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Kuih Seri Muka (known in Indonesia or Malaysia) or Kueh Salat (as known in Singapore) is a two-layer local snack made of steamed glutinous rice and pandan coconut egg custard. In this recipe, I made it in a round cake shape, slightly different from the usually rectangular cut shapes found in food stalls.
What is Kuih Seri Muka or Kueh Salat?
The composition of this two-layered local snack Kuih Seri Muka is simple. The glutinous rice forms the base while the custard will be cooked and thickened before pouring over the rice base and steam until it is set. It’s a juxtaposition of a sticky chewy and savoury rice layer with an aromatic and sweet pandan flavoured coconut custard layer. Sometimes you might find the rice with a beautiful shade of blue, which is naturally coloured with the butterfly blue pea flower. It’s very soft to the bite. A perfect balance of texture and flavours, as well as a real visual treat.
What is Kuih or Kue?
Kuih Seri Muka or Kueh Salat is categorised as a ‘kueh’ or ‘kuih’ or ‘kue’, depending on the country or region, which means bite-sized snacks or desserts, usually found in Southeast Asian and Chinese cuisines. In fact, this word came from 糕 in Hokkien. I know, it’s confusing why a Hokkien word is so commonly used as a name for local snacks. I believe it dates back to the time when many Chinese immigrants came from the southern part of China, many of them from the coastal Hokkien province, starting from the 10th century during the Tang dynasty. These immigrants integrated with the local, influencing the cuisines we enjoy today.
How do you enjoy Kuih Seri Muka or Kueh Salat?
This snack can be consumed as a breakfast with tea or coffee, as a snack in midday, or as an after-meal dessert. It’s a very popular and common snack, usually alongside other kuehs such as kue kosui, kue lapis, kue sago lapis, onde onde, pulut tai tai, kueh ubi kayu, ang ku kueh, kueh dadar and etc.
My favourite way is to enjoy it with my mummy dearest, usually after lunch on weekends, to sit in a local coffeeshop, with a hot cup of kopi (name for locally brewed coffee with milk).
Tips on making Kuih Seri Muka or Kueh Salat
I honestly have not make it too many times. But thank goodness each time I managed to make it as perfect as I can. Here are a few tips I learnt, some learning from my aunties from Malaysia:
- As the two layers of the kuih has different texture, to make both layers stick to each other, you have to ensure the base layer of the rice is hot when the custard layer is added. So while you prepare the custard, place the rice in the cake pan in the steamer with low heat.
- When steaming the rice and custard layer, it is important to keep the heat as low as possible. If the heat is too high, the custard will be overcooked and the surface will be uneven. Though the uneven surface is not really a big issue, but having a smooth even surface makes it look prettier.
- The green shade of the custard comes from natural pandan juice. It’s tedious to extract the juice but totally worth it as the pandan aroma is just heavenly. I see some recipes adding artificial green colouring which I find unnecessary. After steamed, the green might turn a little dull and nonetheless pretty.
- When making the rice layer, be sure to compress the rice as much as possible, to minimise the custard layer flowing through the gaps. Again, not a gamechanger but it does look prettier if the layers are neat and clear.
- The type of steamer used matters. I used a bamboo steamer, so any evaporation from the water can escape through the bamboo material without causing condensation on the cake. If you used a normal pot, you might want to wrap the pot cover with a cloth to absorb the moisture so the water droplets doesn’t drop onto the cake surface which makes it uneven.
- I used dried butterfly pea flower, steep it in hot water for a few minutes to extract the blue coloured water to colour the rice. You can use fresh butterfly pea flowers or even the powdered type. With the powder, you might want to add more powder to the hot water to get a more intense shade of the blue.
How to store Kuih Seri Muka / Kueh Salat
As the kuih is made of fresh coconut, it’s recommended to consume it within 1-2 days. I’d suggest to store it in an airtight container in the fridge and this should last about 3-4 days. The rice might turn harder, but you can always re-steam it or reheat it in the microwave until it’s softened.
