Two pieces of yummy Woo Tau Koh with some sweet sauce/teem cheong and chili on the side
Good afternoon, dear friends 
My hubby loves Yam Kuih or Woo Tau Koh in the Cantonese dialect, but thus far, my recipe for Yam Kuih was only mediocre. 
The last time I made some Woo Tau Koh for my family was on the Winter Solstice Festival or Tung Jit on 22 December, 2006. Yes, that sure was a long time ago! 
A few years back, we had the best tasting and ”melt in the mouth” Yam Kuih at a cousin’s house during Chinese New Year but she didn’t have the recipe. The kuih was given by someone from Penang. All she knew was that Yam Kuih had pork belly in it and that was why it tasted soooo good. Ever since, that particular taste of Woo Tau Koh has been “haunting” me and my hubby.
Last week, I had bought a recipe book specializing in traditional Malaysian desserts and kuih muih and I was so happy to find in there a Yam Rice Kuih recipe that has pork belly as an ingredient as the other recipes I had came across never did. So, I quickly bought all the necessary ingredients to test out this recipe on Saturday ……. and ……..
I am very happy that the Woo Tau Koh turned out sooo delicious! :D
My family said it was the best they ever had - we enjoyed it so much that we had Yam Kuih for lunch and tea on the same day, and more on the next day for breakfast! :lol:
So, here is my recipe which was slightly modified from the one in the book and you know me by now – I always cook a lot for my family and the recipe here makes one huge tray of Woo Tau Koh, measuring 18 inches in diameter and 2 1/2 inches high. You may like to cut down the ingredients by half for your family. 
Yam Kuih or Woo Tau Koh
Ingredients & Method -
Dried Shrimps, Rice Flour, Corn Flour, Yam
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800 gm pork belly or streaky pork – cleaned. Steam for 10 minutes over high heat. Then chop coarsely. Marinate with 1 tsp salt, 2 tbsps soy sauce, 1 tsp white pepper.
160 gm dried shrimps, rinsed clean and then soaked in half cup of water for 10 minutes. Remove shrimps from water and chop coarsely. Reserve liquid for flour mixture later.
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1 kg yam, peeled and diced
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2 rice bowls of homemade fried golden shallots – 1 bowl for mixing into the rice flour mixture, 1 bowl for garnishing the top of the kuih
(Reserve 10 tbsps of the fried shallot oil for cooking yam, shrimps and pork)
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To make this rice flour mixture, you need to mix the following in a bowl -
600 gm rice flour
100 gm corn fkiur
100 gm all purpose flour
10 cups water
Liquid left from soaking dried shrimps
2 ikan bilis or chicken stock cubes (or 4 tbsps of stock granules)
1 tbsp white pepper
1 tsp 5-spice powder (optional)
4 tbsp salt (or to taste
Method -
1) In a wok, heat up the 10 tbsps of shallot oil.
2) Put in the chopped pork and dried shrimps. Fry for about 2 minutes.
3) Tip in the diced yam and fried golden shallots, and stirfry everything until aromatic….about 5 minutes.
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5) Pour the rice flour mixture into the wok now. Stir thoroughly to mix the flours and water
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6) Keep stirring until the mixture gets thickened like in the picture above. Pour into a pre-oiled (using more fried shallot oil) metal tray.
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7) Smoothen the surface of the kuih and steam for 1 hour over high heat.
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8 ) Let cool, and then garnish with fried golden shallots, chopped green onions and red chili. Serve Yam Kuih with some sweet sauce (teem cheong) or hoisin sauce and chili sauce.
Because my tray of Woo Tau Koh was so huge, it took a long time for it to cool down completely (more than 45 minutes). My hubby was too hungry to wait and we had it while it was still warm, which was a mistake – the kuih was still too soft for cutting and was a bit gooey. So, the trick is to let the Yam Kuih cool down completely and let stand for at least an hour more to get the best texture. 
I hope this recipe works for you, too, and do let me know how your Woo Tau Koh turns out for this recipe.
Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!
choesf “D
ChChinese Barley
). 
