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.