KO EN ES PT FR Indonesian Snack⏱ 55 minEdit history

Kembang Goyang (Rice Flour Rosette Fritters)

Name: Kembang Goyang (Rice Flour Rosette Fritters)
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Indonesian
Ingredients: 150 g rice flour; 30 g plain flour; 1 egg; 60 g sugar; 200 ml coconut milk; 1 pinch salt; 1 tbsp white sesame seeds; 1 l oil for frying; 1 kembang goyang mould

A Betawi snack from Indonesia: a thin batter of rice flour, egg, sugar and coconut milk, picked up on a flower-shaped iron that has been heated in the oil, then fried and shaken off the iron. The name means "shaking flower". The batter cooks on the outside of the hot iron, not inside it.

Steps

Beat the egg and sugar until the sugar dissolves, then add the rice flour, plain flour and salt and pour in the coconut milk a little at a time to a smooth batter. It should run like single cream. Stir in the sesame.
Rest the batter 30 minutes.
⏲ 30 min
Heat at least 5cm of oil to 170°C and put the mould in the oil to heat with it for 2 minutes (deep-frying).
⏲ 2 min
Lift the hot mould out, let the excess oil drip off, and dip it into the batter four-fifths of the way up. If the batter covers the top, it closes over the iron and will not come off.
Lower it straight into the oil. After 20-30 seconds, once the outside has set, shake the mould gently until the fritter drops off. If it sticks, push the edge with a chopstick.
⏲ 30 sec
Fry the loose fritter, turning it, until pale gold.
⏲ 1 min
Drain it standing on edge, return the mould to the oil to heat again, and make the next one. They crisp as they cool. Keep them in an airtight tin.

Variations

With pandan. Replace some of the coconut milk with pandan juice for a green colour.
Coloured. A drop of food colouring makes them pink or yellow.
Malaysian kuih loyang. The same snack under another name.

Tips

Heat the mould in the oil. Batter will not cling to a cold iron.
Do not let the batter cover the top of the mould.
Reheat the mould in the oil after every fritter.
If the batter thickens, add a little coconut milk. Too thick and the pattern blurs.

More detail and the reasons why (1)

The batter cooks on the outside of the mould. Sel roti has to hold its own ring in the oil, so its batter's consistency is everything; mianwo pours its batter into a ladle-shaped mould that holds the shape for it. Kembang goyang dips an iron heated in the oil into the batter, and only the thin layer that touches the hot metal sets and comes away with it. So the batter can be thin, but a mould that has cooled picks up nothing. The "shaking" in the name is the movement that frees the set fritter from the iron.