Kitchen Workout - Albino Kuih with Nyonya Kaya

I used to be a bit of a health freak and somewhat borderline anorexic. Lay off the fat, sugar, etc etc.

Well, after the weight gain in 2004 (that's a loooong story - 1 bad breakup + the discovery of an underactive thyroid) and EAT EAT EAT is all I can think about lately. And this coming recipe is probable one an anorexic/health freak might not want to touch at all - eggs, coconut milk, sugar.

In the spirit of the global effort to eat local (I know this sounds like an oxymoron but it really isn't), I decided to make one of favourite nyonya kuih - as I call it - Blue Kuih with Kaya. It does go by many other monikers - Pulut Tekan, Pulut Tai Tai.

(Ok, ok, actually I was planning this since I was offshore - oops...)

It's made of glutinous rice, plenty of coconut milk and is coloured with a natural dye derived from a local flower, Bunga Telang (Googling this name produced the scirentific name Cnesmone javanica). And it is served with kaya, our local egg-coconut milk curd.

Not just any kaya. I gotta have the nyonya kind like the ones we buy from the aunties in Penang - thick, rich and smelling of pandan a mile away. The runnier Hainanese type (which tastes mostly like a burnt sugar paste anyway) just won't do.

Of course, I have to ask for trouble. Feeling especially industrious, I made my own nyonya kaya, and blue kuih to go with it. I got the recipe from here, but I did not have any bunga telang (which provides the natural blue colouring) and did not want to buy blue colouring, so it became Albino kuih with kaya.

The kaya recipe is an improvised version of this recipe. I improvised it, omitting the final steaming and just kept stirring it over my makeshift doubleboiler.

The process came up to something equivalent to an arm workout. First of all, I was determined to make it as natural as possible, so I bought my own freshly grated coconut and squeezed the milk from it.

The pandan leaves came from my neighbour's garden, where the plant grows by the fence. Sneaked into the garden in the wee hours in the morning (a habit I developed from working offshore - I'm usually up by 6.30 in the morning, before most people - including my neighbour)

Arm Workout Nyonya Kaya - enough for 1 jar (say, 200 mls?)

4 eggs - as fresh as possible App. 7 tbsp of caster sugar (or to taste) 150 mls coconut milk 1/8 tsp salt 4 pandan leaves, washed and bruised
Combine eggs, salt and sugar in a bowl, stir to combine. Place 2 pandan leaves and the coconut milk in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Gently heat till just boiling. Slowly pour the coconut milk mixture into the egg mixture, stirring stirring stirring all the time to avoid the eggs scrambling Prepare a double boiler - I just placed a large bowl over a pot of water. Strain the mixture into the double boiler. Add the remaining pandan leaves. Keep stirring until mixture thickens and resembles curds. Don't stop stirring! It took me about 1 hour to reduce my mixture to a curd like texture.

Albino Kuih with Kaya