The recipe for this kueh looked simply enough. The ingredients required are quite easily available, not just from the supermarket, but also at home. I had almost all of them available on hand, except for the glutinous rice. Well, that is not a problem, I'll just have to buy it and all will be ready to make this kueh that I loved very much as a child.
I think someone up there has no intention to make my first attempt at Kueh Serimuka easy: I could not get hold of glutinous rice after two visits over three days to two supermarkets. They were out of stock. I entertained the idea that the whole of Singapore might be attempting Kueh Serimuka at the same time. But I know I am just being ridiculous. I know this whitish grain is always available every time I visit my frequent supermarket haunts, each time having no needs for them. But now I need these frantically, but alas, these grains have decided to test my tenacity. It was not until I went to the wet market with my girl that I remembered the existence of dried food grocers there. Determined to make this kueh, I asked "Uncle" if he has glutinous rice by any chance. Yes he did! And it is sold in a very user-friendly amount of 1kg packaging. Yippeee!!! I think my girl is my lucky-charm.
Finally, armed with my prize, I made a final check on the list of ingredients required. Thick coconut milk: Check; pandan leaves: Check; cornflour: Check; plain flour: Check; glutinous rice: Double check! And so, my Kueh Serimuka journey begins.
Two nights before I attempted this kueh, I was busy sorting my glutinous rice. Sorting? That is correct. Sort out those normal long grain non-sticky rice from the glutinous sort. I know there are those ready sorted glutinous rice, but remember, luck had not been with me from the start. I am just glad that I can sort out the rice. Anyway, this rice sorting activity reminded me of those times when Mum would make me do so. Not for this kueh, but for those glutinous rice dumpling cooked in alkaline water (碱水粽). I hated this process, but I could never escape it; and I like the dumpling dipped with kaya jam. Mum would be making these for relatives, and I would be the one sorting two or three kilograms of these grains. Perhaps it was more, I cannot remember now, only the exhaustion caused by straining the eyes to differentiate transparent looking rice from whitish looking ones remained etched in my memory. Now, I am just glad that only 400g is required. The girl helped; she is getting more and more interested in such kitchen activities.
One night before my attempt, I was in the kitchen pounding the life and juice out of two large bunch of pandan leaves. The recipe required 150ml of pandan juice. I was very much tempted to just pound a couple of leaves, extract one or two tablespoons for the green hue and top the rest of the amount with water plus a touch of pandan essence. "Hey! That's cheating!" my conscience yelled at me. Okay, I surrender. I will dutifully extract 150ml of pandan juice.
Pound, pound, pound, I did for 30 minutes in the kitchen (or was it longer?), using my mini set of mortar and pestle. Intermission came in the form of encouragement from my girl, "How's it going Mummy? Every thing coming along fine?" she asked. "It smells great Mummy. I think it will taste good too!" she consoled me.
"Yes dear. Everything's going okay." I replied as calmly as I can manage. But in a dark corner of my mind, expletives are plentiful. The pandan juice is making my hands itch, it is splashing all over the place coloring things green far and wide, and the liquid is not accumulating fast enough! But if you think it's gotten me, think again. This Mum's making that kueh, by hook or by crook!
Perseverance, an advice my form teacher gave me as a parting gift in my autograph book when I left my primary school. I'll always remember it, and I did this time. 30 minutes later (I am pretty sure it was longer), with lots of washing to clear the itch and wiping to prevent my kitchen wall near the wash basin from turning into some extract art piece, I've got my 150ml of pandan juice.
The day to put all the ingredients together finally arrived. It did not start well. Sent the Tiny Man to school only to be denied entry. The cause? Suspected hand foot and mouth disease. Tiny Man's in K2 and there was a reported case one or two days ago. I didn't think he would contract it again. He should have developed some form of immunity after being hit twice before, but alas, his body seemed to welcome the bacteria with open arms. It is a suspected case, there are only 2 red dots on the back of his throat. No fever, runny nose, diarrhea, vomiting or any other symptoms associated with HFMD. But to be safe, we visited the family doctor. Take lots of water, rest at home, don't touch anyone, don't kiss Mummy, don't kiss anybody. Those were the doctor's order. Okay, there goes my plan to have a quiet day to work on my Kueh Serimuka. Never mind, I can handle this: try out a new recipe and entertain two kids at home. The girl is at home too, school's out for PSLE marking. At least, the two of them have each other for company. That means they will not bother me, I hope.
