I'm watching the snow falling outside my kitchen window as I'm stirring a combination of corn flour, milk, eggs and sugar in a copper pot. I'd just talked to my sister KN this morning after bersahur. She was in the kitchen making nasi kerabu. Ohh....lord, I could smell delicous aroma of roasted dried ikan talang and roasted rice. These two ingredients are important to get an asskicking nasi kerabu.
My previous effort to make Sri Muka was disaster. I added too much coconut milk for the top layer and and the glutinous rice was soft and mushy. I used a spatula to take out one piece onto a dish. The top layer collapsed and my sri muka looked more like Shrek's food than sri muka.
KN pointed out few important tips to get creamy and delicious top layer.
She said prepare the bottom layer by: 1.Steam the glutinous rice. Steaming glutinous rice is much better than cooking. You can control the outcome of the rice. 2. Add coconut milk into glutinous rice, small potion at a time. 3. A pinch of salt. 4.Use spatula to mix evenly the rice and coconut milk. 5. Flatten the rice in a pan with wooden spatula. 6. Put aside.
Top layer:
Blend together 4 eggs, 2 cups of milk (or coconut milk), 2/3 cups of sugar (or more if you have sweet tooth), a pinch of ground roasted anise seed (jintan manis), 2/3 cup of corn flour, 3 or 4 drops of pandan ( screwpine leaves) flavor for coloring. If you have an access to pandan leaves, you can blend pandan leaves with 1/3 cup of milk (coconut milk-out of two cups of milk) Stir gently the mixture over a medium heat.
Do not attempt to do other tasks when you have a top layer mixture on a stove. If your little ones needs a bottle, let him/her holler for a while. Voice exercises is good. Who knows she/he would become Malaysian/American (insert the country you're from) Idol in fifteen years. Leave him/her in soiled diaper for a few minutes. It won't kill them. Your Sri Muka is more important. Unless it is a matter of life and death, continue to stir the kepala (top layer).
Preparing and cooking some old Malay dishes need our full focus. After all every food we cook it has to be prepared with love. It is not like when you prepare tuna casserole, dump everything in baked dish, you can make out with your loved ones on a kitchen counter while the tuna casserole in the oven. No....no....no.... no hanky panky when you're making Sri Muka. Other wise the top layer will turn out lumpy and eeuuugghhhh....
Back to the stove, when mixture becomes thicker, lower the heat, keep stirring. If you think it needs more liquid, add your choice of liquid, milk or coconut milk. When it looks glassy (not glassy eyes, mind you), it is ready. Remove it from the stove. Pour the combination onto the bottom layer evenly. Leave it cool on the kitchen counter. Now you can go back to whatever tasks you put on hold.
My Sri Muka didn't look as good as it tasted. But, I'm telling you , it was heaven. I used red glutinous rice instead of regular glutinous rice. As usual, I like to improvise my cooking.
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