Cafes & Wineries

This is the second time I have attempted to make this rice cake. The first time was a complete failure, I used those egg rings to make the little individual rice cakes but they all ended up dry and hard. Mind you, growing up in East Malaysia, I have never tasted these rice cakes before, so I wasn’t sure how the right texture should be, but I do know what I made was not right!
However I was surfing the net recently and came upon a recipe for the Chinese rice cake known as 定勝糕 (translated literally as ‘Sure Triumph Rice Cake’). I read through the recipe and to my amazement, the ingredients look almost identical to the recipe for Putu Piring, except for different flavouring and it was steamed as one whole cake rather than small individual ones like for Putu Piring. I was inspired since it did not need the Putu Piring moulds which I don’t have! So here’s my adaptation into Kuih Tu Tu.

Makes one 18cm kuih.

[Ingredients]
150g rice flour 水磨粘米粉
75g glutinous rice flour 水磨糯米粉
½ teaspoon salt
100ml water, or adjust as necessary
few drops pandan paste
50g dark brown sugar ç´…ç³–, sifted
http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/
[Preparation]
1. Line an 18cm aluminium steaming basket (with holes) with a piece of muslin. Prepare a wok for steaming with water about 2cm below where the steaming basket will be placed.

2. Combine both flours and salt in a mixing bowl. Add pandan paste to water, adjust colouring as desired.
3. Gradually add water to the flour mixture, rubbing the flour mixture as you add the water. Do this slowly as you want every grains of the flour to be moisten by the liquid. Once all the water is added, the flour mixture should resemble breadcrumbs. It should just clump together when you squeeze it in your hand, but break apart when you crumble it. If it is still too dry, add more water.

4. Sift the flour mixture.

5. Spoon half the flour mixture into the prepared steaming basket. Use something flat to level the surface, but try not to compress it. Sprinkle the dark brown sugar evenly over the flour mixture. Spoon the remaining flour mixture over the sugar and again level the surface.

6. Steam over medium high heat for about 30 minutes, or until the rice cake is cooked.

7. Turn out and cut into small pieces. Serve immediately.

[Note]
1. Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.
2. The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.