Chef steps slider buns

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Kueh Salat again

I need to try to make it more consistent. Also someone asked me for a "recipe".

So here's an attempt to write it down.

Criticisms (welcome any tips):
a. there's a very slightly bitter taste, almost astringent. I personally think it adds to the dish but mw tells me some people won't like it. Its probably due to the blending at high speed of the pandan essence.

b. The rice breaks apart a bit easily, and the custard from the rice. However, I suspect part of the reason is how people apportion it. I think you need to make a clean cut on two sides, then separate from the main body with a flat blade.

Serving size: fits a 20x20x5 cm disposable aluminum dish.

Make pandan essence (about 300ml)

1. 3 packets of pandan leaves from NTUC supermart (from memory each pkt is 60g).
2. carefully wash the pandan leaves (the base can be quite dirty). Discard any light green parts - you want the dark green bits.
3. Cut the leaves into small pieces - say about 3cm length.
4. Put in about 1/2 to 3/4 cup cold water into blender.
5. In several steps, put in a portion of cut pandan leaves and blend till pulped. Resist adding more water - though you might want to put in a few ice cubes to help the blending and keep the blended pulp cool.
6. Dump the whole thing into a fine sieve. With clean hands, start squeezing as much juice as possible out of the pulp and discard the dried pulp. Do this about a small handful at a time.
7. Mix in about 2 to 4 teaspoonfuls of vanilla essence to taste.

Make rice

You need about 250g of glutinous rice. Add slightly more if you want a thicker base.

1. Soak rice in water for at least a couple of hours. 
2. Make blue pea juice - it needs to be dark blue. 
3. Steam rice with a half and half mix of water and coconut cream (not milk) and half a teaspoon of salt. For 250g of rice, use 1 cup of fluid.
4. Take the rice out and mix it as the cream tends to come to the top.
5. Its a matter of taste how you want to add the blue pea flower juice, but in this case, I separate the rice into 2 bowls. I add the juice to one bowl and mix well.

Make pandan custard

1. Mix about 300-325ml of pandan essence with about 180-200ml of coconut cream.
2. Add 140g sugar.
3. Gently heat the mixture and stir until sugar is dissolved. Taste and add more sugar if necessary.
4. Get ready about 3 tablespoons of flour and 6 cold eggs beaten.
5. Heat the mixture until almost boiling and start adding the flour in small quantities while stirring the mixture vigorously. Control the heat as you don't want it to actually boil.
6. You are done when the fluid coats the back of a spoon and you run a finger down and you get a clean line (the french call it nappe) down but the rest of the mixture on either side stays on.
7. Using a large spoon, ladle a small amount of the mixture into the eggs while stirring the eggs. Add progressively larger quantities and mix until at the last bit, you can pour all the mix into the eggs and mix. The technique for this is called tempering.
8. Step 7 should be done just as you are ready to pour the custard mix into the rice - see next step.

Make rice base

1.  Take the rice from "Make rice" and coat it into the base of the container. Use a flat utensil to press the rice down into the base (I used an oiled potato masher) and make it more dense.
2. Put the container with the rice into the steamer and steam for another 5 minutes or so.

Final Step

1. Take the still warm custard and pour it into the container through a fine sieve (this will remove lumps such as undissolved flour and egg bits).
2. Gently steam in steam oven for about 40 mins at about 95C. If not using steam oven, then steam traditionally in a wok with an ajar lid.
3. The custard is done when its internal temp is about 82C or else insert a chopstick and it should come out cleanly. Be aware that different parts of the custard may cook at different rates.
4. Cool on countertop.