Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Cek Mek Molek - Kelantan Dish 9


Sweet potato or Ubi Keledek, in Malay, is a very versatile tuber. The shoots and tuber can be eaten as a vegetable and also be used in sweet and savory dishes. There are a few types of sweet potatoes here and the most common ones are the orange and the light yellow ones. We do get the purple variety here but they are very expensive. It cost around $2.00 a pound. I actually like the orange kind as they are much sweeter but it is not good for making kuih like this. It has way too much water content in it so I will usually add some light yellow variety to it.

Cek Mek Molek (which means "Beautiful Lady") is a traditional Kelantan Kuih and is very similar to Kuih Keria except that this kuih has the sugar on the inside instead of the sugar coating on the outside. I understand you can find savory cek mek molek too in Kelantan where they put serunding daging it. This is the first time I am making this kuih and I just made a few as Carlos is not a fan of sweet potato. As for the recipe it is just estimation as different sweet potato will yield different results.


Ingredients:

1 cup mashed sweet potato
½ cup flour (amount depend on the sweet potato you use)
¼ tsp salt
Some sugar
Oil for frying


1. Add the flour and salt to the mashed the cold mashed sweet potato. Mix until it forms into a pliable dough. You might need a bit more than ½ cup of flour.
2. Take a small portion of the dough about the size of a ping pong ball and flatten it. Put 1/2 tsp of sugar in the middle and fold the dough to cover up the sugar and form it into a long oval shape.
3. Heat up some oil, deep fry until golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.


Note: Make sure your mashed sweet potato is completely cool down before you form into the dough. This is to prevent the sugar filling from melting and it will be difficult for you to fry it later on.
 
I am submitting this post to Malaysian Food Fest, Kelantan Month hosted by My Kitchen Snippets.

4 comments:

Shereen said...

Gert,
Your Cek Meks are way more beautiful than mine.. Lol!!! Also I prefer kuih Keria than these Cek Meks anytime of the day... no offence to the Kelantan's folks:))

Unknown said...

wah cni pun ada cek mek molek la..mesti best

PH said...

I love sweet potatoes and prefer them plain. I have never eaten Cek Mek Molek but I can imagine how it would taste. I would prefer it without the sugar filling :)

ICook4Fun said...

Shereen, I thought it look bad and kind soft to handle and way too thick. I prefer kuih keria too :)

Norzila, molek kan :)

Phong Hong, then you would love the fried sweet potato ball. Kosong on the inside :)