Kuih Sepit
Kuih Sepit is also known as Kuih Kapit, Kuih Belanda and offered as Chinese Love Letter. It is a type of festive food and traditionally prepared for welcoming festivities such as Chinese New Year or Hari Raya. It is a delicate wafer that is made from a very thin batter made of coconut milk, rice and tapioca flour, sugar and eggs. It also called love letters, and the history of these that it acts as a medium for lovers to communicate in olden times – the edible quality of the message ensured the absence of proof and consumption of the heartfelt message was also seen as a sign that the lover’s words had been taken to heart.
The kuih sepit shares similarity with the medieval Dutch wafers that are made with the similar method and utensil used to make kuih kapit over open flame ovens or stoves. The Dutch invented the waffle iron that consisted of two hinged iron plates attached to two long wooden handles is an idea to prevent burning hand in the 13th century. Dutch in Bahasa Malaysia is Belanda, thus this is how the name kuih Belanda came from. Many biscuit making and cake baking techniques were exported into various Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesian through conquests and travels to these countries since the 14th century by the Dutch and Portuguese. Which were then assimilated into the Nyonyas cooking and baking practices, and now it has become one of the must have snacks or delicacies for celebrating Chinese New Year.
Online Recipe Malacca
250g rice flour
2 tablespoon tapioca flour
400ml coconut milk
10 eggs
300g sugar (granulated)
Sesame seeds
*This rendered about 250 love letters
Online Recipe Kue Semprong (Indonesia)
350g rice flour
100g sago flour (corn starch)
150g sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
4 eggs
1 tablespoon salt
150ml thick coconut milk
25g melted butter
Actual Recipe by Mr.Henry Lau
250g rice flour
2 tablespoon tapioca flour
300g sugar
10 medium size eggs
400ml fresh unadulterated coconut milk (from 2 grated coconuts)
3 pcs of pandan leaves (tied into a knot)
Tips: using not too old coconut for grinding will ensure get more juices. Otherwise, it cannot last long in storage and will turn stale faster.
Step-by-step procedure to prepare Kueh Sepit
Batter
First, sieve the dry ingredients of rice and tapioca flour into a mixing bowl. Next, add in sugar and slowly add the coconut milk. Stir until sugar is dissolved and then add eggs and egg yolks, mixed thoroughly. Whisk until well blended. Strain the batter and let it rest for an hour. The batter is the same texture as melted ice cream. A thin coating batter is desirable.
*Water can be added periodically into the batter if and as when the batter thicken too much.
Of course, you can buy grated old coconut from an Indian sundry shop. By adding 1 cup of water, press the old coconut for 2-3 minutes, add in half cup of water if it is too dry.
Lightly grease love letter molds with a piece of muslim cloth dipped in oil before pouring the batter. Heat molds over charcoal fire.
Heat up the mould over the charcoal grill. Keep the fire moderate and consistent in order for the color of the love letters to be even.
When sufficiently heated, place the molds open over a bowl of batter and pour a ladleful of batter onto the mould and make sure the entire mould was evenly coated.
Close the mould tightly and bake over charcoal fire for about half a minute on each side.
When golden in color, quickly remove from still-hot moulds.
Immediately fold the round crepe into a triangular fan shape while the crepe was still pliable. Press lightly with a tin cover to level the surface.
Cool and store in an air-tight container or tin.
Generally, ingredients used for preparing kueh sepit are the same. All the required ingredients are affordable and easily can be found in supermarket or any grocery store. On the other hand, taste of kuih sepit slightly different in different states, races or regional subject to cultural influences by other countries. For instance, in Malacca, they usually add black sesame and roll it in cylinder shape. Moreover, some Malay communities like to add pandan juice which it can get it from pandan leaves as additional ingredient into batter. Instead of gold color, kuih sepit will result in green color rich in pandan aroma. They called this Kuih Belanda and usually flavor them with grounded fennel seeds, star arise and cinnamon. Instead of folding the dough into quarters, they are commonly rolled it into a stick. Furthermore, kuih sepit in Indonesia named Kue Semprong and made with different ingredients compared with Malaysia. These are sometimes filled with chocolate and other sweets. The difference is it usually flat to display an elephant on one side and a snail on other side. However, in Malaysia, the flat displays both sides with bird and flower designs. Other than the traditional fan-shaped kuih kapit, there is a more exotic variety which has crisp, sweet and meat floss filled and rolled in. Rather than just simply folding the thin wafer into a quarter, it can be rolled into cylindrical shape.
According to Mr. Henry Lau, the best kuih kapit should be fluffy crispy and not too sweet. Making kuih kapit required certain of multi-tasking, so assistants are needed and have to quickly fold the kuih kapit. Mr. Henry Lau origin from Penang, and he also learned Malacca style. Due to cultural reasons and different demand from customer, he may not accurately present the Penang kuih kapit authenticity. Instead, he combines Malays and Nyonya preparing method by mainly uses of original recipe and add pandan flavor. Making kuih sepit is a very time consuming and labor intensive activity as it can take half day just to prepare two boxes of kuih sepit and more than two people are needed for assisting. Speaking of preparation methods, are not over-complex, but it take longer time to consume, it associates culinary innovation with cultural heritage. Thereby, he will make pre-ordered for customers few weeks before Chinese New Year.
#RecipeBlog
