Chewy Chai Kueh (Dumpling with Turnip) 菜粿

Chai Kueh is made from sweet turnip and usually consumed during tea break or even breakfast. It is a typical Chinese snack and is very popular among the Teochew and Hakka. The most important to have a delicious Chai Kueh is having a thin, soft, chewy and translucent skin. There are two popular fillings; sweet turnip or chives.

Since the skin is made by mixing both wheat starch and tapioca flour together, the ratio of these flour is important. A lot of recipes are required only wheat starch and tapioca flour. To me, there are still something missing in the texture. Even though, I have tried to play around with the ratio, I could not get the chewy texture that I wanted. The skin also becomes hard after some time.

In my 4th attempt, I have added in some glutinous flour in the dough hoping that the stickiness of glutinous will improve the texture of the skin.....and it really works!!! I feel really satisfy with this new recipe and it reminds me my childhood "Chai Kueh"!!

Ingredients

Dumpling Skin
100 g wheat starch
50 g tapioca flour
25 g glutinous flour
1 tbsp cooking oil
150-180 ml boiling water

Filling (sweet turnip)
250 g sweet turnip
30 g dried shrimps; soaked and minced
1 tbsp minced garlic
A dash of pepper
salt to taste

Filling (chives)
200 g chives; cut into small pieces (5mm in length)
30 g dried shrimps; soaked and minced
1 tbsp minced garlic
3 mushrooms; soaked and minced
A dash of pepper
salt to taste

1. Peel turnip, then using a processor shredded it. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a preheated pan to saute garlic and dried shrimp over low heat until fragrant. Add in sweet turnip. Stir-fry over medium heat and add in seasoning. Add some water if it is too dry and keep stir-fry until turnip is soften. Dish out, leave to cool.

2. Heat up 2 tbsp of oil in a preheated pan to saute garlic and dried shrimp over low heat until fragrant. Add in mushroom and saute until it is cooked. Lastly, put in the chives and saute until the chives is soft. Dish out, leave to cool.

3. For the skin, mix all the ingredient together until a dough is formed. Knead well into a soft dough, cover with a wet cloth, and rest dough for 20 minutes.

4. Divide dough into small portions. Use a roller to flatten the dough. Spoon in enough filling on skin and wrap. Place the dumplings on the greasy banana leaf. Steam over hot water for 7-10 minutes over medium heat until cooked. Brush with oil while hot.

Japanese Savoury Pancake (Okonomiyaki)

Okonomiyaki contains a lot of ingredients; however the main ingredient is the cabbage. Okonomiyaki means favorite in Japanese, and thus, you may add in any preferred ingredients. The presence of mayonnaise makes it easier to be accepted by most of the kids even the main ingredient is vegetable.

The baby yam called in this recipe is Yamaimo or Huai San in Chinese. When grated Yamaimo mix with flour, baking powder and dashi will give a sticky batter. Let the batter to sit in the fridge for around an hour before mixing with the entire ingredients. 

Ingredients
100 g baby yam (grated)/ Yamaimo
120 g low protein flour (cake flour)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cabbage, diced
1 small onion, diced
4 eggs
200 g seafood (prawns, squids)
250 ml dashi
2-3 tbsp cooking oil


Topping
Some Japanese mayonnaise
Some bonito flakes
Some nori flakes / Furikake
Some okonomi sauce


1. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder and dashi. Stir in grated yam, mix well. Keep in the fridge for an hour or longer.

2. Add in onions, cabbage, prawns, eggs into the batter. Mix well.

3. Spread a thick layer of mixer in the center of the pan, cook over medium heat until it is lightly brown. Then flip over.

4. Press the cake gently to ensure while surface has contact with the pan. Add a little oil if required. When it is cooked, transfer onto a serving plate.

5. Spread okonomiyaki sauce evenly on the pancake, drizzle mayonnaise, okonomiyaki sauce, sprinkle with nori and bonito flakes. Serve warm.

Spring Rolls (Vegetarian)

Recently, I am becoming a fan of vegetarian dish. Although, Chinese New Year has just over, I have already started to hunt for a new recipe for the coming Chinese New Year. It is quite a challenge to plan a vegetarian meal for meat lovers.

The first menu attracts me is the Spring Roll. This dish is very suitable for those who do not really like vegetable. This is a simple dish with only 3 ingredients; turnip, fungus and carrot. Since this recipe comes with fungus, it gives a slight crunchiness during eating. Give it a try, even my kids love it so much!!

Ingredients:
300 g turnip, grated
1 carrot, grated
5 fungus, soaked and sliced thinly
2 tbsp oil
A pinch of salt
A pinch of pepper

8 spring roll skin
Sufficient oil for frying

Filling
1. Grated turnip and carrot separately.

2. Heat up 1 tbsp of oil and stir fry the fungus for around a minute until the fungus is a bit soft. Remove from the pan.

