Cafes & Wineries

After my recent investigation into Chi Kak Kuih, my hands were itching to make some P’ng Kuihs. However I decided not to use the red colour, but to do a green coloured version.
After thinking of what to use to get the colour since I could not get my hands on any of the herbs mentioned in my Chi Kak Kuih post, I decided upon spinach. Well, I thought Italians use it to colour their pasta, so why can’t I use it to colour my kuih too? I wasn’t sure how the colour will turn out, but looking at the end result, it was actually quite nicely coloured, don’t you think?

Makes approx. 12 kuihs.

[Ingredients]
Filling:
120g glutinous rice, soaked for at least 3 hours or preferably overnight
60g split mung beans (去皮綠豆片), rinsed then soaked for about 2 hours
30g dried prawns (蝦米), soaked then roughly chopped
30g preserved daikon (chai poh 菜脯), finely chopped
3 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked then cubed
1 tbsp fried shallot flakes (油蔥酥)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2½ teaspoons light soy sauce
¼ teaspoon sesame oil
¼ teaspoon sugar
dash of ground white pepper
125ml (½ cup) water

This is the tinned chopped spinach imported from France that I used.

Pastry:
200g glutinous rice flour (糯米粉)
100g rice flour (粘米粉)
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
100g chopped spinach (canned or frozen), squeezed to remove any excess juice
excess juice squeezed from the spinach + water to make 200ml
2 tablespoons canola or corn oil
Banana leaves for steaming
http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/
[Preparation]
Filling:
1. Sauté chopped garlic in 2 tablespoons canola or corn oil. Then add dried prawns and preserved daikon. Stir-fry briefly until fragrant. Add mushrooms, glutinous rice, mung beans and shallot flakes. Season to taste with light soy, sesame oil, sugar and pepper.

2. Transfer the rice filling into a tray or cake tin. Sprinkle about 1/3 amount of the 125ml water over the filling. Steam over high heat for 10 minutes. Fluff up the rice with a fork, then sprinkle with the second 1/3 amount of water. Steam another 10 minutes. Fluff up the rice again and sprinkle the rest of the water over the rice and steam another 10 minutes, or until cooked. Set aside to cool.

3. Prepare a bowl of water. Dip your hands in to wet your hands, this is to prevent rice filling sticking to your hands while dividing the rice filling. Scoop 2 tablespoons (about 40-50g) of the filling, and with your wet hands press lightly together to form a ball. Set aside. Repeat with the rest of the filling, you should get just over 12 rice balls. This amount of filling is calculated to fit my peach-shape mould which has a capacity of about 80ml. However, if your mould is larger or smaller, you have to adjust the amount of filling for each kuih. Alternatively, if you are making the kuihs into round shapes without moulding them, just divide the filling evenly into 12 balls.

Pastry:
1. In a large mixing bowl, mix together glutinous rice flour, rice flour, salt and sugar.
2. Add the water/juice mixture and mix in, the dough will be quite dry and crumbly.

3. Remove about ¼ (about 150g) of the crumbly dough and divide it into 5-6 small pieces. Press each small piece of dough into a flat round (disc) shape and put into boiling water to cook. When the dough pieces float to the top, drain and put the cooked dough pieces back into the mixing bowl with the remaining uncooked crumbly dough.

4. Knead together the cooked and uncooked dough until smooth.

5. Add spinach and knead in until incorporated.

6. Add oil and knead in. Cover and rest the dough for 10 minutes before using.
7. Divide the dough into 12 even portions of about 50g each. You may have a little bit left over.
To shape the kuih:
1. Grease the plastic mould with oil, if the mould is wooden, dust with rice flour to prevent sticking. Prepare some banana leaves by blanching briefly in boiling water to soften, cut into small pieces to fit the kuih.
2. Take a piece of pastry dough and press into thin round shape. Put a rice filling ball in the centre and press the pastry around it to seal.
3. Put the filled dough into the prepared mould and press into shape. Knock out and place the shaped dough onto a piece of prepared banana leaves. If you don’t have the peach-shape mould, just form the filled dough into a ball and place onto the piece of prepared banana leaves.

4. Steam for 15-20 minutes. Serve hot with chilli sauce if desired.

5. These uneaten kuihs can be kept covered airtight in the refrigerator for a few days. Just reheat in the steamer, or pan-fry in a little oil before serving.

[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.