Chwee Kueh / Woah Kueh

I love Chwee Kueh. Lately whenever I go back to Singapore, me and my better half will always drive down to our favorite store to chow down a big plate. Some might think that it's easy to make and not hard to get the perfect taste & texture. Well, understandable since most of the recipes I have come across on Chwee Kueh are relatively easy. Rice flour, water, salt, oil etc mixed together, steam and plus the preserved radish topping. But the texture of the kueh can be quite different even with the amount of water you used, not to mention the kind of flour added to it. Not too long ago, a good friend has kindly invited me to her kitchen to "experiment" on a recipe from a cookbook. It turned out okay, but we both knew after tasting it, that it can still be improved. So I have vowed to try it out again myself.

I have searched for the longest time and found a good recipe on another blog; My Culinary Journal. (<=Thanks!) Some how the ingredients involved are quite different from the day I tried with my friend, so I decided to give it a try. I was glad I did because it turn out pretty good, texture wise was softer, but "bouncier", haha!

I will post the recipe with some modification for my own reference in the future:
Ingredients for Chwee Kueh / Woah Kueh (makes about 26 to 28):
300 g of rice flour
25 g of wheat starch
25 g of corn flour
1 tsp of salt
2 tsp of oil
400 ml cold water
1000 ml boiling hot water

Method:

• Put rice flour, wheat starch and cornflour into a mixing bowl.
• Add 400 ml of cold water to the flour mixture, use a wooden spoon to stir.
• Bring 1020 ml of water to boil, make sure it boiling hot with big bubbles. Only add in 1000 ml of boiling hot water to the flour mixture. (Note that the extra 20ml is to compensate the liquid turned into steam away while boiling)
  
• Pour the hot water over the flour mixture, then stir it, add salt & oil to batter and mix together well.
• Keep stirring until batter is like glue texture. If the batter is not transparent, or looks watery glue texture, bring it over the stove to cook it again, until a portion of it stick to the wooden ladle. Remove from fire.
• Oil the mould with a little cooking oil, pour the batter into the mould, filled about ¾ full. Then add 1 tsp of cold water as topping before bringing batter to steam.
• Steaming time about 15 - 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, open the cover, check to see if there is a depression of water content in the center, leave the fire on, let it cook for 5 mins more with cover off, to steam dry the pool of water in kueh center. Once dried, off fire.
• Wait for it to cool for at least 10 to 15 minutes before unmoulding it.
  

Ingredients for Preserved Radish:
4 tbsp cooking oil
150g sweet preserved radish
150g salted preserved radish
2 tsp of dark soy sauce
6 pips garlic, minced
6 pips shallots, minced
4 to 5 tsp sugar
50g toasted sesame seeds (I forgotten all about it this time!!)

Method:

• Soaked the preserved radish in warm water for at least 15 minutes. Then rinsed off the water. Chop up if it is not already in minced bits.
• In a cooking pan, add cooking oil and stir fry the garlic and shallots still fragrant.
• Add both preserved radish and stir fry for a couple of minutes. Add the seasoning and stir fry for another 5 minutes at low heat. Add toasted sesame if using.
  
• Remove from pan and set aside till use.

Eating this Chwee Kueh brings back a lot of nostalgic feelings...again a childhood favorite. ;) Geeze so many childhood favorite! You can already imagine the old chubby me, haha! But so glad it turn out good, even my husband say it's yummy! *phew!*
Have asked 3 good friends to taste test it and all have given thumbs up. So I guess this recipe is indeed a keeper. Another thing I realize about this homemade Chwee Kueh is, it's not as oily as the those sold in stores. Well, perhaps it's much easier for the store owners to handle the kueh with the extra oil added...but it ain't good for the body I tell you. Again, another winning vote for the homemade yummies!
Me and my husband loves it with chili...one that my good friend bought from Seramban for us...so delicious eating it together! I even made Steam yam cake that day too...so double the treat! (forget about double the fat!) So if you do try this Chwee Kueh recipe, do let me know how yours turn out. Cheers all!