Date: 18 Jan 2008 Comments: 0

Yes I know some are too brown. Doesn’t it gives you the authentic homemade feel?

Do you like beehive snacks, or as the Hokkiens called it “beet phang siew”? I love this snack, and we Cantonese refer to it as “mat fung tau”. For as long as I could remember, every year during Chinese New Year Auntie Khim’s mother-in-law will give us some of her homemade beehive snacks, and after much persuasion, she taught my aunt, and mum and I went to aunt’s house to get some hands on to make this snacks. Worry not, its safe and easy! I even provide the step-by-step procedure, complete with pictures.

The downside of asking and elder about recipe is, things are done in agak-agak (estimation). No matter, we will proceed! The ingredients are all shown in the picture:

4 eggs
3/4 bowl of sugar
milk of one coconut, squeezed fresh, approx. 1 small bowl
1 big bowl of rice flour
2 soup spoon all purpose flour

Step1: First, get a big pot, something that will most likely fit all the ingredients plus some room for movement. Crack in eggs and add in the sugar.

Step 2: Stir until egg and sugar mixture is mixed thoroughly.

Step 3: Add in the santan (coconut milk) and stir until it is evenly mixed.

Step 4: Now, add in the flour (Ohya, please mix the rice flour and all purpose flour thoroughly beforehand) and stir until everything is mixed.

Like this!

Step 5: Run the mixture through a sieve to remove clumps.

This, is the mould. You can get them in baking goods store, or even those old school shops selling kitchenwares.

Step 6: Here comes the tricky part. Heat up sufficient oil in a wok. When the oil is hot enough, leave the mould in the oil to heat it up. Dry the mould if you washed it beforehand, you wouldn’t want oil to spit at you, right?

Step 7: Transfer some of the mixture into a clean, deep bowl. Dip the heated mould into the mixture. The mixture will coat the mould because the mould is hot.

Step 8: Now quickly transfer the mould into the hot oil. Gently shake off the mixture, and the formed beehive snack will separate from the mould. Do as many times as you wish until the mixture finishes.

For the first few beehives you might not get it right. Try to get the perfect beehives by experimenting with the temperature of the oil.

Step 9: It is important to have someone to look after the frying beehive snacks while another one make more beehive snacks. Remember to Scoop and throw away all those stray dough or they will burn and stick to the beautifully fried beehive snacks.

Step 10: Oh, do prepare some kitchen towels on plates to let the beehives cool down. The kitchen towel also helps soaking up excessive oil.

Store them in airtight container and wait until Chinese New Year! Don’t finish them all in one sitting!