My New Gadget For Many Yummy "Kuih" To Come!

After living here in Beaverton for about 7 years, we have finally discover that there are a lot of Malaysians/Singaporeans living in the area too!! We have been invited to the Singaporeans/Malaysian potluck, which held about twice a year. This is the time when we all get to savor the many delicious food that we all miss so much. Everyone do their best to bring along a dish or two of the common food that most of us crave for --- like rendang, laksa, hokkian mee, nasi lemak etc. etc. etc.

As someone who likes to make desserts, I usually try to bring a dish AND a dessert. However, there aren't many so called dessert in our cuisine. We have what it's called "Kuih". They are the equivalent of the western pastries and cakes. But, it is not necessary eaten after a meal, instead, we sometimes eat them during breakfast, or more commonly, we eat it during tea time, or as a snack. And back home in Malaysia, we are able to get kuih just about anywhere. But it's not easy to fine those really good- traditional- fine kuihs these days.

So, when my mother-in-law bought me this book called "Nonya Flavors: A Complete Guide to Penang Straits Chinese Cuisine" I was salivating all over the place, while flipping through the book!! I was determine to learn to make some traditional Nonya food. After all, there is some Nonya gene in my family, and I would like for my kids to learn to eat our traditional food.

During one of the Singaporean/Malaysian potluck, I decided to make Kuih Dadar. This is a coconut flavored crepe, essence with pandan leaf, wrap with freshly grated coconut cooked in gula melaka syrup.

The tricky part of making this kuih is the grated coconut. Over here in America, we can only get the desiccated coconut (dried grated coconut), most of the time, already sweetened. Back home, I remember walking to the kedai runcit (a grocery store, usually the mom and pop style - where everyone knows everyone there) to get freshly grated coconut for my mom. All they need was 1-2 minutes to grate the fresh coconut. You see, back home, every grocery store HAS a coconut grated machine (coconut is a common ingredient in the Southeast Asia cuisine). Crack the coconut in half, and flip the switch. Hold on the shell and make sure your fingers don't get too close to the spinning blades...and ta-da!!! You'll get freshly grated coconut!

For many years, I have tried to find a coconut grating tool...and I did. I found this hand held tool in a Vietnamese grocery store here in Beaverton.


When I decided to make kuih dadar for the potluck, I bought 3 whole coconuts. It took me 20 minutes each to crack open the coconuts with my Chinese cleaver --- coconut shell bits flew everywhere. Then it took me about 3 hours to grate the 3 whole coconuts with this tiny tool! By the time I was done...I feel like it wasn't worth the torture to make this kuih! You see, we're so used to buying from the food stalls back home, it's so convenient. The only kuih I don't buy from the food stall is Kuih Talam, cos' I have a aunt who spoils us with her homemade ones :)

However, how can I go through all this and NOT make them? So of course, I did. And man, it tasted SO GOOD, if I have to say so myself! :P Everyone loved it! ~ they better do, cos' my hands were shaking after grating those coconuts!

After a couple of weeks/months, hubby and friends asked for it again. I told them, NO WAY, unless THEY are going to grate the coconut. Then, it sparks me to go search for a more efficient grater. I googled found this clip on Youtube.



So, I was determined to find THAT coconut grater!!! And guess what?! I found 2 places selling them here in U.S.!!! Wooohhooo.... Culinary Exotica in Olympia, Washington, and Niwasa at Simi Valley in California. Gosh, I was SO happy I was dancing with joy! My first find was Culinary Exotica. However, during that time, they were out of stock. I send them an e-mail asking when will they have in stock, I was told the Homeland Security was holding them. 2 months later, they were still held by Homeland Security - whatever the reason is! Gosh! I couldn't wait any longer...so I went out searching again. It was then I found Niwasa. Few days after that, I received my very own hand cranking coconut grated! Phew! The blades is the same as the ones we have back home, except those, you just need to flip the switch! ;P


So, last Friday, I invited 2 of my friends A and M over. It was my 1st trial on this "baby." Oh, by the way, this time around, it took me less time to crack open the coconuts. I must be getting GOOD at it, huh?! haha. I was kinda nervous when I tried the coconut grater...after all, there are a lot of very very very sharp blades there. I told Lucas to stay far away from it. Took me a few turns to get the hang of it. But I tell ya...once you have the feel, it took me about 5-7 minutes to grate one half of the coconut...which means, it took me at most 45 minutes to grate all 3 whole coconuts! Can you believe how much time and energy I saved???!! Boy, I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone who uses fresh coconut in their cooking/baking! The taste of the desiccated coconuts is nothing compared to freshly grated coconut in this case....ahhhhh....


Kuih Dadar/Tayap from Nonya Flavours: A complete guide to Penang Straits Chinese Cuisine

Pandan juice
5 pandan leaves, chopped
3-4 Tbs water

1. Combine the pandan leaves and water in an electric blender.Blend till the leaves are pretty chopped up.
   
2. Wrap the pulverised pandan in a muslin cloth and squeeze to extract the juice, or strain through a fine sieve. Set aside.

Crepe batter
120g all purpose flour
1 large egg
300 ml coconut milk (from 1/2 grated coconut --- I used canned light coconut milk) mixed with
1/4tsp salt
3Tbs pandan juice (I added pandan paste which you can get at most Asian grocery stores, for more flavor and color)

1. Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl. Mix in the egg, and the salted coconut milk and pandan juice.
   
2. Leave the batter to rest while cooking the filling.

Filling
90g palm sugar (gula Melaka)
1Tbs sugar
1 pandan leaf, knotted
50 ml water
1/2 coconut, grated, white part only
1 tsp cornflour

1. To cook the filling, break up the palm sugar (I roughly chopped them up first), and combine with the sugar, pandan leaf and water in a pot.
   
2. Cook over medium flame until sugar dissolved. Strain the syrup and return it to the pot.
   
3. Combine the cornflour with the coconut, then add them into the syrup and continue to cook for a few more minutes. Dish out and let cool.

Assemble the crepe

1. Heat up a shallow frying pan or crepe pan over low flame and grease lightly with oil. Pour 2 Tbs of the batter in the center and swirl the pan to coat it to form a thin crepe of about 13cm diameter.
2. When the crepe is cooked, turn out onto a board (coarse surface facing down).
3. Place 2 heaped tsp. of filling on the crepe and roll up spring roll-style.

Coconut sauce (I did not make this )
150ml coconut milk (from 1/2 grated coconut)
50g sugar
2tsp cornflour

Combine all the sauce ingredients in a small pot and mix well. Cook over a slow fire until mixture thickens and boils. Serve with the kuih

Note: I did not follow the recipe to the T. I used all of the ingredient for the filling and crepe, and just made the crepe like I would a western style crepe. I did not serve mine with the coconut sauce.


I am SO HAPPY! =)