3. Heat up another 1 tbsp of oil, stir fry the turnip and carrot for a minute. Add in some water and braise until the turnip and carrot is soft. Add in the fungus and season with salt and pepper. Continue to cook until the gravy is dry. Remove from the pan and let it cool down.

Wrapping and fry spring rolls
1. Wrap the filling using the spring roll skin. Continue until all the filling is used up.

2. Heat up a pot of oil that is sufficient for frying. Check the oil temperature by using a pair of wooden chopsticks. The temperature is ready when there are tiny bubbles bubbling up along the wooden chopsticks.

3. Fry in the spring roll and remove from the pot when it is ready. You may serve as finger food with some chili sauce.

Sambal Kangkung

Kangkung also known as water spinach is a vegetable that is usually found throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. It is easily grown in front of our house compound and due to this, it is a common dish in our daily life.

There are a lot of methods of cooking this dish but the most common is stir fry this vegetable with chili and belacan. Since the stem is hollow, water spinach can remain its crunchiness after cooking. This dish is really nice especially when it is served with hot rice.

To make the chili paste, it is important to use more onion than garlic. The paste will taste better if there is more onion in the paste, If you prefer more spicy, you may increase the number of chili in this recipe. In order to get a fine paste, add in some oil in the blender and blend. Using oil is better than water as the paste will eventually fry in the oil till fragrant.

When frying the chili paste, low heat is used in order to avoid any burning on the chili paste. A chili paste is ready when you see oil flow out from the paste.

Ingredients 
1 clove of garlic
6 pcs of shallots
3 chilies
belacan to taste
3 tbsp or sufficient oil to stir fry chili paste
300 g of water spinach, cut into 3 inches long
100 g prawn, remove shell and devein

1. Blend garlic, shallots, chilies and belacan together. You may add in some oil (2 tbsp) so that it is easier to blend into fine chili paste.

2. Pour the blend chili paste onto a pan. Heat up the pan. If there is not enough oil, add in another 1 tbsp into the paste. With low heat, stir fry the chili paste until oil is flowing out from the paste.

3. Add in prawn and stir-fry for a minute. Turn the fire into high heat. Then, add in water spinach and stir-fry for another 30-60 second or until the water spinach is cooked.

Braised Radish with Ribs

Radish has a lot of benefit in the view of Chinese Medicine (Ping Ming Health). Unfortunately, the taste of radish is really strong when it is taken raw. Due to its benefit, I have tried to make juice with radish by hoping that my kids will like it. To make the drink more attractive while minimizing the taste and odour of radish, I have blended radish juice with apple and orange juice. Even though I can 'cheat' my kids over the attractive color of the juice, the taste of radish is still strong to accept. They spit the drink immediately when their taste buds touches the juice. I am totally understand as I also find that the drink is too 'spicy' for me. I left with no choice but to braise radish for them and it turns out they love it so much.

Ingredients
1 medium radish
300g of ribs
1 tbsp. oil
1/2 tbsp. of bean paste
2 cm of ginger
5 pieces of cloves
3cm of cinnamon stick
2 pieces of star anise
500ml water
Soya sauce to taste
Brown sugar to taste

1. Boil a small pot of water to scald the ribs. This is to remove all the blood traces. Set aside.

2. Clean the radish and cut the radish into big pieces.

3. In a separate pot, heat up the oil and then, put in ginger and bean paste. When it is fragrant, put in the rib and stir fry for a few minutes until outside later of meat is cooked.

4. Add in cloves, cinnamon stick and star anise and water.

5. When the water is boiling, put in all the radish and simmer with small fire till all the radish is soft.

6. You may serve with rice.

Sambal Petai (Most authentic)

(Source: HealthBenefitsTimes)

Petai is a favourite food in South East Asia. Petai features a sharp odor mainly because it consists of certain amino acids, and for that reason earned the nickname petai beans and also the smell within the mouth and body and in addition supplies a strong odor of urine that may give effect to 2 days after consuming petai, and also this complex carbohydrate within the parkia speciosa may cause a sharp-smelling fart too. You may refer to the above link for more benefits of petai.

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Ingredient A:
10 shallots
1 clove of garlic
5 pcs of chilli (remove seed)
3 pcs of small chilli (cili padi) (remove seed)
1 tsp of belacan
3 tbsp. oil

Ingredient B:
300g prawn, devein (marinate with sesame oil, soya sauce, sugar, corn starch)
300g of petai
1 medium onion, slices


1. Blend ingredient A together until it forms a smooth paste. If the chilli paste is too dry, add another tbsp. of oil.
2. Put the chilli paste into a pan. Heat up the pan. This is to avoid the chilli paste from sticking on the pan.
3. Slowly cook the chilli paste until the red oil reappear.
4. Add in the onion slices. When the onion is soft, add in the prawns.
5. Finally, add in petai when the prawn is almost done. Stir fry for around 30 seconds.

(Tips: In order to maintain petai crunchiness, do not over cook petai. In fact, petai can be taken as raw)