Much like many other kuih muih, Cucur Badak calls for really basic ingredients – sweet potatoes, flour, dried prawns and grated coconut.
But it is the preparation that creates the flavour.
A filling made with grated coconut seasoned with turmeric, lemon grass, red chillies and dried prawns is wrapped in mashed sweet potato dough and deep-fried to golden perfection – now how is that for intense flavour?
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 450 g sweet potatoes
- 90 g all-purpose flour
- Small fresh prawns for garnishing, with shells and heads on if possible
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 pinch salt
For the filling:
- 300 g grated coconut
- 90 g dried prawns
- 1 clove garlic*
- 3 shallots*
- 6 fresh or dried red chillies*
- 1 stalk lemon grass, only the white part*
- 1 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 5 slices peeled fresh ginger*
- Salt to taste
- Sugar to taste, palm sugar preferred
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
Method
For the dough:
- Boil the sweet potatoes for 15 minutes. Once cooked through, peel and mash them in a big bowl.
- Mix the mashed sweet potatoes with the flour, sugar and salt until a soft dough is formed. It should not be too sticky. Add more flour if it is.
For the filling:
- Pound all the ingredients marked with the * together.
- Soak the dried prawns in hot water for 15 minutes and then pound it. Set aside.
- Heat the cooking oil and fry the pounded ingredients with the dried prawns until fragrant.
- Add the grated coconut and mix well along with salt and sugar to taste.
- Set aside and let the filling cool.
Assembly:
- Dust your hands with a little flour and take a bit of dough and roll it into a small ball. Then flatten it and put some filling in the middle.
- Cover the filling and press one small prawn into the top.
- Repeat this process until all the dough is used up.
- Heat oil and deep-fry until golden brown.
This recipe first appeared in Rasa Malaysia
Low Bee Yinn is a food blogger and cookbook author.