Teochew hung guê 潮州粉餜

When you visit a Chinese restaurant and have "yum cha" 飲茶 [remember this is eating "dimsum" 點心 and actually mean drinking tea] you may have eaten a steamed dumpling and in the menu it is written as "Chiuchow Fun Guo" 潮州粉果.  

These hung guê were to serve to guests last evening

These hung guê were served to guests for lunch as a starter

For the start, the "guo" character 果 [said in Cantonese] is the wrong character.  This character means fruit - and the chef must have limited Chinese and some people use this character guo3 粿.  This character guo3 粿 means cooked rice for making cakes.  In fact the correct character is guo3 餜, which means a cake AND 粉餜 "hung guê", which is said in Teochew, means a cake made out of flour - not wheat flour but gluten free flour.  

Originally, this Teochew steamed dumpling has no meat in it.  However, some people started to add meat into this dumpling.  This recipe shown in this posting will have no meat. My sister informs me in Malaysia this dumpling is called 菜餜 "cai guê" which means "vegetable cake". 

In addition, some people make this dumpling's wrapper with tapioca flour but in Chaoshan 潮汕, Teochew people would never use tapioca flour as there is plenty of sweet potato flour and Teochew people call this flour "huang1 ze5 hung2" 蕃薯粉.  The first character "huang" 蕃 means foreign things, like "huang gia 番仔 for foreigners, "huang lai" 蕃梨 for pineapple - a foreign apple.  Enough of Teochew lessons!  LOL  

Potato flour in HK is labelled as 生粉. In Taiwan, it is also called 太白粉 or 蕃薯粉.  I have used potato flour from Polish shops and I have made successful "hung guê" with Polish potato flour. I am sure if I were to use potato flour from Tesco or Asian or Middle Eastern shops, it would also work. 

The picture below shows the various types of potato flour I have in my cupboard.  The middle nearest to you is shengfen 生粉 - and following clockwise is fanshu fen 蕃薯粉 or "huang ze hung" in Teochew, then a Polish potato flour mąka ziemniaczana and the last one on the far right is taibaifen 太白粉 - all potato flour and you can use any of these. 

Various potato flours

I will therefore be using potato flour to make the wrapper together with modified  wheat starch 澄粉 which is gluten free. This wheat starch is the most important flour for making a crystal wrapper and this flour is responsible for the dumpling wrapper to be transparent, crystal like.  

Gluten free wheat starch

This dumpling recipe is for all my gluten free friends out there who are suffering so much because there is so much added wheat to most products.  This is a gluten free dumpling and I hope my gluten free friends will try out this recipe. 

Filling Ingredients for 36 - 40 hung guê

50 grams Teochew salted raddish diced 50 克 潮州菜脯丁 This is a must and it is worth hunting for this dried salted raddish and I notice these are always available in Chinese shops I visit in London.

Teochew salted radish

40 grams dried prawns 40 克 蝦米 soaked and roughly chopped or pounded.  You can even buy dried prawns nowadays in my local Tesco!  If you are unable to source dried prawns, then use fresh prawns instead. 

Dried prawns

20 grams Chinese dried mushrooms - washed, soaked in hot water until rejuvenated and soften, diced. 20 克 香菇丁

Normally no Teochew would add mushroom into "Hung Guê" because this is a rather expensive ingredient.  I am adding Chinese mushrooms because it will give a wonderful fragrance to the filling. 

1 small carrot finely diced 一個小紅蘿蔔丁

Again carrot is not a normal vegetable added into "hung guê" - and I am adding carrot to add colour into the filling.  What is interesting is Teochew people call carrots "ang5 cai3 tao5" 紅菜頭 and not 紅蘿蔔.

Diced carrots, prawns and mushrooms

The above is a picture showing the diced carrots, diced and lightly fried mushrooms and prawns.  They are in the same size ramekins - all roughly equal proportion in volume.  

280 grams yam bean diced or mang guang 280 克 沙葛丁 If you are unable to find yam bean in your local shops, then try using fresh water chestnuts as a substitute. It might make the dumpling a little too sweet if you were to use water chestnuts but the filling will be delicious and crunchy.

Yam bean

   

I am unable to add peanuts, a traditional ingredient, because one of the guests is unable to eat peanuts.  Do remember this was previously a poor man's dumpling and peanuts are very cheap in the Chaoshan 潮汕 area.  If you decide to add peanuts, then you need about 50 grams of roasted peanuts with its skin.

