Kue Kape
Sari gave me a family recipe a while back and I just realised I never gave it to you. I feel rather guilty, because those of you with waffle irons and a love of SE Asian food will want to taste this one.
Australia is culturally mixed. Sometimes we’re culturally mixed up, but that’s another issue entirely.
This recipe is a small illustration of how some recipes survive when cultures combine into a family and some don’t. In my family, as you’ve seen, the festive meals have a touch of central and Eastern Europe about them, but everyday we have eaten a very Anglo cuisine for as long as I can remember. My family, however, has been here at least 150 years (on my father’s mother’s side, at least) – many families tended to Anglo-centrism a hundred years ago. These days things are different. Sari’s family has kept many more dishes from more diverse cuisines, which means that some of their food is just fantastic. Kue Kape is one of those dishes.
Kue Kape
Ground fresh sticky rice (ground in a shop, 2 days in advance and soaked overnight before cooking), fresh coconut cream, eggs and white sugar. Mix dough.
Light coals and put the waffle iron on coal and heat until hot. Add batter and tip over base. It cooks almost instantly, especially if you use the preferred thin layer of dough. Excess batter runs into a bowl. Close the iron for maybe 2 minutes. Peel off thin wafer with fingers. Person sitting next to you folds it after you have cooked it. It will cool and crisp very quickly, less than a minute.
This dish is a very social one. Creating it is a family event, like Australian Italians making passata. Sari’s family makes their own and stores it in a tin.
PS I’m making oxtail soup, which means my whole unit smells of … oxtail soup.
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