Watch how to cook Kuih Seri Muka
Pin now, cook later
Kuih Seri Muka (Kueh Salat) 香兰糯米糕
Detailed Step-by-Step Video
Ingredients
Rice layer
- 2 cups glutinous rice, about 150g per cup
- 4-5 pandan leaves, washed
- 100 ml water
- 100 ml fresh coconut milk
- ½ tsp salt
- 8-10 fresh or dried butterfly pea flower
- 50 ml boiling hot water, for the butterfly pea flower
Custard layer
- 4 medium sized eggs, room temperature
- 15 pandan leaves, washed
- 150 ml fresh coconut milk
- 100 ml water
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup stevia sweetener
Others
- 1 tsp vegetable or coconut oil
Instructions
Soak the rice in advance
- Wash the 2 cups glutinous rice 3-4 times until the water turns quite clear. Then soak the rice with water overnight or at least for 4 hours.Note: Make sure the water more than covers the rice.
- After soaking overnight or after 4 hours, drain off the water.
Prepare the rice
- Mix 100 ml fresh coconut milk, 100 ml water and 1/2 tsp salt.
- In a large heat proof plate, add the coconut mixture to the rice and mix evenly. Spread the rice thinly and evenly over the plate so that the rice will cook evenly in the steamer.
- Cut 4-5 pandan leaves into shorter strips and layer it over the rice.
- Bring water to boil in a steamer pot over high heat. Then steam the rice, covered, over high heat for 30-40 minutes, until the rice turns soft and fluffy.
- Add 50 ml boiling hot water to 8-10 fresh or dried butterfly pea flower, let it steep for 10-15 minutes. Then drain off the flowers and set the blue tea aside. Note: If using fresh butterfly pea flowers, be sure to wash flowers well.
- After steaming the rice, turn off the heat and remove the pandan leaves. Note: You can do a taste test to ensure the rice is cooked and soft.
- Use a fork to fluff the rice.
- Drizzle the blue pea tea randomly over the rice.
- Grease a cake pan with removable base with some of the 1 tsp vegetable or coconut oil.Note: Using a cake pan with removable base will make demoulding the cake easier later. I used a 6-inch cake pan in this recipe, you can also use a 7-inch cake pan, both sizes are ideal.
- Transfer the hot rice into the cake pan. Press to compress the rice as much as possible with a wet spatula.Note: Using a wet spatula will ensure the rice do not stick to the spatula.
- Use a fork to make scratch marks on the surface of the compressed rice.
- Place the cake pan with the rice in the steamer to keep warm. Turn on the lowest possible heat.
Prepare the custard
- Cut 15 pandan leaves into smaller pieces, about an inch. Add 100 ml water and 150 ml fresh coconut milk to the pandan leaves and blend well with a blender.
- Sieve the pandan juice. Discard the pandan pulp.
- In a large mixing bowl, add 4 medium sized eggs and 1/2 cup stevia sweetener and whisk well.
- Add pandan coconut mixture and mix well with a whisk.
- Sift in 2 tbsp plain flour and 1/4 tsp salt, and mix well with a whisk.
- Sieve the custard batter into a non-stick pan.
- Transfer the non-stick pan with the batter to the stove and turn on low heat. Keep stirring the batter to ensure the mixture is smooth and sweetener is fully dissolved. You will get a beautiful green colour.Note: It's important to keep the heat low so the mixture will not turn into scrambled eggs.
- Keep stirring until the mixture is slightly thickened. It will turn thick enough to coat the spatula in a thick liquid form but will drip down smoothly. The process takes roughly about 15 minutes, depending on the heat.
Steam the kueh
- Make sure the steamer is heated with the lowest possible heat. Water should be below boiling point and barely simmering.Pour the thickened custard through a sieve onto the rice in the cake pan slowly to minimise air bubbles.Note: Make sure the rice is hot when pouring the custard, so that both layers will gel well. Heat should be very low, if not, we might risk overcooking the custard.
- Use a toothpick to break any bubbles, or simply use a spoon to scoop out the bubbles.
- Cover and steam for about 35-40 minutes, until custard is set. Note: I am using a bamboo steamer. If using any other types of steamer, make sure to leave a gap for the water vapour to escape, to avoid dripping onto the custard.
- Test the doneness of the custard by inserting a cake tester or chopstick in the middle. If it comes out clean, the cake is ready and you can turn off the heat.
- Remove the cake from the steamer and let it cool completely, about 2-3 hours.Then unmould the cake. I did it by place the cake pan over a short glass, and then pulling the rim of the cake pan down.
- Serve and enjoy. Note: Use a plastic knife to cut so that the cake will not stick to the knife.
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