Steamed Water Chestnut Cake
I grew up drinking cooling herbal tea brewed with them.
My cousins & I used to look forward to devouring the chestnuts after draining the piping hot tea at rocket speed. If grandma was not looking, we will climb onto the high stove & scoop them out with those huge soup ladle, that were waay to heavy for our little bodies to handle ---> So dangerous but such fun !!!
Whenever I eat chestnuts now.…the nostalgic feel towards them never fail to overwhelm me.
Where I live, there are no fresh markets within the vicinity, getting hold of fresh unpeeled water chestnuts is not easy.
And the nearest supermart rarely stocks them too.
Sometime before the Chinese New Year, while I was doing my grocery shopping, I chanced upon them.
Probably it’s due to this period, supermarts stocked a huge variety of fresh produce & water chestnut was one of them.
This was my first time handling fresh water chestnuts and I was pretty clueless on how about in de-shelling them painlessly.
Anyhow, I still managed to try out this steamed water chestnut cake despite my utmost effort in getting as much flesh as possible from my very clumsy & impatient attempt in peeling them as de-skinning them were sure no easy feat.
It was a real workout for my ‘nimble’ fingers….
I was smart & got more than required knowing I will munch as I disrobe them
…nothing beats the sweetness of those freshly peeled nuts …& the crunch is immeasurable, elf too enjoyed nibbling along.
Making this cake was another 1st; I did not really like the outcome of the cake. The texture was a tad too hard for my liking.
I followed the recipe very closely, really wondered what went wrong.
Then again, I am sure most will nod & agree with me that some recipes in cookbooks never work anyway.
All about -
Steamed Cakes
