by tapping the tin softly on the bench top.
4. Place steamer over low heat until you see some steam. Then place tin in the steamer, cover tin with a clean tea cloth and cover steamer. Steam cake for 20 minutes or until custard sets.
5. Remove cake from steamer and leave to cook.
6. To eat, slice steamed cake with oiled knife.

Rempah Udang

Ingredients

• 300g glutinous rice, washed, soaked overnight and drained
• 200ml thick coconut milk mixed with 1 tsp salt and 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 banana leaf, cut into 20 pieces (of 13x10cm rectangles), scalded to soften and wiped dry
• 40 pieces of 3cm-long bamboo picks, cut both the pointed edges

{Filling}

• 100g white grated coconut
• 50g dried prawns, soaked, drained and pounded
• 30g candied winter melon, chopped finely
• 1 tbsp oil

{Ingredients (A) – (Ground finely)}

• 1 tbsp roasted coriander powder
• 1 small piece cekur root (sar keong)
• 1 clove garlic
• 4 shallots
• 1 red chilli, seeded

{Seasoning (B)}

• 1/2 tsp pepper powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper powder
• 3 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
• 2 tbsp water

Method

1. Steam glutinous rice for 20 minutes then add salt, sugar and thick coconut milk to the rice. Return rice and coconut mixture to the steaming tray and steam for another 10 minutes until well cooked.
2. Panfry the grated white coconut until evenly browned then grind until fine (kerisek).
3. Heat oil in a wok and fry ingredients (A) until fragrant. Add the dried prawns, seasoning (B), kerisik and candied melon. Dish out and set aside to cool.
4. Place 2 tablespoonful of glutinous rice in the centre of a banana leaf. Spread one tablespoonful of filling in the centre and top up with another tablespoonful of rice. Wrap each roll firmly in the banana leaf, press the ends together and secure the ends with bamboo picks.
5. Grill the rolls over charcoal fire or in an electric grill for 15 minutes, turning the rolls
6. occasionally. An alternative is to pan-grill the rolls in a frying pan, to brown the banana leaves all over, until aromatic.

Kuih Ketayap

Crepe

• 120g flour
• 1 egg
• 300ml coconut milk (I used 200ml and 100ml water)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoon pandan juice (blend 4-5 chopped pandan leaves with water and squeeze out the juice)

Filling

• 90g Gula Melaka (I used 1-2 tablespoons more because I like it sweet)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 pandan leaf knotted
• 50ml water
• 1/2 grated coconut – use only the white part
• 1 tsp cornstarch

Method

1. Place flour in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and crack in the egg. Slowly stir in salt and coconut milk and 3 tablespoons of pandan juice. You can strain the batter for a lump free mixture. Set aside.
2. Break up palm sugar and place in a pot, add sugar, water and pandan leave. Cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves then add the shredded coconut to the pot. Stir to combine all ingredients. Add corn starch to thicken, continue to cook till almost dry. Dish out to cool in a bowl.
3. Heat up a shallow, lightly greased frying pan over low heat. Add 2 tablespoons of batter in the centre and swirl the pan to coat it to form a thin crepe. I used a spatula to help me in this step. Swirling doesn’t work for me here. Cook a few minutes on each side and transfer to a chopping board to cool.
4. When all the crepes are cooked, place filling on a piece of crepe and roll it up as you would a spring roll.

[Source 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]