Waterchestnut Jelly/ Ma Ti Gao

Note: the recipe has been corrected on 30/1/09. I made a mistake with the cup measurement.


Waterchestnut jelly

I bet those of you celebrating Chinese New Year (CNY) are up busy running around shopping and cooking and getting stuck in the traffic. Would you believe me if I tell you I haven't started cooking yet because there's no space in my fridge to store whatever I cook. I'm very stressed at the thought of baking over the next few days.

On the first day of CNY (which falls on Monday 26th Jan this year), I go really traditional and breakfast is always nien gao (sticky cake), lo boh gao (Chinese radish cake) ma ti gao (waterchestnut jelly cake) and tang sui. I'd have the Chinese radio station on full blast, and for once I welcome the crazy irritating CNY songs for their merriment, gaiety and cacophony. I'd shout for the kids to get up (it's so different from my time when we respected and feared our dad and get up early on our own), get upset that every year I have to prod them into wishing me "Gong Xi Fa Cai" before giving them their angpows, a small red envelope with 'lucky' money inside, given to all the unmarried.

I make extra gaos for anyone who comes to bai nien (ushering the new year by visiting friends in their homes). This year, we've been having rain non-stop for the past 10 days and I couldn't make any prawn crackers. Also, I found out that those greyish thin-skinned prawns in the market are cultivated prawns and I've stayed away since. Besides the mandarin oranges and candies and melon seeds, I will have prune lapis cakes, pineapple tarts and honeycomb cakes for visitors to my house. I'm still deciding whether to make the seaweed crackers Nee posted recently. And if you are lucky, I may still have some ma ti gao leftover.

Ma ti gao is found in dim sum places, but are usually not tasty because there's so little waterchestnuts and too much flour. I love my MIL's best friend's ma ti gao. It has chunks and chunks of ma ti and the jelly is soft yet chewy. It tastes good when cold, good when fried and hot. It is easy to make so I usually make a large one and keep it in the fridge. Or my mom's fridge, because my fridges are just bursting with CNY food like chinese sausages and seafood and meat, bought early because the prices will go double and stores will be closed for about 2 days, some 4, to avoid opening on the unlucky fourth day (just because 'four' in Chinese--and Japanese, and Korean, btw--sounds the same as 'death') of CNY.

There's still time to go grab a bag of waterchestnuts (look for full, round shiny ones) and make this gao. As with nearly all Chinese 'cakes', no butter or eggs are used so you can chomp away without fear. Just remember to fear the koe rou, yuan ti, sausages, roasted ducks, fried prawns, boiled chickens, sweet sour fish, stuffed tofu balls and whatever your family dishes, for the 15 days of CNY.

Ma Ti Gao
300 g* waterchestnut flour
700ml water
--mix until smooth

2 packets (about 0.9 kg) waterchestnuts, unpeeled
--peel, wash, smash and dice

700ml water
300 g rock sugar

*A packet of w/chestnut flour is 250g you can decrease the amount of water and sugar accordingly. Apparently waterchestnut flour is available in loose form, packed in plastic bags.

1. Peel the waterchestnuts, smash lightly with a cleaver and dice into small chunks or finer bits if like. Boil the rock sugar and water until the sugar has melted, add the diced waterchestnuts and heat through i.e. until it starts to boil, switch off the heat, add the waterchestnut flour batter through a sieve and 1 T oil, stirring well. It is good to have an extra pair of hands in this step. The mixture will thicken and become slightly translucent, especially if mixture is very hot.

2. Grease a pan (size depending on the thickness you want), tip the batter in, level and steam at high heat for 30 to 40 minutes.

3. Let the gao cool before cutting. It's best to chill it first, preferably overnight.

The gao can be served chilled but usually it's cut into small pieces and pan-fried in a little oil and served hot or warm.