Contributor: Ho Siew Loon
Happy New Year! Last week, my neighbors and I had a wonderful potluck party to usher in 2010 and one of the special traditional delicacies that I learned from a neighbor is her ever popular Chai Kueh. Her Chai Kueh has always been a hit at all our gatherings. I have always enjoyed the chewy texture of Chai Kueh and since it is steamed, it is a rather healthy snack to enjoy……(get Chai Kueh recipe after the jump)
Chai Kueh (Vegetable Dumplings) is a typical Chinese snack. This snack is very popular among the Teochew and Hakka especially the older generation. The skill in making Chai Kueh lies in the skin as to achieve the soft, chewy and translucent-like sheen. Stir fried jicama (yam bean) is then wrapped in the crystal like skin. The soft chewy skin blended together with the slightly crunchy vegetables makes it a simply irresistible snack at any time of the day.
If you like this recipe, please also check out other similar recipes: kuih kosui, spiral curry puff, layer cake (kek lapis).
Fillings Ingredients
300-400g jicama (yam bean)
3 Tbsp Dried Prawns ( optional)
100g Carrots
1 Tbsp Chopped Garlic
Salt
Pepper
Method :
- Wash and soak dried prawns for 10-15 minutes. Chop it coarsely.
- Shread yam bean (jicama) and carrots into long strips.
- Heat up 4-5 Tbsp oil and stir in garlic till fragrant.
- Add in dried prawns and fry till fragrant.
- Add in yam bean (jicama) and and carrots. Stir fry for about 5 minutes and let it simmer till vegetable is soft and cooked. Add in salt and pepper to taste.
- Leave it to cool.
Pastry/Skin Ingredients
165 g Wheat Starch Flour ( Tung Mein Fun)
85 g Tapioca Flour
420 g hot boiling water
5 Tbsp oil
Method :
- Mixed wheat starch flour and tapioca flour in a large mixing bowl.
- Add in boiling water and mixed it thoroughly with long wooden spoon till you get a translucent like dough.
- Close it up and let it rest for 10 minutes.
- Add in oil gradually and knead into a smooth dough.
- Rolled out dough into a long sausage roll and divide into about 30 pieces.
To make Chai Kueh:
- Prepare the steamer.
- Lightly oiled the steaming tray.
- Roll out the skin pastry into a circle with about 7 cm diameter.
- Put 1 Tbsp filling in the center.
- Pleat the edge of the skin and wrapped it up tightly.
- Arrange the Chai kueh on the steaming tray. Brush with some oil before steaming.
- Steam for 12 minutes or until the skin is translucent.
{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
This is one of my all time fav!!! I’ve heard the skin is “very” difficult to make. From yr recipe it looks “easy” … sigh … still don’t dare to try!!!
This is a nice way to start the New Year’s Diet :)
Hi Siew Loon,
Happy New Year! Thanks for another fabulous recipe : )
Your Chai Kueh is really pretty. How do you pleat the skin?
Thx.
It is nice if I can see the step of how to make the SKIN of chai kueh…em….can you post up the photos? i like eat Chai Kueh but love to try it but yet…do not know how to start it…. :)
If it’s a dumpling I like it,alot, this would suit the vegetarian side of my family well. Thank you for sharing.
Wow yummy i will try to make it tis weekend.. always love tis dumpling.. is it also known as “soo kueh” ..
I love this, but too much trouble to make **sigh**
Only have this when I go back to Msia. Miss it. Thanks for the recipe. Happy New Year 2010.
Happy New Year Emily. Try this and you can have it anytime, anywhere.
Looks so pretty and delicate!
Thank you.
When offering such dumplings to the Buddha or for Buddhist monks, the kitchen volunteers at our temple don’t add garlic and shrimp (the Buddha forbade monks to eat the former, and the latter’s obviously not vegetarian). Instead, we add chopped ginger, Chinese celery and Chinese mushrooms. It gives the same meaty texture as the shrimp, but is vegan :-)
Thanks for the tips.
I made this last night and had some minor problems. Hope you can advise …
As soon as I add water to the flour mixture, it clump up immediately. Couldn’t stir much. When I started to roll out the pastry, it tears easily.
