Fried Radish Cake ???

'Char Kueh', 'Chai Tau Kueh', ??? or 'Char Kuay Kak' are essentially the same thing. They all refer to a plate of yummy fried radish cake which someone can never say no to. This dish surely reminds someone of their childhood, or at least mine. This dish is commonly found in pasar malam (night market) in Malaysia and you can never go to the wrong stall when you see a huge queue waiting for their plate of char kueh.

As a kid, I always had this obsession of figuring out the shapes of the kueh thinking that the hawker stall owner actually effortfully cut them into rectangles, squares, triangles, heart shape etc. But then I never realised how little time the hawker stall owner has to fry more than a few hundred plates of char kueh!! Haha.

Nowadays, most Char Kueh doesn't have radish in it anymore, contrary to its name being Fried Radish Kueh. It is like the Korean Ddukboki (Rice cake) made from rice flour, except that Char Kueh is slightly chewier.

Ingredients for Kueh

1 cup ricce flour
2 tbsp wheat starch
1/4 cup cold water
2 3/4 cup hot water
1 tsp salt

Method

Mix rice flour and cold water together. Sprinkle salt and mix well. Then add in hot water and mix together until a sticky mixture is obtained. Pour mixture into a pan and steam at high heat for 20 minutes until done. Cool and cut into pieces.

Ingredients for Chai Tau Kueh

100 gm salted dried radish strips / choy poh - minced fine
3 cloves garlic
A handful of beansprouts
A handful of chives (I omitted this)
A plate of kueh - cut into pieces
1 egg

Dark soy sauce
Soy sauce
Sugar
Salt
Oil

Method

1. Heat a pan with some oil.
2. Add in minced garlic and choy poh
3. Add in cut Kueh into the pan and fry for 1 minute
4. Add in seasonings according to your preferance.
5. Add in beansprouts and chives.
6. Fry for 2 minutes and make a 'hole' in the center. Crack an egg into the middle.
7. Stir the rest of the ingredients with the egg
8. Dish up and serve with your favourite chilli sauce!