Hello foodies!
This is my first ever post in this community, so hello there :)
Chinese New Year is around the corner and with the borders and businesses opening up and getting back into action, many are looking forward to be spending time and be reunited with their families for the festivities. And when we talk about reunions, there's no discounting the presence of food!
There are plenty of Chinese New Year delicacies depending on where you are from, and in Malaysia our CNY titbits and snacks servings usually include varieties of cookies such as the pineapple tart, butter cookies, meat floss spring rolls, prawn crackers, fried crab meat cracker strips, beehive shaped snacks, meat jerky and so on.
And one of my favorites is one that is locally known as 'kuih makmur', its direct translation from Bahasa Malaysia means prosperity delicacy. Different places have different names to it, to some places it is known as 'kuih momo'. Sounds similar, I know. I prefer our version that is from Sabah. You eat, you prosper 😂
We made these last year.
The kuih makmur is simply known as sugar coated peanut balls. The ingredients are really easy to get, you only need flour, peanuts, ghee (I used butter), powdered sugar. Some places make them sans peanuts. We made two tubs for the first time last year and we were hooked. Making them made me homesick. I'm still contemplating whether to make them this year since my days have been quite hectic from taking care of 3 children now instead of two. We welcomed our littlest last April and are now a family of five :)
I won't be sharing the recipe but wouldn't mind giving a brief description of how it's made. My version is pretty much a shortcut but boy was I glad I did that 😂 So, to put it plainly, we need to roast the peanuts and have them crushed finely. Then, we fry the flour over the stove so as to make the flour fluffier. I jumped queue and went straight ahead without roasting the nuts but instead, mixing the crushed peanut crumbs with the flour and frying them together instead. Best decision ever!
Frying the dry ingredients of flour and crushed peanuts over the stove.
Then, we take them out and mix it with butter to form a dough. The recipe asks for ghee but I used butter and it's still equally good. Later, we form them into balls and bake them in the oven.
Once done, we roll the balls on a tray of powdered sugar while they are still hot so that the sugar coating would stick.
There you go, lovely addictive sugar coated peanut balls. They taste like home. And if I can steal some time, I might just risk it and make them again this CNY. We shall see.
What are your favorite delicacies during the festivities? Would love to hear from you.
Till then, see you around!