Nyonya Angku (Red Tortoise Cake) 紅龜粿

Nyonya Angku or AngKu Kueh is a small round Chinese pastry made from glutinous rice flour wrapped with sweet filling. It is normally consumed during important festivals such as Chinese New year as it is believed that AngKu Kueh will bring longevity, good fortune and prosperity to those who are eating it.

I always have the phobia to make AngKu Kueh especially the filling as I thought it would be very challenging to get a smooth filling until one day, my friend treats us her homemade AngKu Kueh! Because of her AngKu Kueh, I have the courage to start making the AngKu Kueh. 

Here is the recipe that I adapted from NasiLemak Lover. I have added in extra oil in the filling as I prefer a smoother fill. If you prefer a dry fill, you may use less oil in the filling.

Ingredients (makes around 40 pcs, mould size 4cm x 5cm)

Sweet Filling
250 g split yellow mung beans/ green beans
80 g sugar (or more, if you prefer sweeter filling)
100 ml oil

1. Rinse mung beans several times and soak in clean water for 1 hour.
2. Drain the mung beans and steam over high heat for 30 minutes or until the bean is soft.
3. While the beans is still hot, place bean, sugar and oil in a food processor, blend until fine. You may add extra sugar if you prefer sweeter filling.
4. Set aside to cool. Shape into 14 g small ball.

Skin
300 g sweet potato (any preferred color, I am using purple), peeled off the skin
200 g glutinous flour
1 tbsp rice flour
2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp oil
130 ml hot water, or adjust accordingly

1. Cut sweet potatoes into big pieces and steam until they are soft, about 15-30 minutes.
2. Mashed the cooked sweet potatoes.
3. Add in glutinous rice flour, rice flour, sugar and corn oil into the mashed sweet potato. Slowly add in hot water to mix until soft dough is obtained. Keep aside and rest for 10 minutes.
4. Shape into 14 g small ball.

To prepare AngKu Kueh
Banana leaves; cut into the correct size that match with the Angku mould and blanched with hot water until the leaves are soft. Dried them with a clean cloth.

1. Dust the mould with glutinous rice flour for easy remove.
2. Flatten the sweet potato ball, place a mung bean ball, cover and shape into round ball.
3. Place the ball in the mould, flatten and then knock out.
4. Place on a greased banana leaf.
5. Arrange kueh on s steaming tray and steam over medium to low heat for 5-10 minutes. Do not steam over high heat as as heat will destroy the Angku's pattern.
6. Once done, remove from steamer and brush the kueh surface with corn oil.