After steaming, it looks and tasted good … except, it wasn’t “QQ” in texture.
Overall, it wasn’t as daunting as I thought. Actually, it was pretty easy … except for the above “problem”. Any suggestions??
It will be lumpy when u add the boiling water. Water must be very hot. You need to knead while adding the oil. Try to knead with hand if you can. the skin breaks cos not enough kneading. Hope this helps.
I tried it again yesterday. I followed your advise and use “really boiling water” and I knead it for a longer period … while adding oil. I found the skin is more QQ after cooling alittle bit (come to think of it, when we buy it from the Hawker stalls they are cold anyways).
Thanks for the recipe and the advise! I am a very happy that I can make this!!!
This recipe reminds me very fondly of my late step-grandmother. She would always make this whenever we visited her. And so I attempted this recipe over the weekend.. but I encountered the same problem.. the flour mixture clumps up immediately after adding the hot water, even though I was using hot boiling water. But do you think I could use the KitchenAid dough hook attachment to mix the flour mixture instead? I was unable to achieve a translucent like dough at all.
When it was time to knead the dough, I cheated and used the KitchenAid with the hook attachment (thinking it would save me the time and effort). But it was a disaster.. the dough doesn’t seem to form as I would imagine. Plus I think I added the oil too quickly.. and so I ended up having a very oily dough. After like 5 mins with the KitchenAid, I gave up and knead it with my hands for a couple minutes. That seems to help a bit.
More disasters follow as I tried to roll out the dough into circles. The oily texture of the dough allowed me to roll it out fairly easy, but getting it to the right thickness takes some skills. After making 10 of them, I gave up… it was too difficult!
Overall, it is a good recipe. Despite my chai kueh having thick skins, both the skin and filling are both flavorful. My husband says it just takes a bit more practice. I guess I will try it again. :)
Dear W, probably your water is not hot enough, that is why you dont get the translucent dough. It must be really boiling and will help if you ask someone to pour while you stir. Kitchen aid does not work , I have tried it. Knead with your hand if you can , it is a bit hot but the texture is different. This is a traditional hand make kueh.
Thanks Bee & Siew Loon. My sis and I look forward to try this soon!
Can you offer non-metric measurements in your recipes? I would really like to try this, but the metric measures defeat me. Thank you
Thanks for all the recipes and since my family is vegetarian, I had been trying to transform all kinds of malaysian food into vegetarian dishes.
I am a Malaysian but never learned this recipe until I have to learn from my Toisan mother-in-law since this is their traditional dumpling used for big days like CNY or prayers. Since it’s traditional and we tend to make a lot of them for the family, my sister-in-law came out with a good idea. Instead of rolling it with a rolling pin, we uses “tortilla press” and if you wants a thinner skin, just roll out slightly with the rolling pin.
I’m very confused. The ingredients say Jicama,described as Yam Bean, but in the instructions it says Turnips. Which one is it ?
It’s jicama, yam bean or bang kuang. It was a typo in the recipe. However, you can also use turnip for the fillings.
How could I contribute my family recipes here. I am form Sarawak n our local cakes are slightly different from West Malaysia n Singapore, but has a gentle twist towards Indonesian local cakes. I would like to share them with other Malaysian or anyone interested before our young goes out to Bakery.
Thanks so much for willing to share. I will be in touch with you via email.
delish! can I use the skin recipe for gyoza and shu mai?
The skin of gyoza and shu mai are completely different. Sorry, no.
thanks Nyonya! I think I found what I needed for the skin using the one written for potstickers. :)
HELP!! i dunno what i did wrong… but when i poured the hot water and rest for 10 mins i didnt get a dough .. it was watery and is impossible to knead them .. am i suppose to knead them until it become a dough ?
Your water might not be hot enough. It must be boiling hot and you must stir it immediatelyand it becomes a translucent dough.
Thanks Nyonya , i used boiling hot water from the stove , and this time it turn out right . =D and by the way i make the indonesian version by following your instruction . the only different on the indonesian version is the dough, we used : 1 part tapioca starch , 1 part rice flour , and 2 part water . =)