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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Apam Beras Eno , Fatt Koh???? 果子盐米发糕


So, whatcha gonna do with those leftover starter(fermented rice) and kuih starter dough from Aunty Yochana’s Pak Thong Koh? Make them into apam beras eno.

Do you believe that I only knew these were also called Fatt Koh after I made them. My MIL took a bite and said, eh this is Fatt Koh la. I scratched my head, but these were made with rice flour .. are these Fatt Koh? She said, yup, some Fatt Kohs are made with rice flour. To me, fatt kohs are made with wheat flour, not rice flour.. I’m still scratching my head now.

Fatt Kohs are something that is not common at my home. Actually never found at home at all. I only ate this once when I was a kid at my maternal uncle’s house. They bought lots of it for my maternal grandpa’s funeral. They looked really lovely in pastel pink and yellow. One bite and I wanted to puke it out, so yucky and dry. I thought all fatt kohs are like that. So it never came to mind that the wonderful soft rice cakes that I always buy from Malay kuih hawkers are in actual fact, fatt koh.

Apam Beras Eno is very popular among our Malay friends. During my uni days, there was this pakcik(uncle in Malay) that sells lovely apam beras at the night market in Serdang. I love it with lots of shredded coconut. The smile effect was not emphasized by the Malays, only the Chinese likes it to smile smile smile. Actually I like this roundly bald, like those sold by the pakcik, as long as it is moist, soft and fluffy.

I found this site to have the type of apam I’m looking for.
Although the original recipe called for only fermented rice, I put in the kuih starter dough as well, which consist of rice flour and some starter, already fermented. Why waste it right?
But priority will be the fermented rice. If you have 80gm leftover, then bulk up with 20gm of kuih starter dough. I f you have only 60gm of fermented rice left, then bulk up with 40gm of the kuih starter dough. If you did not make Aunty Yochana’s Pak Thong Koh, but want to try only this, follow the instructions in my last Pak Thong Koh recipe to make the fermented rice.

I only did half the portion, because I only have 125gm of both starters left. And I did get quite a lot..

So, here goes.

Ingredients
100gm of fermented rice +kuih starter dough (all leftovers from making Pak Tong Gou)
125gm rice flour
50gm sugar (this amount is just nice, just sweet enough for it not to be bland)
175gm water
1/2 tsp plain Eno (blue packing)
Some food colouring (the colour intensifies with the steaming, so make it few shades lighter than what u hope it to be, mine became too pink)

Method:
1. Blitz everything together except the Eno and food colouring in the blender.
2. Pour into a bowl (should be less than 40% full, so make sure the bowl is big) and let it ferment for 3-4 hours.
3. Grease the steaming cups with some oil.
4. Prepare your steamer, put in water and let it come to a boil.
5. While waiting, mix Eno into batter and stir (it’ll look like a chiffon cake batter now). Divide them into 2 or 3 bowls and add preferred food colouring.
6. Pour batter into greased cups until 95% full (1 or 2 mm from the rim) and steam on high heat for 10 minutes.
7. Let the cakes cool down and remove from cups. Serve with some fresh shredded coconut.


Reviews from some tasters:
1. Bouncy, QQ
2. Doesn’t stick to the teeth
3. Yummy
4. Very soft and fluffy


What I find from using different molds
1. Greased aluminium mini tart tins – very soft and fluffy, actually the fluffiest, but, almost no smiles.


2. Lined aluminium mini tart tins – the apams smiled and are very soft and fluffy


3. Silicon mould- Bundt shape- Smiled, soft and fluffy but as good as those in aluminium tart tins.






4. Silicon mould-Heart shaped based with a greater height than width- smiled the widest and had the densest texture, still soft and fluffy, but is the densest of all.


After I did this, I did some reading on the net, and found that indeed to have nice smiles, u need to steam the cakes in a cup that has greater height than width. Truly that happened to my heart shaped silicon moulds. So, up to you.. what do u want? Bald or smiling? Actually I don’t really care, I just want it to be soft and fluffy.

This recipe is a real keeper. I will use this recipe the next time I crave for some good apam beras.

32 comments:

  1. 1st time i heard of using Eno to make kuih, how does it taste like?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, you're using the mini size cup for this. Quite big batch! Can you finish them? But I think the children will love them. My kids love them.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kristy,
    Yeah, I used mini cups to make this. Just like those malay vendors. They make it one bite one kuih

    ReplyDelete
  4. Manglish,
    They taste very soft, and no Enoey taste la. The Eno is for making it rise high and mighty

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice beautifull cute fatt kuih! Very colourful.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I would so much like to make this fatt goh...but I am too lazy to make the fermented rice, hahaha. Nice and colorful goh!

