Cucur Badak Recipe
December 22nd, 2006 | Eating Light, Malaysian Recipes | 16 Comments
One of my favorite Malay kuih-muih (local cakes and sweet treats) is Cucur Badak. Much like many other Malaysian creations, Cucur Badak calls for really basic ingredients–sweet potatoes, flour, and grated coconut–but it’s the preparation method of these everyday ingredients that makes the taste ingeniously flavorful…
If you’ve tried Pulut Udang before, you will get the idea of how Cucur Badak tastes like. Filled with grated coconut seasoned with turmeric, lemon grass, red chilies, and dried shrimps, the fillings are wrapped with sweet potatoes dough instead of glutinous rice. And instead of grilling them over fire, they are deep fried to golden brown…well, you get the idea.
I am constantly amazed by the art of making kuih-muih: the techniques, the shapes, the ingredients, and the plain creativity behind each recipe. I am learning the how-to’s slowly but surely; hopefully I will be able to make more of these delights in the near future.
Cucur Badak Recipe
Ingredients :
For the dough
1 lb sweet potatoes (boiled and mashed)
10 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Small shrimps for garnishing (with shells and heads on)
1 tablespoon of sugar
A pinch of salt
For the filling
4 cups of grated coconut
1/2 cup of dried shrimps
1 garlic*
3 shallots *
6 fresh red chillies (or dried red chilies)*
1 lemon grass (use only the white part)*
1 1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder
5 slices of peeled fresh ginger*
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste (palm sugar preferred)
2 tablespoons cooking oil
Method:
For the dough
- Boil the sweet potatoes in hot boiling water for 15 minutes.
- Peel the skin off the boiled sweet potatoes and mash them in a big bowl
- Mix the mashed sweet potatoes with flour, sugar, and salt till a soft dough is formed. The dough shouldn’t be too sticky. If too sticky, add more flour to the mixture.
For the filling
- Pound all the (*) ingredients.
- Soak the dried shrimps in hot water for 15 minutes and then pound them. Set aside.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil and add in the pounded ingredients plus the pounded dried shrimps. Fry till fragrant.
- Add in the grated coconut and mix well.
- Add in salt and sugar to taste.
- Set aside and let it cool.
For the wrapping
- Dust your hands with some flour and take a bit of dough (about the size of a small ball), flatten it and put the filling in the middle.
- Cover the filling and press one small shrimp on top of the dough.
- Heat oil and fry till golden brown.
Note:
- I couldn’t find any small shrimps with shells on, so I used peeled small shrimps instead.
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As born and raised Malaysian, what is this snack looking food?
I can sorta imagine what that tastes like, and it just sent me to my happy place.
- Chubbypanda
wahhhhh looks really good …i think i can smell the aroma thru my monitor!
Yum yum! One of my fave snacks (along with the other cucur, cucur udang). Looks so lovely!
strangely enough, i prefer malay kuih to chinese kuih (i never like those nyonya kuih except kuih talam), and cucur badak is one of my favourite (because of the shrimp. haha).
Anonymous – they are a kind of Malay kuih. You can find them at Malay kuih stalls. Try them, they are delicious.
CP – Imagine no more…pack up and go to Malaysia for your next vacation.
Teckiee – yes, they were good. I still have a couple frozen ones in my freezer.
WMW – Cucur Udang is good.
Lucia – you can certainly go out lunches and dinners with me as we love the same kinds of food (I will call you up when I go back to Penang for CNY!). LOL!
that looks so tasty
*drool*
hmmm i have never seen these cucuk badak before. is it a North Malaysia food? Maybe I should specifically look out for it. :)
Keropok Man,
Yeah, they are not easy to find even in Malaysia and it’s getting tougher and tougher to find nowadays :(.
I am not sure about Singapore, but you can try out Malay kuih stalls and ask them for Cucur Badak. :)
Looks so yummy.I’m drooling all over the place
I sort of imagine the taste, I never tried those before. What a treat they seem.
hi..
just wanna share some of my homemade kuih-kuih..some are nyonya kuih, malay kuih n even mat salleh’s kuih..:D
http://www.geocities.com/ninopod/images/kuih2nadia.jpg
errr…mind the pics…taken in rush
Call me ignorant, but I don’t know much about Far Eastern ingredients, although I’m very willing to learn. These dried shrimps, why do you use them? Why not fresh shrimp? Is there a difference in taste? I’ve been eyeing the dried shrimp paste in my pantry lately, but I have no idea how to cook with it…
Thanks so much for this recipe. Looks authentic and wonderful! Cucur badak is something I’ve enjoyed from young. Now I can make it while living abroad. You’re a blogosphere national treasure!
I’ve tried your Cucur Badak recipe but without deepfrying (can’t deal with the oil smell in the aftermath). The sweet potato dough was too ‘wet and sticky’ to form into balls, so I put the lot in a glass casserole dish in the oven. Taste was good, but by then i had added too much flour to the sweet potato (in a vain attempt to make it less sticky).
But thanks for all the tips and great flavours.
That cucur badak looks good. It one of my fav kuih too. Thanks for sharing the easy recipe.