Angkoo Kuih is a traditional Nyonya Kuih. However, do you know the Nyonya story behind it? Angkoo is a feature during the’ full moon’ celebration. When an infant reaches a month or 28 days, it is an occasion to celebrate. Due to the high infant mortality rate in the olden day, reaching a full month is a mile stone for the infant. So people celebrate. This is not hogwash. When I was young, I know of many infants that did not survive. Even in my own family, but we never talk about it.
There were no such thing as a gender reveal party! We do not count the eggs before it hatch! Pantang! ( pantang is a Malay word for abstinence, or something that one cannot do or say ias s it is very bad, or a bad thing will occur.)
So the full moon is celebrated by other races as well. The Malays and Indians have similar celebrations.
As kids we used to buy this and have this as a snack.
The local vendor boy will pass by our street daily and all we got to do is to hail him and buy from him. The big platter he carries over his head will have all sorts of kuih: angkoo, pulut tai tai, kuih bingka, bingka ubi, pulut udang, kuih koci, huat kuih, and many more!.
It is usually sold by the vendors, and now in restaurants.
The full explanation can be found in the video.
Here is the recipe.
AngKoo
Equipment
- Steamer
- Angkoo mould
Ingredients
Filling
- 150 g Split mung beans washed, soaked overnight and drained
- 1 Pandan leaf
- 2 tbsp Oil
- 150g Sugar
Skin
- A few drops Food colour ( orange red, or other)
- 150 ml Water
- 200 g Glutinous rice flour
- 75 g Orange sweet potato peeled, steamed and mashed
- 2 tbsp Sugar
- 1 tbsp Oil
- 1 Banana leaf
- 1 tbsp Extra Glutinous rice for dusting
- 2 tbsp oil for greasing
Instructions
Filling
- Steam the beans and pandan leaf for about 20 minutes or until soft.
- Combine the steamed beans, sugar and oil in a pan or wok and stir continuously until it becomes thick, and comes around as a dough and does not stick to your hands.
- Leave to cool.
Skin Dough
- Steam the sweet potato until it is soft.
- Mix the sweet potato with the flour, and the rest of the ingredients, adding the water gradually (if you are using only one colour add the colour to the water). I use half plain and half red/pink.
- Mix until you get a smooth dough. Add extra water if necessary.
- Divide into 2 portions and colour one portion red/ pink.
- Divide the skin dough into 16g and roll into balls.
- Cover with a damp cloth to keep moist.
- Divide the filling into 16g as well and roll into balls
Banana leaf
- Cut the banana leaf about the size of the mould and oil it lightly
To Make the Kuih
- Flatten a skin dough and place a piece of filling on it.
- Fold up the dough to cover the filling and roll into a ball again.
- Dip the ball into the extra glutinous rice flour, covering all the surface.
- Place the ball in the mould and gently press down.
- Gently knock out the Angkoo and place over a greased banana leaf.
- Repeat until all the balls are used up. They may be extra skin dough.
- Place the Angkoo in a steamer and steam over medium heat for 8 minutes.
- Depressurise by opening the steamer lid after 5 minutes. Then steam for another 3 minutes.
- Remove and cool.
- Trim off the excess banana leave fromthe Angkoo.
- Serve and enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Do not over steam it as it will go flat
- Make sure the filling is firm so that it keeps its shape.
