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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…
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).
(Click Page 2 for Chai Kueh Recipe)
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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.
Hi Evelyn,
I saw your post that mentioned you are Malaysian and a vegetarian. I am a food researcher and will be visiting Malaysia soon to interview some vegetarians and cook with them. I wonder if you would be interested in meeting up with me for an interview? If so (or if you know someone who is both vegetarian and a great cook) I would love it if you could email me at rebecca(at)eating-green.com.
Thankyou!!
Rebecca xx
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 . =)
Is this the same as “Fun saw” (cantonese)? My mom makes it with pork and a root that looks like a potato but larger and rounder.
Dear Bee,
Thank you so much for sharing your myriads of mouth-watering receipes (by the way, had tried your char siew, made it, love it!).
Now, I would love to try this chai kueh receipe as I love this kueh to death esp. the one with yam beans fillings ()can eat 10 with no problem…=), but problem is I am residing in Sydney and never seen a yam bean in the market. Know where in sydney can I get one? Tks.
I don’t live in Sydney but I heard it’s available where Little Vietnam is.
Hi.. chai kueh is one of my favorite childhood foods.. I tried to make it many time, buat mostly failed… my problem was the skin broke easily like most of the problems above… I’m wondering what wheat starch flour is.. I live in US, our recipe is using rice flour..
thank you
You can get wheat starch flour from Asian supermarket. Rice flour has no elasticity, and that’s why it will break. Wheat starch is the same ingredients they use to make the skin for Chinese har gow (shrimp dumplings) dim sum.
i need help!!!
where can i find all of these Ingredients cuz i live in america and I search lots of store and can’t find it plus i don’t know some of the ingredients.
You can get the ingredients at Asian supermarkets or stores.
is it possible to substitute yambean with taro?
No, yambean and taro are two completely different root vegetables.
I don’t know how to look for tang mein fun. Probably they don’t sell it here in Moscow, but I do get rice flour and cornmeal flour and I have cornstarch too.. Can I replace tang mein fun with any of the above? Thanks
hi, May i know wheat starch flour? is it normal white flour?
I live in France, so I wasn’t sure what kind of flour to use and hope u can help.
Thank u
This recipe is amazing! I tried it 4 times just now, and only when I read your reply to Christine about the boiling water did I succeed. For the first three times, I used water from my flask which was only 90C. It resulted in a watery white batter, which had to go to the bin. Finally, I boiled the water on the stove till bubbles appeared and the water was sizzling, and poured in all at once while stirring the flour with chopsticks – this did it. It immediately became that translucent mass I was looking for! Then I continued with the resting, oiling and steaming and it was a dream come true – now I CAN MAKE MY VERY OWN SOON KUEH!!!
Yes, I would like to know how to wrap the skin with the filling. I wrap it but it looks yakky or get some hole in between. I need help to show step by step wrapping the skin
awesome! been searching high and low in how to make this!! thank u so much! made my year!