Teochew La Ko ~ Steamed Mooncake

A few readers have been asking me for mooncake recipes. To be honest, I have only just finished making my traditional baked types, and I have not even started with my snowskin. I doubt I would have the time to sit down and write all the details.

This year, I spent quite a fair bit of time making my own paste, including the lotus, red bean and mung bean paste. It was a lot of work because I had problems getting to the right texture I wanted. Too wet, you can't wrap or bake them. Too dry, they get crumbly or burnt. So even though my fillings are all wrap-able, I have to succumb to the fact that homemade ones would not be as refined and chewy as those ready made paste. But taste wise, they are all authentically flavourful. Well, the red bean paste does taste like red bean.

I guess I would not be blogging about the skin recipe for mooncake this time cos I want to spend some more time to fully understand the paste-making process, and the other little aspects of it. Instead I would like to blog this recipe, which is so much more simpler than traditional mooncake making.

La Ko is basically a traditional Teochew steamed mooncake. Once you make your own, you will never, never, ever again want to buy one. That, I can guarantee. I have made four of this so far. One I dropped accidentally after steaming, one I gave away but the other two are almost all gone by now.

Make 2 X 8 inch plates
350gm of moon cake flour aka Goa feng aka cooked glutinous rice flour
320gm of water
200gm of sugar
90gm of oil
additional 150gm of water
1 big sheet of bean curd sheet

Topping/ Garnishing:
1 no of dry persimmon, sliced thinly
1 no of sweet dry orange, chopped into bits
4-6tbsp of sesame seed, toasted
6-8 pieces of sweet dry melon, sliced thinly
6-8 red dates, sliced thinly
4-6 tbsp of melon seed/ kua zi, toasted

1) Cook sugar with water till all sugar melts. Let it cool. Set aside.

2)In a large bowl, sift flour in. Separate a hole in the middle. Add sugar water and 1/2 of the oil amount. Stir till even. Slowly add in rest of oil and the additional water portion. It may get a little too wet, so don't add all the amount of the second water portion all at once. Knead into a dough. Note: The dough will not be a smooth one.

3) Divide into two equal portion. Roll out a little with the thicker portion in the centre and wrap in 150gm of preferred paste. I use red bean paste. I think the flavour goes really well. Roll out gently and carefully into almost the size of the 8 inch metal plates. At this stage the dough may get a little messy and the surface is not smooth.

4) Line the metal plate with slightly wet beancurd sheet. Place the dough onto the metal plate and pat to smoothen the sides.

5) Steam on med-hi for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 mins, covered with aluminium foil. Add toppings immediately when out of the steamer. Sesame seeds are added last, so that the rest of the ingredients can stick on first. Cool overnight before serving. You can dish it out of the plates to serve. You can also serve it cold. It can re-steamed if you keep in refridgerator.

This is a wonderfully simple mooncake to make, and it looks as impressive as it tastes. The red bean paste used can be those softer types used for pau making. It's not necessary to use those firm ones used for the traditional mooncake. I strongly suggest homemade paste as you might not want those substandard ones from outside.

Have a good yummy celebration!