Kueh: Asian Desserts 2 Workshop

Last Friday, I attended an Asian Kueh Demo Workshop by Chef Valerie Kong at Shermay's Cooking School. The recipes demo-ed are local favourites and certainly hubby's and mine too! So I was really keen to join the class.

4 recipes were demo-ed during the 3hr workshop with 2 bonus recipes included in the recipe pack.

• Rainbow Lapis - also known as 九层糕, probably due to the 9-layers of pretty colours in the kueh. Made with mainly tapioca, rice flour and coconut milk, not to be mistaken with the Indonesian Kueh Lapis.
• Onde Onde - small round balls of pandan-flavoured glutinous rice and sweet potato, coated in grated coconut, filled with melted gula melaka.
• Kueh Kochi - Pyramid-shaped gula melaka-flavoured coconut, encased in pandan-flavoured glutinous rice, wrapped in leaves and steamed.
• Kueh Koswee - Gula melaka-flavoured kueh made of glutinous rice, covered in grated coconut.
• Bonus recipes are mung bean filling for Kueh Kochi and Kueh Dardar.

Hubby loves Onde Onde! Me too :) I love how the sweet caramel flavour gula-melaka syrup bursts into my mouth each time I chew into a piece of the onde onde.

Each participant was given one piece of onde onde to try during class and everyone commented that one was not enough! Yep, the onde onde was addictive indeed, very bouncy, chewy and flavoursome with the tastes of coconut, gula melaka and fragrance of pandan. I like it that each ball was made very small so not a mouthful when popped into the mouth (no pun intended!).

We brought home two pieces of Onde Onde and hubby finished the two pieces all by himself, claiming that they were very nice! Looks like this recipe has gotten his stamp of approval, will KIV for making some when I have the time.

Actually I have never eaten Kueh Kochi before. But during the class, I learnt that the dough for Kueh Kochi is the same as that of the Onde Onde, just that one is boiled and the other steamed. The inti (means filling) demonstrated during class is grated coconut fried with gula melaka (which is same as the filling for Kueh Dardar). I thought the combination of the dough with the inti was a little heavy for me. Probably the mung bean filling might be better? Well, still not a fan of Kueh Kochi at this point.

Kueh Koswee is actually very easy to make. So far, I like the ones sold at Poison Ivy, Bollywood Veggies. Their version is softer texture, whereas Chef Valerie's is more bouncy and chewy which I now much prefer :)

Chef Valerie made the Kueh Koswee using mini chwee kueh moulds and they looked simply adorable. I like mini versions of kueh and cakes, easier to eat just pop one whole piece into the mouth and let the flavours fill our senses.

I'm sure most of us have this sweet childhood memory of peeling the soft and chewy rainbow lapis and eating them layer by layer. Sometimes, we even stick them on our tongues and pretend that we have extra long colourful tongues :p

Chef Valerie's version of Rainbow Lapis looks more poised and elegant with just three colours, white, green and red. The texture is also much softer and stronger in coconut taste, akin to the ones sold at Bengawan Solo. But I find the coconut taste a little too strong for my liking and the layers a little thin and soft, not easy to peel. Probably would reduce the amount of coconut milk when I attempt this recipe. And try adding more colours too :p

Now I have 3 more recipes to my to-do list. Uh-oh, too many recipes, too little time!