Kueh Salat

Mondays. Everyone hates Monday. So do I. It is the beginning of a long week, endless driving, errands to run and that tiresome repeating nags for the kids to do homework, eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, bathe, clean up...bla bla bla. Not only does one hate been nagged. I dislike repeating them too. But sometimes my kids really turn a deaf ear so that is when I start to yell.. oh yes, I can yell.. real loud. Yelling starts from 7am when my eldest is suppose to get ready for school and she is not eating her breakfast. Yelling ends at 10pm when my girls would not sleep but is building a big mountain of pillows and tents from the blankets.

Anyways. I baked Kueh Salat yesterday. Monday.. LOL!!! I soaked 300gm of glutinous rice in the morning at 6am. About 9.30am I started to do the steaming. I'm now so glad that my Pandan leaves are abundant because I no longer need to buy a bunch of them from the market. I used plenty of Pandan leaves in this recipe because it calls for Pandan colouring and blended in a processor, which i was too lazy to. I used my 'chengku' instead.

'Chengku' is the pestle and mortar thingy where you pound your spices on a heavy stoned bowl. This 'chengku' is an antique from mom. She's been using it since I was young and now I'm using it. My sis has one too as I think mom has quite a few at home. We used to help mom pound spices. She'd get us to pound her garlics, shallots, onions and it was really hard work. We even used it but a very larger one to pound dried stale bread for the Chickens for food. It was a real chore for me since I was young and the pounder was too heavy and big for my small hands. But chores are chores. Mom insists.

I remember forcing myself to eat more bread and the 'skin sides' so we have less to pound but the nightmare comes when my Tua Yee and family brings a large Gunny Sack of stale bread from the School Alumni cafe Uncle worked... Horror! Pure Labour for my sis and I!

Okay. I've side tracked again. Sorry ya.

Anyway. Here is the recipe for the Kueh Salat on Monday. Enjoy making them. It's very easy.

Recipe:
300gm Glutinous Rice (soak for about 4 hours)
200ml Santan (coconut milk)
1/2 tbsp of Salt
Pandan leaves knotted
Banana leaves (cleaned)

Top Layer for Serikaya Custard
25gm Corn Flour
30gm Plain Flour
3 Eggs
125gm Sugar
200ml of Santan (coconut milk)
90ml of sieved Pandan water (blend about 5 leaves of pandan with water)


Place the soaked and drained rice on a steamer. Place the knotted pandan on it and steam for about 15 minutes. Add the salt into santan and stir to dissolve. Sprinkle or pour in the santan on the rice gently and fluffing up the rice a little with a pair of chopsticks. Steam a further 20 minutes and for the santan to be absorbed into the rice.

Remove the steamed rice and place it on your pan (lined with banana leaves) and press it down with something flat or the back of a similar pan. Make sure it is pressed really hard. I didn't do that and when cutting the rice, it doesn't look as neat).

Place the pressed rice pan into the steamer and steam it for a further 15 minutes. Keep it there while you make your Serikaya Custard.

Serikaya Top Layer
In a small mixing bowl, stir your eggs, santan and sugar with a wooden spoon. When the ingredients are all mixed together, add in the corn flour, plain flour and the water from blending the pandan with water. (the water should be in a shade of green since it extracts the juice and pandan flavour from the leaves). Stir it till it is well mixed. If you think the green is not dark, you may add some green colouring in this stage. Strain this mixture.

Prepare a heatproof bowl over a pan of hot simmering water. This method is called double-boiling. Double boil it and stirring it all the time. Make sure the fire is as small as possible as you do not want your mixture to curdle. Cook till it has thicken but not over cooked. When it has thickened, you can pour into the pan with the rice below.

Steam the two layers for about 30 minutes and it is ready. Again, the fire has to be very small. Cool the Kueh Salat and serve.

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