003 Sourdough Mulberry Leaf Steamed Pau

Sourdough Mulberry Leaf Steamed Pau

It's National Day holiday today.

We have been practicing steamed pau without baking powder and shortening. Without the two ingredients, it's tough job to make smooth and shiny pau.

We have a mulberry tree at the back of our house. Every time we trim the tree, we throw away the leaves. Lately, we get to know mulberry's leaves and stems are very health beneficial plant.

Yesterday, we plucked some young leaves, boiled them, mashed them and mixed into dough. Then we leave the dough in fridge to ferment overnight. It's late.

This morning, we took it out of fridge for it to return to room temperature. Then we let it to continue to ferment until it double in size.

After that, we knead the dough to remove internal air. We cut it into size and make each one into round pau.

Please like our Facebook page ( www.facebook.com/bestillsourdough ) to see the photos and to give us comments. You can visit our stall in Green U Market at Edible Park, the first Saturday of the month.

P.S. We have to give September Green U Market amiss because we are attending our friend's wedding lunch tomorrow.

002 Chinese Fevervine Kueh 鸡屎藤茶果

Chinese Fevervine Kueh 鸡屎藤茶果

I learn to make Hakka Cha Guo (Hakka kueh) from my mother-in-law. She lives in Titi, Negeri Sembilan. Titi is Hakka village. The most famous Hakka kueh there is Ramie leaf kueh (粗叶粄). The most common available are kueh without filling and with dried carrot filling.

As I researched online, I get to know there are three types of leaves are being used to make Hakka kuehs — Ramie leaf, mugwort leaf, and Chinese Fevervine leaf. The latter two are not commonly made and sold nowadays.

Since we can make the first two, we want to try to make the last one. Getting the leaf is a bit tough, it is quite hard to get. I got some stems from kampung but they died because the root is too little.

Then I got some more stems with more roots from a friend who stayed in Tampoi new village. But time are needed for them to grow before harvesting their leaves. Luckily, I got some leaves when I visited an organic farm.

So, we made some kuehs out of them. The Fevervine leaf has a strong smell. But surprisingly the kuehs don't have the strong smell, they have a grassy fragrance.

We want to try to make some of them to be sold in coming market. However, we can't join the Sep 1 Green U Market at Edible Park. But maybe we can join the Jazz Festival to be held at Puteri Harbour on Sep 8.

Please like our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/bestillsourdough) to know our latest development. Please also visit Green U Market at Edible Park to try our sourdough bread and traditional kueh.

001 Orh Ku Kueh workshop at Edible Park (25/8/2018)

Orh Ku Kueh workshop at Edible Park (25/8/2018)


We are so happy to be given a chance to do a workshop on making Orh Ku Kueh, in Edible Park, on Aug 25. This is a new experience for us — never teach before.

The traditional Hakka Cha Guo are made from ramie leaf (苎麻叶，亦称粗叶), mugwort leaf (艾叶) and Chinese fevervine leaf (鸡屎藤叶). The latter two are seldom sold or made nowaday. Mostly, we see ramie leaf kueh. Fact is, of the three, mugwort is the easiest to buy or plant. Mugwort is also a great medicinal plant.

We participated in Green U Market since last year. Our main products are sourdough breads. Our all time favourite items are bagels, country breads, focaccia, scones, and butter cake.

One day, we simply want to try selling some traditional Chinese kueh since there are many Chinese shoppers. We do not want to sell kuehs that are commonly available, so we chose Hakka Cu Yap Ban (粗叶粄, ramie kueh). Seeing they were well received, then we add in Hakka Nyoi Ban (艾粄, mugwort kueh). We are glad to hear those kuehs remind many people of their childhood food. We put extra leaf so that the kuehs will be very fragrant.

For this workshop, we shared how to make Hakka Mugwort Kueh (艾叶茶果).

About 20 participants came for the workshop — we have Chinese and Japanese friends. (Yes, Japanese also eat mugwort mochi — slightly different ingredients and filling.)

We prepared the ingredients and showed the steps to make the kueh. The filling we made in advance, at home, to save time. We used mung bean as filling. The beans we soaked overnight, and steamed for 30 minutes. After that, we mashed it in a blender together with sugar and some oil. For the dough, we used boiled mugwort leaves, water, sugar, oil, glutinous rice flour and some wheat starch flour. But the dough we made is a bit too dry (oops), so the kueh crack when pressed. Luckily they still taste nice.

We make some with and some without filling. Our experience with ramie leaf kueh is that the one with filling, the fragrance of ramie leaf is being taken over by mung bean filling. So, we asked the participants to compare which can taste the fragrance of mugwort better. The response was they all taste nice. Maybe because the filling is not too much. The one with filling were snapped up very fast.

While steaming the mugwort kueh, we asked participants to try our ramie leaf kueh. We want participants to appreciate the fragrance of ramie leaf. Even our Japanese friends like them.

We want to apologize to our Japanese friends because we conducted the class in Mandarin. Hopefully, one day we have the chance to learn Japanese mugwort
mochi (yomogi mochi).

Please like our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/bestillsourdough) to support us. Do visit Edible Park's Green U Market to try our sourdough bread and traditional Chinese kueh.

For the photos, please visit our FB page
https://www.facebook.com/pg/bestillsourdough/photos/?tab=album&album_id=474082269737458&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARCVNKIeWYUouGHcLUx1f1TlG_9w-pbrCJqFGoSdn98DklYFgA2NMDEhb8T6AWZeWEF3RN1BsohKvA2uYVjfpydwdE1fO4fucnYmWob3QxiBK5ivV_2sa9XYOVXvcSQ6JB5nV6k&__tn__=-UC-R