Chwee Kueh/Quar Ko Kueh/Steamed Rice Cake with Preserved Radish

We called this Quar Ko Kueh (in Hokkien) or Wun Chai Ko (in Cantonese) and it means small bowl cake, but some people called it Chwee Kueh (means water cake) you can read more about it here. This is a popular breakfast item in Malaysia and Singapore. The cakes itself are pretty bland, but with the sweet and salty topping it transformed the cake into a delectable morsel.

I remember during childhood we kids will wait for this old lady on her bicycle to come by late evening selling this. Beside this she sells the sweet version too. She will unmold the cake and passed it to us to put our own topping and we will put a lot of it. She will always scold us for putting way too much ha ha... For this kueh it is all about the topping. Those were the days. I really miss that.

Ingredients for the batter:

(A)
150 gram rice flour
4 tbsp tapioca flour
1 tbsp wheat starch
250 ml water

(B)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
360 ml water

Topping:

300 gram preserved radish (chye poh) – soak in water for a few hours
1/4 cup dried shrimps – soak in water until soft
6 shallots – sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic
2 red chilies – cut small

Seasonings:

2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
2-3 tbsp sugar (more if you preserved radish is too salty)
3/4 cup water

Prepare the topping first.

1. In a food processor, chopped up the preserved radish and set it aside. Do the same with the dried shrimps.
2. Heat up about 3-4 tbsp of oil, fried the shallots until golden brown, remove and set it aside.
3. In the same pan, stir fry garlic until fragrant. Add in the dried shrimps and chili. Stir fry until fragrant and add in the preserved radish. Stir fry for a few seconds and add in all the seasonings. Mix well and add in the water.
4. Simmer until almost dry (if you prefer more sauce you can add a bit more water) Add in the fried shallots and stir well. Check seasoning. Dish out and set it aside.

Prepare the rice cake:

1. Combined the ingredient (A) and mix well until no lumps. Bring (B) to a rapid boil.
2. Pour the boiling (B) into the (A) batter and mix well. Grease 7-8 rice bowl or aluminum molds with some oil.
3. Prepare the steamer and bring it up to a rapid boil. Put the bowls into the steamer and steam for 5 minutes. Pour the batter into the bowl and steam it over high heat for 20-25 minutes (depend on the size of your bowl)
4. Remove and let it cool down a bit. Unmold the kueh, top it with preserved radish and serve.

I am entering this post in the Muhibbah Malaysian Monday roundup, created and hosted by Sharon of Test with a Skewer and Suresh of 3 Hungry Tummies.