And for dessert…

Homemade muah chee which is surprisingly quite easy to make.

Using the four ingredients theme:

Dough = a cup of glutinous rice flour + 3-4 tablespoons of water

Add water bit by bit until a the mixture becomes doughy. You can add a bit of sesame oil to make it easier to handle. Form the dough into balls and drop them into a rapidly boiling put of water. The dough will rise to the surface when it is cooked. The other alternative is to steam it.

Peanut coating = half a cup of peanuts + a quarter cup of sugar

Toast peanuts for 10-15 minutes in the oven, the blitz it up if a food processor with the sugar.

Use scissors to snip the dough up into small pieces and coat with the peanut and sugar mixture. Hubby was totally enraptured with this.

I had quite a bit of peanut mixture left over, so for breakfast the next day, I tried my hand at making apam balik… those yummy peanut pancakes found at the pasar malam or snack stalls in Malaysia/Singapore.

I was debating whether to make the crispy version or the spongy version of the pancake. Hubby said he always preferred the latter, so spongy version it is.

Again, pretty simple to make. This is the recipe I used:

• Whisk one egg with two tablespoons of sugar. Add one cup of milk and a teaspoon of vanilla essence.
• Sift one cup of self raising flour with ¼ teaspoon baking soda and add to wet mixture.
• Cook batter in a non-stick pan on low heat. When pancake starts to bubble a little bit, add a few knobs of butter, then sprinkle peanut and sugar mixture on top.
• Fold over pancake and cool for a couple of minutes on a rack. Slice into quarters and serve.

I found other recipes which called for alkaline water to be included in the mix. I think this would have made the texture of the pancake more kueh like. But for a quick fix which still resembles the taste closely, I found this recipe alright.

If you’re wondering what Mishu was doing in the midst of all this culinary experimentation…

Here he is, waiting patiently for his meal.