I followed the recipe and steps faithfully. It all went well until the part when I have to heat the mixture for the top layer over low heat to thicken it. The top layer is a mixture of plain flour, corn flour, sugar and eggs, my precious 150ml of pandan juice and thick coconut milk. Before applying heat, it was a little runny but very smooth. I was practically smiling to myself the whole time I was stirring it while letting the glutinous rice steam. I wanted to take some pictures to remind myself of the consistency proper mixing would yield. Then I remembered that the SD card in my camera has limited capacity and that capacity has been breached the night before. The multi-tasking fiend in me reared its head. I thought that I could set up the computer and download the pictures quickly, while I set the pot of top layer mixture over extremely low heat to thicken with my girl stirring for me continuously. My girl was most willing to do so, and thus I left her to it. She understood that the stirring cannot stop. The computer was cooperative today, it started speedily. Camera connected, program to download running, click and the pictures travelled from camera to PC. "Another file with the same date is found, do you want to overwrite that file?" The program asked me. Of course not! Thus the distraction and I busied myself with correcting this duplicate.
"Mummy, are you done yet?" The girl reminded me that there is a pot of liquid bubbling away and she is the one stirring. "Almost, give me 1 minute." But it stretched to 3 minutes. By the time I rushed into the kitchen with a camera ready to make more visual documentation, it was too late. The pot of smooth mixture that is supposed to just thicken had started to solidify! There were lumps of almost cooked green kueh floating in thickened liquid which the heat had yet to conquer! I almost screamed at my poor girl. But I stopped myself. It was not her fault. The fault lies with me. Had I been more organized in getting my equipment ready, this would not have happened. But I was devastated. The glutinous rice had cooked beautifully. I am so close to completion. I was supposed to pour a smoothly thickened coconutey green top layer onto the glutinous rice, steam for another 20 minutes to solidify it and the whole experience would be completed! Why didn't my girl tell me that there were lumps forming!? No, it was not her fault. The fault lies with me and it is now up to me to decide how my Keuh Serimuka journey would end.
Should I just throw the pot of lumpy goo away and make a new set? There is this 150ml of green juice that I've got to prepare; the resulting itch is not comforting. The worse thing is, I haven't got anymore thick coconut cream left. I don't want to be dragging my possibly HFMD infected Tiny Man around. On the verge of desperate tears is an under-statement to describe my appearance and psychological well-being at that moment.
Perseverance, the advice rang in my ears again. Okay, the recipe did say that the thickened top layer mixture has to be strained. Right, I'll strain it. I'll strain it and cross all my fingers and toes that the lumps would pass through the sieve obediently. Since I could post a completed kueh serimuka at the top, yes, most of the lumps surrendered to my relentless pushing against the sieve.
80%. 8 out of 10 lumps got through. I managed to salvage about 80% of that disastrous pot of mixture. I scraped the thick liquid onto the square tray of glutinous rice and tried my very best to smooth it. The liquid has an opinion of its own and will not concede to my wish. The tray was returned to my wok-steamer, adorned with a rough bumpy surface. 20 minutes did not smooth out its bumpy face, neither did cooling.
All these I have psycho-ed myself to accept. But what about the taste and the side view? Was the top layer too thin since I've lost 20%? Here's the pictorial verdict.
The glutinous rice layer was adequately salted complete with a smooth yet not oily coconutey flavor. It did not flake but offered a firm bounce against my teeth as I sink them into my kueh. The tip about compressing the rice firmly really does work.
