My Singaporean friend who now lives in California constantly talks about food back home, and home is Singapore. She loves her foods, and having lived there for more than five years, she discovers there are few precious foods which cannot be found anywhere in California or elsewhere in US.

One of the things she misses and hopes many Americans will discover is this exotic traditional sweet and savoury dessert group called Malay Kuih. Originating from Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, Malay kuih recipes were exported from the deep villages and brought to life and popularized now in big cities and hotels and restaurants.

Yet the art of making these kuihs is still elusive to many people, that goes for Asians as well. These gooey and delicious desserts are still not known to people in the US or Europe and it is such a pity such glorious foods are hidden from a population who loves desserts.

Most of us in Southeast Asia are familiar with western cakes, puddings and brownies and we often have a wide selection of desserts of east/west to choose from to satisfy our sweet tooth. If only our desserts are known in the west, more people will learn to make them and impress their family and friends. This also makes for a great and new potluck idea.

It is totally different from the western desserts and yet achieves similar gratification. The creative use of colours and fragrance from banana or pandan leaves make these kuihs distinctive and will stand out in a buffet crowd.

Unlike western desserts which use basic ingredients like butter, eggs, plain flour and castor sugar, the Malay kuihs use basic ingredients like flour made from tapioca, green beans, yam, sago and palm sugar and coconut milk. These are mostly steamed, sometimes wrapped in banana leaf. Steaming is not the only way to do it these days, as these kuihs emerge from the deep villages, new recipes have been created and baked instead of steamed.

Furthermore, western desserts are mostly sweet whilst these kuih recipes include savouries as well. This can be created from using tapioca flour and coconut milk and then topped with minced meat which has been sauted with spices and garnished with fried onions. These savouries are still called kuihs and yet many Asian eat them for breakfast or light lunch or for high teas. Basically there are no rules when it comes to eating traditional Malay kuihs.

These ingredients and method of baking were a result of circumstances where modern amenities were not available to them. So they resourcefully used materials like yam, tapioca or beans and made into flour. Steaming was done on stove using charcoals. Coconut milk was used to achieve rich and gooey results, just like westerners use butter or cheese. It is quite amazing what palm sugar can achieve in terms of taste and colour. And yet the result is equally comforting if not more.

There are more than 100 kuih recipes that are basically made from all these basic ingredients. Through creative use of colours and different combination of flours and use of coconut, these traditional Malay kuihs have certainly left some hearts broken when they leave home.

Click this link to get your free Malay kuih recipes and view the pictures and video.

One of my favourite hobbies is baking western and making Asian desserts and that is why I get frequent requests to make sweet or savoury goodies for a gathering or a function.

When I was learning about baking and making desserts, I dedicated a day in the week, when I was not working, to learn and to try different recipes. At the end of the year, I would have done 52 different new recipes, and usually at weekends I would drop in on some friends or relatives with these goodies.

It made me really happy to see their gratified faces when they tasted the goodies. The ones that usually get the top votes, are the Asian traditional Malay desserts which are probably still less known amongst foodies in US, Europe or Australia.

If you are a foodie and you can go weak with chocolates and cheesecake, you will want to know about these desserts which we call Malay kuihs. They originate from the deep villages of Indonesia and Malaysia and have now emerged in big cities and served at hotels and restaurants.

While many people enjoy eating them, very few know how to make them and what ingredients go into these delicious and delicate desserts. If you think that chocolate cakes, cheesecakes, moist puddings and fudgy brownies are the ultimate sinful foods, you have been deprived!

Malay kuihs use basic ingredients from flour made from yam or tapioca or beans, and a good measure of palm sugar and coconut - either as grated coconut or milk. These days coconut milk is substituted with cream or fresh milk for dietary reason. The kicker is in combining different flours and create layers of different tastes and colours.

In those days, the old womenfolks were resourceful in creating desserts for the family as afternoon snack and these kuihs also made use of fruits such as bananas, sweet potatoes or jackfruit.

Allow me to share one favourite recipe of mine called Kuih Ondeh-Ondeh Keledek. Made largely from sweet potato, the ball is stuffed with melted palm sugar and rolled into grated coconut. Deliciously moist when you bite into the goeey filling.

Ingredients

625g white sweet potatoes (steamed till tender)
3 tbsp thick pandan juice (squeezed from pandan leaf or screwpine leaf)
2 tbsp tapioca flour
2 tbsp wheat flour
125g palm sugar or gula melaka, crushed
2 tsp granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
¼ of a large coconut (to grate without skin)

Method: Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Peel the sweet potatoes and mash well. Then mix the pandan juice and sifted flours. Knead into a smooth dough. Roll dessert spoonfuls of dough and flatten.
Mix together both the granulated sugar and the palm sugar. Place a piece of sugar mixture in the center of the dough ball. Join opposite ends together, press slightly and roll into a ball. Drop into boiling water and cook till they float. Drain. Mix together the grated coconut and salt on a tray or flat plate. Roll in the cooked kuih altogether and pack in the grated coconut till the external is covered.

Serve when it is cooler otherwise the melted hot palm sugar will burn your tongue.

Click here to get more free Kuih Recipes and watch a cool video.

An American friend on a visit to Singapore some time back stumbled upon colourful and delicious gooey desserts which he had never tasted or heard before. I said to him those were called Kuih or sometimes spelt as kueh, and these kuihs originated from the Malays, a race of people from Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

My friend thought it remarkable that these kuihs were little known to the western world, especially in the USA and Europe, where people love cheesecakes and puddings and fudge, they too would love to not only eat these kuihs, but make them as well. And so of course I packed for him a nice box of kuih as a gift when he left which I am sure he must have eaten them all at the airport.

If you must know, these kuihs were created in the deep Malay villages by resourceful grandmothers who created recipes made from whatever ingredients that were available then like tapioca flour, palm sugar, coconut milk, glutinuous rice, green beans, banana leaves, pandan leaves etc. And of course they had plain flour and sugar as well. They did not have ovens back then, so these kuihs were mostly steamed or grilled.

The end results are moist, rich, chewy desserts and for those that have palm sugar in them, would guarantee the equivalent of chocolate melt. And the colours will make any chef pleased and happy.

The kuih recipes had since then travelled from the deep villages of Indonesia and Malaysia when our forefathers migrated to the cities and other countries.

Today Malay kuih recipes have expanded into many versions but essentially using the base ingredients like coconut milk, sugar (white or brown),eggs, flour (several types), just like western desserts must have their butter, sugar, eggs and cake flour.

But that is not all. Variety is indeed the spice of life, no pun intended - these kuihs also come in savoury version where spices are sometimes added and eaten as snacks or in between meals. In fact, Asians eat sweet or savour desserts for breakfast, as snacks, at teatime or just in between meals. Or served to guests whenever they drop in.

I especially love Kuih Pulut Panggang where grated coconut cooked with spice is wrapped around steamed glutinuous rice and then wrapped in banana leaf and grilled. Imagine the smell and taste contrast of the plain glutinuous rice and the spicy coconut, heightened by the smell of banana leaf.

Many people have made a living from making and selling these kuihs, some at the back streets, at the market and little dessert stores. These days hotel chefs have started to serve them at functions and catering businesses have thrived as well.

Another friend recently arrived in Singapore and I got him about 8 different pieces of kuih. He said he couldn’t possibly finish them all and would share with his room mates. But he ended eating them all because they all tasted deliciously and interestingly different.

After hearing about these kuih, I’m sure you want to try out these delicious kuih for yourself. Check them out here: http://www.KuihRecipes.com