Muah Chee

My memory of Muah Chee always brings me back to Gurney Drive in Penang. My Dad will stop the car by the roadside and we will run/ walk briskly to the muah chee store in the center of the 'food court'. Sometimes we are disappointed when it is closed but most of the time we will get what we want. Some people go to Penang for their Char Kuey Teow or Asam Laksa but my 'MUST HAVE' will be the Muah Chee. Yes, you can get Muah Chee in most pasar malams but the one in Gurney Drive is just so much better.

Recently I was reading a food blog (Rasa Malaysia) and saw Muah Chee on it. Straight away, the saliva glands in my mouth went into overdrive and I told Steph that I want to make this. Look around websites in UK to see if I can get glutinous rice flour but none of the major supermarkets carry them. So off we went to the local Asian store....YES! they had plenty in stock. Bought my packet of glutinous rice flour(choice between Thailand and China but went for Thailand since I lost a bit of confidence in China-made stuff). I was happily walking back home and suggested to Steph that we should make it straight away. However, I was still recovering from my cough so I can't really eat peanut yet. I will give my body another few days to recover. I even bought a bottle of Pei Pa Ko from the Asian store to speed up the process...hahahaha.

Muah Chee is made of glutinous rice flour and mixed with water, sugar and cooking oil. Very simple ingredients. The Rasa Malaysia recipe used tapioca flour in the mix but I went with corn flour since I didn't buy any tapioca flour. I didn't follow the recipe's measurement (the rebel in me). I just add flour and water until I got the right consistency. It was very watery initially so I just kept adding flour until it became a dough. Steam the dough in a steamer for a good 15 to 20 minutes. Let the dough cool before cutting it up and tossing it in the peanut mixture.

For the peanut coating, we bought peanuts and crush them manually with a glass bottle. Steph did the hard work on that while I was preparing the dough. We pop the ground nuts in the oven for 10 mins to roast the nuts a bit. Once the nuts were cooled, we added sugar in it.

For the added taste, I made some fried onion to sprinkle on top. As usual, I wouldn't just accept the traditional Muah Chee without adding my own twist on it. I added a teaspoon of melted peanut butter on it. It just made the Muah Chee taste even better. I honestly think that my Muah Chee is better than the pasar malams but I still can't beat the Gurney Drive Muah Chee.
-Adrian