French toast mee koo

French toast mee koo

The best gifts that you can give anyone will be the gifts that come from your heart, don’t you agree? For example, home-cooked dishes, handmade soaps, chilli sauces, jams, pickles etc.

In the past few days, I received two special gifts – (1) homemade steamed turtle buns and (2) home cooked gula melaka sago (sago in gula melaka). What a TREAT! And how lucky and blessed my family and I are.

Today I am going to share with you one of my childhood favourites – french toast mee koo. But before that, let’s talk a little bit about mee koo.

Picture source: Nonya Flavours – Compilation of 150 original recipes handed from mother to daughter, or aunt to niece through several generations.

Mee Koo is a hokkien word for steamed turtle buns. They are actually Chinese steamed buns set in a turtle shape.

Why turtle?

Tortoise / turtle is believed to have a long life, thus the buns are shaped as turtles to symbolise longevity. However, nowadays, it is common to see mee koo in the shape of a round cloured bun.

We normally make these buns during festivities like Chinese New Year, birthdays, during hungry ghosts festival etc, and coloured in a layer of pink bread skin to celebrate the auspicious celebrations. I still remember my grandma having them at the altar during Chinese new year offerings.

How do you eat them?

1. Steam it and eat it just as it is. Because there is already sugar in the bun, it is already sweet by itself.
2. Dip in curry sauces.
3. Steam it and apply jam or kaya (coconut egg custard) to it.
4. French toast style – mee koo

So today, I am going to share with you how to make French toast mee koo. Remember, because the bun itself is very sweet, you do not need to add sugar to the egg.

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp cooking oil
• 2 eggs beaten
• 1-2 loaf of mee koo; peel the skin and slice about 2cm in width.

Method:

• Heat up pan, add cooking oil.
• Once the pan is heated, dip mee koo into the egg mixture, soaking both sides thoroughly.
• Place mee koo slices on pan on medium heat until browned and crisp on both sides.
• Serve hot with kopi or coffee.

Enjoy!!

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