The title of this entry is not a riddle or a title of some motivational book . After my second Yiu Char Kueh or Chinese Crullers, my brain started to stretch a bit that's all.
I learned to make char kueh from Mak. Mak made a perfect Yiu Char Kueh. Ah Seng, Mak's best friend and a contractor who built my parent's house 44 years ago told Mak the recipe. After a few times trials and errors, finally Mak perfected the char kueh process.
Between 1990-1997, Mak was the main char kueh supplier to three Malay Kedai Kopi -coffee shops in my hometown Pokok Asam, Taiping.
The last time I had Mak's char kueh was in 2002 when I went home for a visit. I haven't had any since then. There were times when I had the craving, but for some reasons I was reluctant to go through the process of making the dough.
The first try skin was a little chewy.
Anyho, one day I had this 'aha' moment. "Why don't I try a store-bought pizza dough?" So, the next day when I was at Shaw's Supermarket, I bought a ready made pizza dough. When I got home put the dough in a wooden bowl, sprinkle a handful of flower and knead the dough.
I folded both end of the dough and worked on it for about fifteen minutes. I cover the bowl with damp towel. I went out running and when I came back 90 minutes later, the dough rose that made me smile from ear to ear. I repeated the kneading process for another fifteen minutes.
Using a rolling pin I flatten the dough and cut into six strips. put them aside, and jumped into a shower.
After the shower, I heated the oil and prepared to fry the char kueh. I dipped my finger into a bowl of water, swiped gently on top of one of the strips. Took a second strip put on top of wet strip. Holding both ends of chop stick, I pressed the chopstick on the double decker dough strip. Gently picked up both ends of pressed dough, pulled gently both ends and dropped into a hot oil.
The first attempt, the outer part of char kueh was a little hard and crusty. It was because I left them uncovered after I cut the dough into strips.
A following week, I tried again for a second time. This time I covered the strips with plastic wrap.
This time they came out beautifully. Not as good as Mak's char kueh, but they were good.
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