Angkoos Galore!

Ever since I started making angkoos a couple of weeks back, I have been busy trying out various flavours and colours using all-natural ingredients.  For the past few weekends, the steamer in my kitchen has been put to good use and by now, members of my family have gotten quite tired of tasting the angkoos I make!  Fortunately, my neighbour is still very receptive towards my kuih offers, LOL!

From the very first attempt and subsequent attempt when my purple angkoos were born, I turned green and orange in my next few testing episodes.  For the green colouring, I used the all-Malaysian favourite pandan leaves which not only imparted the most delightful refreshing greeney fragrance but also gave the kuihs a startling green hue…

Don’t you think they kinda look like those ancient jade pendants?  That’s why I’m naming them my Jade Angkoos, lol!  Tired of the usual mungbean filling, I tried using coconut flakes – I cooked them with some gula melaka (palm sugar) first.  Generally, coconuts go well with pandan-flavoured kuihs.

Our local sweet potatoes come in various colours – choose the orange ones, like I did, to give your angkoos this beautiful shine … my Orange Sunshine!

I tried using crushed peanuts for the filling and it turned out to be a hit! *winks at Devil!*

Oh, I have to thank Kenny Mah and Devil for so graciously agreeing to test and taste these for me…

I got conned at the pasar malam recently when I wanted to buy more purple sweet potatoes.  I was reassured that those were indeed the purple strain but when I steamed and mashed them, what I got was a dull greyish colour!  So what to do, what to do?!  A flash of inspiration – I rummaged through my larder and came up with a packet of black sesame!  So I toasted that, pounded the sesame and added it to my angkoo dough – all is not lost!

Hmmm… what shall I name them?  Black Beauty? or just plain old Black Sesame Angkoo?

Last Saturday when I was strolling through the pasar pagi, I saw some organic beetroot in one of the stalls and bought a medium-sized one.  I was excited to see what the beetroot can do, in terms of colouring and flavour!

I was totally blown away by the vibrant pink that the beetroot gave to the angkoos!  I used less than half a beetroot to get this gorgeous shade of pink…

I have yet to name this “model” – anyone has any good ideas?

Not satisfied with the last batch of so-called purple sweet potatoes which turned out grey, I bought another batch from a grocer in my neighbourhood and got these lovely lilac-hued angkoos…

So there we have it… these are the variants that I have experimented on so far.  There are a few other fresh ingredients I want to try but meanwhile, I’ll just let my poor family members have a rest from the endless trays of angkoos that had been churned out from my kitchen recently… unless there are some volunteers out there willing to be my “guinea pigs” on this Project Angkoo?!