Chwee Kueh by Jumi Tan


Woman’s Weekly recipe
Pre 30 mins
Cooking 1 hour
Make 20-25 pieces

Topping
- half cup of oil
- 8 shallots, sliced thinly
- 6 cloves garlic, chopped finely
- 150g dried radish, rinsed and chopped finely (buy from supermarket)
- 3 cups of water
- 2 drops dark soy sauce, for colour
- half cup of diced carrot (woman’s weekly healthier recommendation, I didnt follow/use)
- half cup of long bean (woman’s weekly healthier recommendation, I didnt follow/use)
- salt and sugar to taste

Chwee Kueh
- 2 cups rice flour
- 2 tablespoon corn flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 5 cups water
- 2 tablespoon oil

1. To make topping, heat oil in a wok over medium-low fire. Stir-fry shallots till golden brown. Remove from wok and drain in kitchen paper. Set aside.
2. In the same wok, stir fry garlic for 1-2 mins. Add dried radish and stir fry over medium-high fire for 3 mins. Add water and bring to a boil. Lower fire and simmer, covered.
3. Stir in dark soy sauce. Add carrot and long beans. Turn fired to medium-high and stir fry for 5 mins.
4. To prepare rice cakes, combine rice flour, corn flour and salt in a bowl. Make a well in the centre, pour in water and whisk to produce a thin, smooth batter.
5. Stir in oil. Pour batter into a saucepan. Cook over low fire for 3- 5 mins, stirring continuously with a whisk.
6. Once the batter thickens at the bottom of the pan, quickly remove from heat, but continue stirring till the batter is thick and smooth.
7. Bring water in a steamer to boil. Preheat chwee kueh mould or little dishes (abt 7 cm wide and 3cm high) in steamer for 5 mins.
8. Remove lid of steamer and pour batter into each mould/dish till almost full. Steam for 10 -15 mins over high fire. Turn off the fire and let the moulds sit in the steamer for 2 mins.
9. Remove moulds from the steamer. Allow to cool slightly, then unmould rice cajes by running a butter knife around each mould. Return moulds to he steamer to steam another batch of rice cakes. repeat till batter is used.
10. While the rice cakes are still warm, ad topping and reserved crispy shallots. Serve hot with sambal chilli sauce, if U like.

TIPS (from personal experience)
1. Get chai po from NTUC. I cannot find it at Cold Storage
2. Remember to rinse chai po if not, it might be too salty
3. If U are not sure 1 cup is how much. Google and convert it to ML or OZ or whatever its easiler for U to understand.
4. U can get those aluminum mould like I did at Cold Storage. At 12 for $3.50. Becos the batter have oil in it, it will be very easy to pop the rice cake out when it is slightly cooler.
5. Some people add dried shrimps to the chai po. I did not follow this recipe closely, becos I did not add in diced carrot or long beans. Those with carrot and long bean is meant to be a healthier choice.
6. When cooking batter, I think 3 mins on low heat is good enough. U dont wanna over-heat yr batter and make it too thick. cos it thicken very very fast. If U read other food blogs, Some people dont even cook the batter, they just use hot water and mix the batter.