ang koo kueh in melbourne

when my elder daughter was expecting her first child, she had told me that she would like to have ang koo kueh and red eggs for her child's full moon celebration. i thought it would be a piece of cake because i had successfully made ang koo kueh at home in singapore. what i failed to reckon with was that not all asian things are readily available in melbourne. i hunted for the ang koo kueh mould in a number of asian enclaves like clayton, glen waverley and richmond in melbourne but could not find one. i even enlisted the help of my younger daughter, who is also here in melbourne, to try and get me one.

the other thing i had not considered was the cost of some of the requirements for making ang koo kueh. back in singapore i do not remember having to buy banana leaves to use as the base for placing the kueh. even if i had to buy, it would not cost more than a dollar. over here, unless you are in the state of queensland, banana trees are non-existent. so they have to be brought in from queensland or imported from some tropical countries. the packet of banana leaves, cut and folded, cost aus$7.50.



the first lot of ang koo kueh i made was the typical, round and flat type. somebody who saw them commented that they were not appropriate for a boy. we decided to make something more representative of a boy. my mother used to make ang koo kueh of this shape - the hokkien call it 'ang ee' and it did not require a mould. you can also buy this type of ang koo kueh, which is made for special occasions, from the confectioneries and some stalls at the market or food centre.




we made a total of about forty ang koo kueh, with two types of filling. the ones which appear darker (third photograph) were filled with peanut. the filling for the other lot was tau sar (mung bean). the peanut version was more popular with the guests. to make the dough, i used sweet potato and glutinous rice flour.