Kue lapis and the scary green monster
Green but mean
I bet you get a little scared just looking at these intensely green pictures right? And I didn’t even enhance the color in Lightroom. It was just soooo green by itself. Is it all natural? Nooooo. You didn’t really believe that did you? If it would be St. Patrick’s day, this would be perfect. I always forget to make something for St. Patrick’s day so here is my late or early green dessert to use whenever you like.
And while it looks slightly scary, it is actually surprisingly tasty. Strong coconut flavor and a lot less gelatinous in terms of texture then you would think by looking at it.
In a way this dessert is a bit like the spekkoek I showed you before but it is made with totally different ingredients and in a totally different way. The spekkoek is baked in the oven and this one is steamed.
I always had those pretty bamboo baskets for steaming but ever since I managed to stick an entire rice cake to the top of the steamer (I forgot that cakes rise, making it stick dramatically to the lid) I had promised myself a proper steamer. So I got one and while the bamboo ones are way prettier, this is just so much more convenient.
You can make this really in a lot of different colors but part of the color here is from the pandan paste. And that in itself is a distinct taste. I got fresh pandan leaves from the Asian grocery store which are soaked for a bit in the coconut to infuse the flavor and the paste is added later.
I somehow had expected that the flavors would subside a bit but they actually got more vibrant after steaming.
A winner for a party!
Kue lapis
Ingredients
- 1 package of santen
- 1 ltr water
- 4 pandan leaves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 250 gr riceflour
- 50 gr tapiocaflour they also call it tapioca starch
- 250 gr white sugar
- 30 ml pandanpaste we used the one with artificial coloring, hence the green
Instructions
- Put your block of santen into a liter of water and heat slowly while you let the pandan leaves infuse. Add 1/2 tsp of salt into it as well.
- Take of the heat (don't let it boil) and leave to cool. Toss the pandan leaves.
- Put riceflour, tapiocaflour and sugar in a bowl, mix this well and add to your santen mix.Stir until it is smooth and any lumps are gone.
- Prepare a steamer and check that your caketins (well greased) etc fit into the steamer. Bring water to the boil and start by adding a small layer of the green into the tin. Leave to steam for about 6 minutes and then follow with the next layer in a different color. Keep doing that until your mould is full or you ran out of batter.
- Leave to cool and turn out onto a platter.
Disclaimer
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
