Foodelicious!

The other day as I was watering my vegetables, I noticed one of my yam plants was pushing out of the soil and out of curiosity, I pull out and lo and behold! a reasonably sized yam was looking back at me. Hehehehe... it didnt take a long time to grew yam as I thought. Goodie! I have another 3 yam plants in my vegetable patch.. hehehe...

Anyway, I couldnt make up my mind as to what I want to make with the precious yam I harvested.. Should I cook the yam with chicken? Should I make a chinese dessert with the yam? Should I simply deep fried the yam? At the end, I was exhausted trying to figure out what I am going to do with the yam when I remembered that I have always crave a good woo tau koh.. aka yam cake.

Frankly, I prefer salty or savory kuehs and when I was young, I remember eating very good woo tau koh.. nothing like the ones nowadays. The ones we get nowadays are simply an insult to the mouth! Terrible texture, terrible flavor, terrible combination... tsk! tsk! tsk! Because of this, I have not eaten woo tau koh for a long long time. So, this morning, I set out to make a goot tray of woo tau koh.. hehehe.. I dug out my home science book from school days and went to make myself a good tray of woo tau koh...

Woo Tau Koh is relatively easy to make if you have all the right proportions of flour and water. There is also a little mixture of different flour to give the kueh a very slight bounce but yet, it's not firm or too soft... As for flavor, oo.. I like to add a little bit of home made 5 spice powder to bring out the yam flavor... Hehehehe.. and of course, a generous serving of dried prawns..but nothing is as important as the yam.. it must be fluffy, floury, flavorful.

Once the kueh is done steaming, it's important to add in the garnishing immediately. I like to have the traditional garnishing which are spring onions, fried shallots, garlic, dried prawns and chili.. Nothing beats the look of a well garnished woo tau koh.. it has such a happy color.. hehehe..

Once the kueh is properly cooled down, I couldnt wait to dig in.. Hahaha.. and it was just in time for Tea. I had a number of pieces as it was too yummy.. even without sauce.. usually, it's eaten with a combination of sweet sauce and chili sauce which I am not a big fan of. I like my food savory if it's meant to be savory.... hehehehe..

Oh yes, what I will do with the leftovers? Hehehee.. I am a chinese and nothing goes to waste.. Any leftovers will be lightly pan fried and eaten with chili sauce. woo hooo.. my breakfast is done for tomorrow!

Traditional sponge cake.. that's what Kueh Nrng Koh means! I remember my grandma making this using a traditional spring looking thing to fluff up the eggs, whacking it till it is pale and creamy before adding flour and a bottle of ice-cream soda. How I would watch in awe and hope for a sip of ice-cream soda then. Sigh.. those were the days where I would sit patiently by the stove waiting for the lid to come off and see a happy smiling sponge cake....


Fast forward today, the traditional spring looking thing is now replaced by a powerful tool call Kenwood Master and preparation time is cut down by more than half! However, the sponge cake is still smiling like before...

Yup, it's the time of the year for dumplings again...

The above is meat dumplings or what is known as "harm yoke chung".. the hokkien version which has, well seasoned chicken, thick and juicy mushroom, enough dried prawns (har mai) and dried oyster to give it a very hokkien flavour, chestnuts and mung beans all nicely wrapped up with enough glutinous rice that has been seasoned and flavored.

These are going for RM6 each and yes, it is a hearty meal on its own...

This is a traditional delight for all sorts of happy ocassions from birthdays to weddings to new year. These are for sale at RM1 each with a minimum order of 24 pieces.