This soft, slightly bouncy savory steamed rice cake is topped with dried shrimp topping is one of my favorite snacks. The kue is naturally gluten-free.
Line you pan with a piece of banana leaf at the bottom or parchment paper if you don't have banana leaves
Prepare the topping:
Soak the dried shrimp in warm water until soft. Discard water and finely chop the dried shrimp or you can use a food processor to shred it
Soak the chye poh in water for about 10 minutes to get rid of extra saltiness. Discard soaking water and finely chopped
Preheat a large skillet. Add cooking oil. Saute onion, garlic for about 1 minute. Add dried shrimp and chye poh, and sambal oelek (if using) and saute for about 2-3 minutes. Add salt and sugar to your taste. Remove from the heat and set aside to let it cool down
Prepare the cake batter:
Bring the water in the steamer to a simmer. Wrap the lid with a cloth to prevent water condensation from dripping on the cake surface. Combine rice flour, tapioca flour, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Strain into a large skillet or pot
Put on the stove and turn the heat on to the lowest heat and keep stirring. You will see some lumps starting to form at the bottom of the pot. Turn off the heat. We just want to cook until it's slightly thickened. The mixture is just still slightly thickened with some lumps but pourable and runny. Pour this into the prepared pan. Don't worry about the lumps. They will even out during steaming
Steaming:
Steam the cake over medium heat for 30 minutes or until the cake is dry and springy to touch on top and if a cake tester inserted into a cake will come out pretty clean
Let it cool down completely before removing it from the pan. This may take 2 hours or so
Serving:
Unmold the kue talam from the pan by loosening the four edges with a spatula or knife. Put a serving plate on top and then flip the kue talam over. Sprinkle with the topping all over the surface. Garnish with chopped green onion and fried shallots