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Kepal a Traditional Malay cake...



I am not sure whether you folks out there know about the delicious simple traditional kueh that is made of leftover rice. We call it Kepal but maybe others may have another name for it. Anyhow it the period before the coming of the refrigerator where it difficult to keep leftover rice overnight. It would go stale or Basi in Malay. Nothing could be done about leftover rice that is left overnight except to feed the chicken in the early morning. Since steamed rice cannot be kept overnight and carry forward like we do now by putting it in the fridge and reheat it the next day, folks during that period came out with an ingenious way of turning the leftover rice into cake before it goes stale. When I was growing up at my father’s restaurant in Kuantan before we had the fridge, the restaurant at time has left over rice, so with ingenuity they found a way to turn the leftover rice into other food that could consumed later. They turn the leftover rice into Kepal. At individual home housewife do that too and enjoy it at teatime. What folks at that time did was to dry in the Sun the leftover rice that is yet to go stale. It may take hours or days before the leftover rice is completely dried. It is then fry lightly; then shred coconut and palm sugar are added. The mixture is then pound into rough pulps using lesong. It is then mold by hands and turned into a small kueh that we call Kepal. Ready to eat.  Voila! you got there a delicious kueh made of leftover rice. Nowadays I no longer see such cakes since folks no longer need to turn it into Kepal. Leftover rice can now be kept fresh for a long time in the fridge. Now I do miss the Kepal. Anyone out there who still makes this Kepal, would love to have some. My two cents.
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