Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Ang Ku Kueh Experience

One fine Sunday morning, I went over to Grandaunt's house. I had been enlisted to help Grandaunt aka Yipo out with her making of Ang Ku Kueh. Honestly, I don't know how I can be of any help. Remember that time in July? Totally kitchen disaster for me. They have impeccable cooking skills.

Before I start helping, I reminded Yipo of this small fact - My skill is super amateur. She assured me that there is no problem.

I started by helping her to rub oil on the cut-up banana leaves and pandan leaves. Then I moved on to help with ... making little balls of green bean fillings... arranging freshly stamped Ang Ku Kuehs on the table... Rubbing cooking oil on the hot steaming Ang Ku Kuehs... Cutting the Ang Ku Kuehs' banana leaf base to nice round shapes... Putting Ang Ku Kuehs into the steamer.



Yipo was right. I wasn't a disaster. I actually can help. Hehe...
Yipo not only made Ang Ku Kuehs in the traditional shape but also in the form of baby mandarin oranges. A lot of work is put into these little delightful and mouthful mandarin oranges. So much work and so easy to eat them all. Due to the amount of work involved, Yipo doesn't make these babies often. It is only for super special occasion. So, don't bother to ask her to make them.


Then, we also made the old money-shaped Ang Ku Kuehs. It made in the same way as the normal Ang Ku Kuehs - also using the mold. The baby mandarin oranges is totally molded using hands, not using mold. By the way, all the materials are actually the same for the traditional Ang Ku Kuehs, the old money-style Ang Ku Kuehs and the baby mandarins.

It was a great experience. Aunty Leng said that it will takes 50 years of experience to reach Yipo's level. So... If I want to be as good as Yipo, I think I have a better chance of dying first. Haha... And, I have a new love for Ang Ku Kuehs. Yum yum~

p/s: I only had one piece of the old money-shaped Ang Ku Kueh from this whole experience. The rest I didn't have the chance to taste. :p

3 comments:

Sherp said...

the first time i saw the baby mandarins in fb, i thought they were jelly! eeee i really want to eat. they look so mouth-watering!

LX said...

Wow, they don't look like ang ku kueh at all!

g0hy|3 said...

Only the one in traditional Ang Ku Kueh shape is called Ang Ku Kueh. The rest is called in some other name. But the ingredients are all the same. :D