My gratitude to my primary school form teacher. Perseverance. The top layer turned out just fine. Smooth and soft, not those chewy type that some kueh serimuka come with. I like the texture, it has some resemblance to thick kaya jam. Even losing 20% did not interfere too much on the overall balance of bottom rice layer and top green layer.
My gratitude to my girl. For giving me the chance to learn self-control, to be reminded that multi-tasking is not a virtue sometimes, and for showing me that she can carry out my instructions diligently (I did not tell her to inform me immediately if she sees the top layer mixture change its appearance). She is the perfect helper and she is now playing with the possibly HFMD infected Tiny Man. Tiny Man is still perfectly well, still showing no signs of HFMD related symptoms.
Kueh Serimuka
(Recipe from 怎么做必学热门粿与糕点, my notes in blue)
Ingredients A (Base layer)
400g glutinous rice
200ml thick coconut milk
1 tsp salt
3 pieces pandan leaves
1 piece banana leaf (I omitted)
Ingredients B (Top layer)
150ml pandan leaf juice
70g corn flour
50g plain flour
4 eggs
300ml thick coconut milk
200g sugar (I reduced to 150g, caster sugar)
Method
To prepare the base layer
1. Rinse glutinous rice and soak for about 2 hours. Do not soak more than 2 hours as the rice will break easily. For me, I love to see each distinctive grain of glutinous rice in my kueh serimuka.
2. Drain and add in the salt and mix well.
3. Boil water in the steamer. I didn't have a proper steamer, so I boiled water in my all purpose wok with my handy steel stand in it. I placed the glutinous rice in a large tray, spreading the rice out thinly so that it can cook evenly.
4. Place glutinous rice in, add pandan leaves, and steam over HIGH heat for about 20 minutes.
5. After 20 minutes of steaming, slowly add in coconut milk and mix well. I added the coconut milk in two batches. After each addition, I fluffed the glutinous rice with forks to coat each grain with coconut milk as evenly as I can get. Fluffing the glutinous rice with forks prevents each grain from breaking; at least this is what I discovered in this exercise. Addition of coconut milk and fluffing took place with the tray of glutinous rice still keeping warm over the boiling wok of water.
6. Continue to steam the glutinous rice until cooked (about 10 minutes). To check if the glutinous rice is cooked, take one grain and press it with fingers. If it breaks easily and the center of the grain is clear with no white particles, it is cooked. Another method is to just pop one or two grains into mouth and taste it, if it is not gritty, it is cooked.
7. Remove from the steamer and loosen the glutinous rice. Place glutinous rice in a square steaming tray. Transferred mine into a 9" square cake tray.
8. Use banana leaf to compress the glutinous. Using banana leaf to do so is supposed to give it added fragrance and at the same time doing away with glutinous rice sticking to any utensils used for compressing. I didn't have any banana leaves. I simply used a large plastic spoon, those that came with my rice cooker and pressed away. There wasn't any sticking. At the end, I pressed the glutinous rice down firmly with my palm.
9. Continue to steam for another 5 minutes.
To prepare the top layer
Method
1. Sift corn flour and plain flour together.
2. Beat eggs and sugar together lightly.
3. Add thick coconut milk, beaten eggs and pandan leaf juice to flour and mix well.
4. Cook mixture over low heat till it turns thick. Remember, over low heat, watch over it, do not take your eyes away, not even for 1 minute (this has a danger of stretching and you'll regret it). It thickens faster than you can imagine.
5. Strain the mixture.
Completion
Pour the mixture over glutinous rice. Steam over MEDIUM heat for about 20 minutes, till the top layer solidifies. Set aside to cool and cut into pieces before serving.
I feel pretty shy about this but anyhow, here goes. I am submitting this Kueh Serimuka to Aspiring Bakers #12: Traditional Kueh (October 2011), hosted by Small Small Baker.
