The Fried Stuff

My journey in the kitchen continues with adventures in making local kuehs.

While the previous creations have been mainly steamed stuff (发糕, 水淉 and 小龙包), my recent Singapore local kuehs required deep frying. Now, I usually try to avoid frying stuff, firstly because of the huge amount of oil needed which leads to the second reason that they're not so healthy. But there's no denying the fried crispy texture makes them extra tasty and appetising.

So I made recent exceptions by frying Kueh Kodok (Deep Fried Banana Balls) and Sesame Balls (煎堆), comforting myself it will be less sinful since I use 100% cholestrol free canola oil. In fact, both these kuehs uses healthy vegetarian ingredients. Kueh Kodok uses bananas and the Sesame Balls uses sweet potatoes and red beans. So oily-ness aside, we are consuming a good amount of fibre as well.

Kueh Kodoks

I love Kueh Kodoks. I remembered at my old work place, the Malay stall at the canteen would make these every afternoon about 3pm for tea. I will go downstairs to grab 3 for $1. The ones I made tasted quite similar, except it would be even better if I had waited a few more days for the bananas to get more ripe and sweet.

煎堆

I also love Sesame Balls and would always buy one or two when I pass by those Yum Cha (Dim Sum) restaurants. They usually cost about A$1.50 each. I like the crispy and chewy texture of sesame seed coated skin. The Sesame Balls I made turned out not too bad. I used red bean paste for the filling and it was nice too. However, next time, I'll increase the amount of glutinous rice flour to make the skin more chewy. I find mine not chewy enough compared to those sold outside as there was more sweet potatoes than flour.

Red Bean paste filling

Unfortunately, KK does not seem to like both the Kueh Kodoks nor the Sesame Balls. It has never been easy to get KK interested in food in general, and even more difficult to get him to try NEW food. To his credit, he is getting better now but there are still many food that he turns his nose up to. As a food-lover, I cannot understand this inhibition and can only shake my head and say "You don't know what you are missing, boy ." Luckily, I still have XX , who is more 'normal' and loves to eat (like me), to appreciate and help finish my kuehs.