Red Vegetarian Red Tortoise Bun – Ang Mi Ku

Ang Mi Ku or Red Vegetarian Red Tortoise Bun is very popular in the Northern States of Malaysia especially in Penang and Butterworth. It is one of the must have offering during Chinese religious festival and you will see many of them are lined up at the prayers altar. The most common ones are red but you will sometimes see other different colours Mi Ku too. Some comes with head and legs just like a tortoise which is also a symbol of longivity. Mi Ku taste nice if eaten just the way it is or for extra kick you can dip it in curry just like roti canai (Malaysian Pancake). Sometime I will fry them in flour batter. Yummy and delicious!

Here is the recipe for Mi Ku

Mix 1 teaspoon of dry yeast and 2 table spoons of sugar in warm water (leave it for 15 minutes)
Pour the mixture into 500gms of wheat flour and knead the dough until they are well mix.
Take some dough and make it into tortoise shell shape and colour the outer layer with red food dye (Optional). Cut some grease paper and put the bun on it so that it will not stick to the steaming pan.
Cover up the tortoise bun with towel and put aside for the yeast to do their work for around 3 hours.
Steam the buns using high heat for 20 minutes.