The day to put all the ingredients together finally arrived. It did not start well. Sent the Tiny Man to school only to be denied entry. The cause? Suspected hand foot and mouth disease. Tiny Man's in K2 and there was a reported case one or two days ago. I didn't think he would contract it again. He should have developed some form of immunity after being hit twice before, but alas, his body seemed to welcome the bacteria with open arms. It is a suspected case, there are only 2 red dots on the back of his throat. No fever, runny nose, diarrhea, vomiting or any other symptoms associated with HFMD. But to be safe, we visited the family doctor. Take lots of water, rest at home, don't touch anyone, don't kiss Mummy, don't kiss anybody. Those were the doctor's order. Okay, there goes my plan to have a quiet day to work on my Kueh Serimuka. Never mind, I can handle this: try out a new recipe and entertain two kids at home. The girl is at home too, school's out for PSLE marking. At least, the two of them have each other for company. That means they will not bother me, I hope.
I followed the recipe and steps faithfully. It all went well until the part when I have to heat the mixture for the top layer over low heat to thicken it. The top layer is a mixture of plain flour, corn flour, sugar and eggs, my precious 150ml of pandan juice and thick coconut milk. Before applying heat, it was a little runny but very smooth. I was practically smiling to myself the whole time I was stirring it while letting the glutinous rice steam. I wanted to take some pictures to remind myself of the consistency proper mixing would yield. Then I remembered that the SD card in my camera has limited capacity and that capacity has been breached the night before. The multi-tasking fiend in me reared its head. I thought that I could set up the computer and download the pictures quickly, while I set the pot of top layer mixture over extremely low heat to thicken with my girl stirring for me continuously. My girl was most willing to do so, and thus I left her to it. She understood that the stirring cannot stop. The computer was cooperative today, it started speedily. Camera connected, program to download running, click and the pictures travelled from camera to PC. "Another file with the same date is found, do you want to overwrite that file?" The program asked me. Of course not! Thus the distraction and I busied myself with correcting this duplicate.
"Mummy, are you done yet?" The girl reminded me that there is a pot of liquid bubbling away and she is the one stirring. "Almost, give me 1 minute." But it stretched to 3 minutes. By the time I rushed into the kitchen with a camera ready to make more visual documentation, it was too late. The pot of smooth mixture that is supposed to just thicken had started to solidify! There were lumps of almost cooked green kueh floating in thickened liquid which the heat had yet to conquer! I almost screamed at my poor girl. But I stopped myself. It was not her fault. The fault lies with me. Had I been more organized in getting my equipment ready, this would not have happened. But I was devastated. The glutinous rice had cooked beautifully. I am so close to completion. I was supposed to pour a smoothly thickened coconutey green top layer onto the glutinous rice, steam for another 20 minutes to solidify it and the whole experience would be completed! Why didn't my girl tell me that there were lumps forming!? No, it was not her fault. The fault lies with me and it is now up to me to decide how my Keuh Serimuka journey would end.
Should I just throw the pot of lumpy goo away and make a new set? There is this 150ml of green juice that I've got to prepare; the resulting itch is not comforting. The worse thing is, I haven't got anymore thick coconut cream left. I don't want to be dragging my possibly HFMD infected Tiny Man around. On the verge of desperate tears is an under-statement to describe my appearance and psychological well-being at that moment.
Perseverance, the advice rang in my ears again. Okay, the recipe did say that the thickened top layer mixture has to be strained. Right, I'll strain it. I'll strain it and cross all my fingers and toes that the lumps would pass through the sieve obediently. Since I could post a completed kueh serimuka at the top, yes, most of the lumps surrendered to my relentless pushing against the sieve.
 |
| The aftermath... |
80%. 8 out of 10 lumps got through. I managed to salvage about 80% of that disastrous pot of mixture. I scraped the thick liquid onto the square tray of glutinous rice and tried my very best to smooth it. The liquid has an opinion of its own and will not concede to my wish. The tray was returned to my wok-steamer, adorned with a rough bumpy surface. 20 minutes did not smooth out its bumpy face, neither did cooling.
 |
| Bumpy surface that refused to smooth out. |
All these I have psycho-ed myself to accept. But what about the taste and the side view? Was the top layer too thin since I've lost 20%? Here's the pictorial verdict.
