INTRODUCTION

In Singapore and Malaysia, we all know of a Chinese New Year cookies, lek tao Ko or mung bean cookies.. If you are interested, you can refer to this post: An Old School Of Snow White Cookies–Mung Bean Cookies or Kuih Koya (绿豆糕)

Every time when I Google 绿豆糕 or lek tao ko in Mandarin, this mung bean cake will appear.

I am very interested to find out the texture and taste of the cake and after delay for several months, I have decided to try out the recipe today. I have digested many recipes and came out with this recipe which is more or less a summary of a few recipes.

I was also very surprised that this is an extremely nice cake. My kids who hate angku kuih mung bean fillings seems to like the cake very much. Yes, if you cannot imagine the taste, it is just like eating the   mung bean fillings of angku kuih . Inside the mung bean crust, there is a filling and the filling can be red bean paste, red dates paste etc.. and today I have used the store bought lotus seeds paste.

I never knew that this cake is such a common cake in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. This cake is usually eaten during summer and autumn especially the Dumpling festival and moon cake festival. Chinese believed that mung bean will get rid of toxicity in our body during the hot weather therefore eating this cake will cool down the body. Per Chinese Encyclopaedia equivalent, Baike, it was written that:

“绿豆糕 是著名的汉族特色糕点之一。绿豆糕按口味有南、北之分，北即为京式，制作时不加任何油脂，入口虽松软，但无油润感，又称“干豆糕”。南包括苏式和扬式，制作时需添放油脂，口感松软、细腻。绿豆糕相传为中国古代，人民在端午节时，为寻求身体平安健康，除了吃粽子外，还要喝雄黄酒、吃绿豆糕和咸鸭蛋这三种凉性食物，可以避免因为夏至到来所带来的褥夏的疾病。绿豆性味甘寒，无毒，有清热解毒，祛暑止渴、利水消肿、明目退翳、美肤养颜之功效，是很好的消暑小食。绿豆糕是著名的京式四季糕点之一。它具有形状规范整齐，色泽浅黄，组织细润紧密，口味清香绵软不粘牙的特色。 （Source: http://baike.baidu.com/view/66980.htm)”

There are two versions , one is the plain version and another one is the sesame oil version which I am sharing today. The subtle aroma of sesame oil blends well with mung bean paste.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: About 20-25 small cakes depend on size

• 300 grams of split mung bean (绿豆瓣）， soaked overnight
• 100 grams of white sugar (白砂糖）
• 2 tablespoons of maltose (麦芽糖）
• 50 grams of butter (奶油 or 牛油）
• 5 stalks of pandan leaves (optional) (香兰叶， 可免）

• 300 grams of lotus paste or red bean paste (莲蓉 or 红豆沙)
• 1 tablespoon of sesame oil (麻油）
• 1 moon cake mould of your choice (月饼模型）

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Soak the mung bean overnight and drained.

• In a steaming tray, put some pandan leaves at the bottom of the tray, put the soaked mung bean on top of the pandan leaves. Steamed at high heat for 15-20 minutes until the mung bean are soft. If you can break the mung bean using a finger, it is considered as ready.

• Put in the maltose, sugar and butter, stir until well mix. Continue to steam for another 2-3 minutes to ensure the sugar are dissolved and butter has melted.

• Transfer the steamed mung bean to  a food processor and blend until as fine as possible.

• Transfer the blended mung bean to a sift and use a tablespoon to press again the blended mung bean to get a finer texture.

• At the this juncture, you can try to squeeze some mung bean paste and see if it is possible to make into a ball. If it is too dry, add water teaspoon by teaspoon. If it is too wet and a shape cannot be formed or overly sticky, you will have to transfer these mung bean paste into a non stick pan, stir fry until mung bean paste is drier, not sticky and it can be used for moulding.

• Lightly grease your hand and the moon cake mould with some sesame oil.

• Take a mung bean ball of 20 grams, shape it into a ball, wrap a filling of about 10 grams. Seal the edges and press the ball into the moon cake mould. Press the mould hard and dislodge the cake by pulling up the piston.

• The mung bean cake can be eaten immediately but it is another level of enjoyment if it is chilled in the fridge for 4-5 hours.

CONCLUSION

I did not plan to issue this recipe just before Dumpling festival and it is a coincidence that this cake is a festival cake for dumpling festival to detoxify the body. If this cake look attractive to you, may be you want to give it a try. Trust me, it is delicious ..

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have nice day. Should there be any imperfections in my blog layout, bear with me and I am trying hard to rectify it. In the event that you are a follower of Guaishushu at http://kwgls.wordpress.com, please do follow this new blog Guaishushu1 at https://www.guaishushu1.com.

You can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP and FOOD PARADISE 美食天堂to see more recipes. I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.