Thursday, November 12, 2009

Gendang Kasturi

Now don't be afraid of the name.These are simply sweet mung bean fritters Malaysian style.The cooked whole moong are mixed with sweetneer and coconut and optionally pandan leaves and are dipped in a batter and deep fried.'Gendang' stands from 'Drum' and Kasturi means 'mask' or depending on the sentences it can also be taken to mean 'trap'. Rather we can say the mung beans are sweetened and encased in a drum like trap/case. Thats the closest translation I could find regarding the name.I do not know Malay and do not think I will be mastering it. :).Whatever it is if you feel this dish is similar to the 'sukhiyan' (Kerala style green gram fritters) or moolik/muleek as it is called in Konkani,then do not blame me,just enjoy the sweet.

I found several recipes for this- mostly in Malay language and have adapted mine from here and here. These are also known as kuih rengas (kuih = snack; rengas I do not know) or Cucur kacang (Cucur = fried; kacang / kacang hijau = dried mung beans) etc. These are supposed to be equally famous in Singapore and Indonesia as well.

Ingredients:
Whole green Mung / Green Gram : 1/4 cup
Fresh grated coconut: 2-3 tbsp
Sugar: 3-4 tbsp +/-

Batter:
Rice Flour: 1/2 cup +/-
Turmeric Powder: a pinch
Salt: a pinch
Water

Oil for Deep frying

Preparation:
Cook the mung beans till soft and mushy.This can be done in a pressure cooker or stove top and I did the former.Mix sugar and coconut to mung and continue to cook it on stove top stirring it (so that it does not burn and stick to the pan) and lightly mashing it till turns into a completely dry and sweet mass. This filling will be non sticky and you should be able to shape patties from this.Make small patties by pinching out handful from the green mass.

Prepare the batter by adding salt,turmeric and water to the rice flour.Here you can go for a thin or thick batter depending on taste.
Dip the patties in to the batter and deep fry in hot oil in batches if needed.Drain on paper towels and serve as a snack.

The green gram fritters remind me of sukhiyan /muleeku.I enjoyed it and a fresh warm batch is off to AWED:Malaysia an event by DK and currently at Annarasa.

8 Comments:

Tina said...

Looks yummyyyy

Priya Suresh said...

WOw malaysian fritters looks fantastic CL!

Pari Vasisht said...

I saw the original post, urs looks better than that.

Cham said...

I never even heard this one! The batter crust is very gorgeous!

Ann said...

WOW! very unique and new recipe..looks tasty

Unknown said...

ohh great they are looks similar to moong vadas na but they are sweet looks so tempting... nice recipe dear BTW I reached safely wil try to post some my mom special dishes..Thank you dear..

lubnakarim06 said...

Wow..that's an yum recipe....simple yet delish...

AJ said...

Lovely recipe Sweatha!! Do drop by for the roundup.

Apu@ Annarasa

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