    ReplyDelete
  7. HBS,
    Haha, I don't understand how can leaving the rice in the cupboard for 2 days be tedious.
    Please try this out :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. SO glad I found this, they're so pretty and very much like puto!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Good morning Wendy,
    Thanks for your note in my blog. I enjoy reading your very detail write-up on your experiments. No wonder the bolu I made last time rose sky high (used a tall mould). I almost given up making apam after few trials with freckles but may be will try your recipe next time.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Momgateway,
    Thanks :)
    I think the major difference is that puto uses eggs, and this doesn't

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow! Those are very gorgeous fatt koh! I love the big smiles atop! Great job!

    I found you through some friends who are also bloggers! Glad that I did! Your blog is such a gem, especially in Malaysia where many food blogs are just dedicated to eating out! I think that's a sad thing! Nice to see another fellow Malaysian who share similar passion! Keep it up! Will be back for more!

    ReplyDelete
  12. PeiLin,
    Thanks for dropping by.
    Actually there are many Malaysian bloggers who blog about baking or cooking, just that most of them are rather shy and rarely made themselves known by leaving comments.

    Hope to see you again.

    ReplyDelete
  13. We have something similar as a Vietnamese dessert. I love them...bite size and flavorful. Hmmm yummy!

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  14. CVmom,
    Yeah, I think this is pretty much common in Asia, especially where ever there are Chinese cuisine influences.

    ReplyDelete
  15. In my country we call this "puto" and I've been seraching for a reliable recipe for ages. Would just like to ask how to make fermented rice and kuih starter dough? I can't wait to try your recipe! Thank you so much :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anne,
    You can follow the instructions in my 3rd White Honeycomb Cake recipe. The intructions are much clearer here.
    Just make 100gm rice with half Tbsp of the wine yeast, mix it with 1 Tbsp water and 1 tsp sugar. Mix mix and let it ferment for 2 days.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I really like this apam...if could eat with brown sugar / coconut slice...yummy...From Patricia

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  18. where can i buy the ENO? Does asian market have the ENO? And where can i find it at the asian market?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous,
    Try to get it from the pharmacy.
    It's not an Asian product, but from a British pharmaceutical company. It is a antacid and digestive salt. It's the fizzling effect that is used here.

    ReplyDelete
  20. This is great recipe!
    I actually cannot find eno so I used 1 1/2 teaspoon double acting baking powder. They smiled very nice, fluffy, not too moist or too dry, just right.

    Oh and to the conversation I read about puto above...
    Real puto, as in traditional puto makes no use of eggs, it is simply fermented rice batter, slightly sweetened and make into fluffy yet chewy rice cakes.
    Ones that use eggs or wheat flour are modern versions that don't compare to the rice one haha.

    Thanks for the great recipes! I love the one for bak tong go as well, tastes like the one I get from Chinatown.

    ReplyDelete
  21. What is 100g of Fermented rice + kuih starter dough? Is it 50g of each or 100g of each?

    Jean Ho

    ReplyDelete
  22. Jean Ho,
    As said in the first sentence of this post,
    this recipe was made up to use up the leftovers of starters from the Pak Tong Koh Version 3.
    Like I said in the last paragraph before the recipe, if you want to make it from scratch, then make the starter (rice and yeast), as seen in the PTK recipe, use that only
    The link is in the first sentence of this post.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Oh i c, sorry huh never read finish the last paragraph b/4 asking you. Just finished reading. Now understand already. Thank you.

    Jean Ho

    ReplyDelete
  24. Jean Ho,
    Hope ur fatt gou will fatt fatt fatt.
    Happy Ching Ming :)

    ReplyDelete
  25. Hi,

    For the fermented rice, can I pre-prepare it 1 week in advance and keep in the fridge?

    Meliza

    ReplyDelete
  26. Meliza,
    Frankly I'm not sure.
    The longest I've ever kept is 4 days

    ReplyDelete
  27. Halo Wendy,
    Yesterday,I tried this recipe too, it was awesome, it turned out so beautifully. Color just right and the 'smile' is so beautiful. Everyone say it's so good. Thanks Wendy for sharing this recipe.
    This is Oi Ling.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Redirected comment from Oni

    hi wendy,
    your blog is an excellent source of asian food recipe. thank you for sharing them to us. i saw your post on "apam beras eno" and i would like to try making it. i live in new zealand now and i'm not sure where to find eno powder and fermented wine yeast. is there any substitute for these two ingredients that you can recommend? thanks a lot!
    =) oni


    Oni,
    Eno is produced by an international company. It should be available there. You can get wine yeast at Chinese grocers or Chinese herbal stores.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Oi Ling,
    Glad it was well recieved :)

    ReplyDelete
  30. Hi Wendy. I tried making your recipe today. Since I had no starter dough, I put in 1 teaspoon dry yeast. It came out fine. Tq. I linked your blog to mine. www.fauziahsamad.com

    ReplyDelete
  31. Nice cake
    Thanks for the recipe
    i will try to make it :D

    ReplyDelete

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