The glutinous rice layer was adequately salted complete with a smooth yet not oily coconutey flavor. It did not flake but offered a firm bounce against my teeth as I sink them into my kueh. The tip about compressing the rice firmly really does work.
My gratitude to my primary school form teacher. Perseverance. The top layer turned out just fine. Smooth and soft, not those chewy type that some kueh serimuka come with. I like the texture, it has some resemblance to thick kaya jam. Even losing 20% did not interfere too much on the overall balance of bottom rice layer and top green layer.
My gratitude to my girl. For giving me the chance to learn self-control, to be reminded that multi-tasking is not a virtue sometimes, and for showing me that she can carry out my instructions diligently (I did not tell her to inform me immediately if she sees the top layer mixture change its appearance). She is the perfect helper and she is now playing with the possibly HFMD infected Tiny Man. Tiny Man is still perfectly well, still showing no signs of HFMD related symptoms.
(Recipe from 怎么做必学热门粿与糕点, my notes in blue)
Ingredients A (Base layer)
400g glutinous rice
200ml thick coconut milk
1 tsp salt
3 pieces pandan leaves
1 piece banana leaf (I omitted)
Ingredients B (Top layer)
150ml pandan leaf juice
70g corn flour
50g plain flour
4 eggs
300ml thick coconut milk
200g sugar (I reduced to 150g, caster sugar)
Method
To prepare the base layer
1. Rinse glutinous rice and soak for about 2 hours. Do not soak more than 2 hours as the rice will break easily. For me, I love to see each distinctive grain of glutinous rice in my kueh serimuka.
2. Drain and add in the salt and mix well.
3. Boil water in the steamer. I didn't have a proper steamer, so I boiled water in my all purpose wok with my handy steel stand in it. I placed the glutinous rice in a large tray, spreading the rice out thinly so that it can cook evenly.
 |
| This is how my steel stand looks like |
5. After 20 minutes of steaming, slowly add in coconut milk and mix well. I added the coconut milk in two batches. After each addition, I fluffed the glutinous rice with forks to coat each grain with coconut milk as evenly as I can get. Fluffing the glutinous rice with forks prevents each grain from breaking; at least this is what I discovered in this exercise. Addition of coconut milk and fluffing took place with the tray of glutinous rice still keeping warm over the boiling wok of water.
6. Continue to steam the glutinous rice until cooked (about 10 minutes). To check if the glutinous rice is cooked, take one grain and press it with fingers. If it breaks easily and the center of the grain is clear with no white particles, it is cooked. Another method is to just pop one or two grains into mouth and taste it, if it is not gritty, it is cooked.
7. Remove from the steamer and loosen the glutinous rice. Place glutinous rice in a square steaming tray. Transferred mine into a 9" square cake tray.
8. Use banana leaf to compress the glutinous. Using banana leaf to do so is supposed to give it added fragrance and at the same time doing away with glutinous rice sticking to any utensils used for compressing. I didn't have any banana leaves. I simply used a large plastic spoon, those that came with my rice cooker and pressed away. There wasn't any sticking. At the end, I pressed the glutinous rice down firmly with my palm.
To prepare the top layer
Method
1. Sift corn flour and plain flour together.
2. Beat eggs and sugar together lightly.
3. Add thick coconut milk, beaten eggs and pandan leaf juice to flour and mix well.
4. Cook mixture over low heat till it turns thick. Remember, over low heat, watch over it, do not take your eyes away, not even for 1 minute (this has a danger of stretching and you'll regret it). It thickens faster than you can imagine.
5. Strain the mixture.
Completion
Pour the mixture over glutinous rice. Steam over MEDIUM heat for about 20 minutes, till the top layer solidifies. Set aside to cool and cut into pieces before serving.
I feel pretty shy about this but anyhow, here goes. I am submitting this Kueh Serimuka to Aspiring Bakers #12: Traditional Kueh (October 2011), hosted by Small Small Baker.
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