IT IS not easy to find ang ku kueh or red-tortoise cake with skin that stays soft overnight.

This steamed glutinous rice flour kueh filled with green bean or peanut is best eaten soon after it’s made because the thin, stretchy skin turns stiff if you keep it for more than a day.

But Mr Ronnie Yeo, 53, who helps run the family-owned Ang Mo Kio Nonya Kueh at Hougang Avenue 3, confidently told me that the stall’s ang ku kueh stay tender for 24 hours.

So I kept a couple aside and tried them the next morning.

True enough, they were still as good. The skin, which is not too thick, does not stick to the teeth, one of the attributes of a good ang ku kueh.

One of the secrets to the soft skin, Mr Yeo says, is that corn oil is mixed into the dough. Although no coconut milk is used, the kueh is fragrant.

His family also uses glutinous rice flour and pounded glutinous rice to make the chewy skin.

The recipe comes from his mother, Madam Tan Lee Keow, 80, who learnt to make it from her China-born mother-in-law.

Madam Tan started taking orders for the kueh about 30 years ago from friends and relatives who liked what she made.

To cope with the growing demand, she rented a factory in Ang Mo Kio Industrial Park 1 to make the kueh, and then moved to a shop in Hougang about four years ago. The spritely woman leaves the running of the business to her children but she still helps out at the shop.

Her kueh comes in five flavours: green bean, peanut, salted bean, durian and coffee, and these are priced at 35 cents and 60 cents each. They are also packed in boxes of five and 10.

I like the salty bean filling wrapped in a black sesame skin best.

As you bite into it, you first taste the slight saltiness, then the sweetness of the smooth green bean filling and you appreciate how well the contrast works.

The skin is made from black sesame seeds which are skilfully fried till fragrant and then ground, before being worked into the glutinous rice flour.

I also like the traditional ang ku kueh, which comes with a smooth green bean filling.

Another must-try is the Teochew png kueh (glutinous rice kueh), packed with diced mushrooms, dried shrimps and roasted peanuts.

Good-quality dried shrimps give this kueh oomph, and lends the rice a natural sweetness. The kueh also come in boxes of five and 10 but you can get individual pieces at 35 cents and 60 cents each.
 
ANG MO KIO NONYA KUEH
Block 7, Hougang Avenue 3, 01-62
Tel: 6455-4839
Open: 7.30am to 5.30pm, closed on Mondays
Rating: ***

This article was first published in The Straits Times on December 16, 2007.