60 grams diced Chinese celery If you want other variation, then you can add qincai 芹菜 which is said as "kêng5 cai3" in Teochew and it is Chinese celery and is very fragrant.

You can also add jiucai 韭菜 which is called "gu2 cai3" in Teochew, which is Chinese garlic chives. 75 grams of Chinese chives should be sufficient.  It is raining this morning and I am not in the mood to go and harvest Chinese chives in the rain - optional 

1 diced spring onion - white bit part only 

1 Echalion shallot finely sliced 

If you are a Malaysian or Singaporean Teochew, then you will know what is 紅葱 "ang5 cang1".  It is a small red shallot which is either planted in Thailand or India.  I see these "ang cang" sold in Indian shops and of course Chinese food shops here in London.  However, you can use Echalion shallot or any other types of shallot, which you find in your local supermarket, if you want the filling to have a powerful shallot flavour.  If you are an original Teochew person from Chaoshan 潮汕 then you will just use the white bit of a spring onion and skip the "ang cang" / shallot.  

Did you know that as spring onions are sold in the UK all year round and supermarkets are calling spring onion as salad onion nowadays.  For those who are not into highly fragrant food, keep clear from "ang cang" and use the white part of continental spring onions.  ^_~

Here are some pictures of the prepared ingredients 

Get the ingredients ready in little dishes / ramekins before sautéing 

If you wish, you can add a tablespoon of oyster sauce and half a tablespoon of light soya sauce.  However, if you cannot eat gluten, then you need to keep it simple and omit these or find soya sauce and oyster sauce which are gluten free.

salt - if you were to season the filling with half a tbsp of soya sauce and 1 tbsp of oyster sauce, then do not any salt as it would get too salty

a sprinkle of Sarawak white ground pepper - in my humble opinion, Sarawak pepper is best for cooking Chinese food 

NO Sugar - we Teochew people do NOT add sugar into our food.  So, if you want to experience an original taste then do not add sugar and allow the sweetness from the vegetables to prevail.  This means that you have to source fresh vegetables. 

Sesame oil - a dash is sufficient - added at the end for flavour - do not add too much, just a dash is enough and this is only added when you have turned off the heat.  

2 tbsp freshly home made stock - add according to need.  However, do remember the filling needs to be relatively dry or else it will be difficult to wrap the "hung guê".

2 tbsp cooking oil for sautéing the vegetables  

The ingredients being sautéed

After adding diced Chinese celery

After everything has been added, sautéed and create a space to make sure if there were any liquid, it would drained to the middle of your wok

Method for preparing the filling

Soak the dried prawns and mushrooms in separate bowls.  When these are rejuvenated, hand press them dry and retain the water which has been used to soak these ingredients.

Roughly chop or pound the prawns and then fry in oil, drain and set aside.

Dice the mushrooms, fry in oil and set aside.

Fry the diced shallots, if used, and diced spring onion in 2 tbsp of cooking oil.

Sauté the diced carrots and diced raddish and then add the diced yam bean and fry until cook. 

When the yam bean and carrots are cooked, then add the prawns and mushrooms and finally the Chinese celery.

Season well and set aside and allow to cool and any liquid drained.  Technically, if sautéed well, there should not be any liquid from the vegetables.  

The filling can be cooled in the fridge overnight if needed. However, it must not be used if still warm or hot.  

The above filling will make around 36 - 40 "hung guê".  However, you can store the filling in an air tight heat proof glass dish and make "hung guê" until you have mastered the art of making the dough and wrapping "hung guê".  It requires gongfu 功夫 [skill] to wrap good "hung guê" and this requires practice.  Hence, you might have to make it for a few days before you master how to wrap beautiful "hung guê" which does not break apart when steamed and handled with chopsticks! 


Wrapper Ingredients 

⅓ cup [38 g] modified wheat starch ⅓ 杯 澄粉

⅓ cup [53 g] potato flour ⅓ 杯 地瓜粉

< ⅔ cup boiling hot water [140 - 145 ml] - Therefore the water use is about 87.5 - 90% of the total volume of flours used.  

This proportion is important if you are using other size cups to measure the two types of flour and water.  Therefore once again - the volume of flour is the same, and the water is about 87.5 - 90 percent of the combined volume of flour in ml. 

½ tsp salt - depending with taste

2 tsp vegetable cooking oil 

Mix the salt and oil into the modified wheat starch and then pour boiling water into the modified starch and stir vigorously with a pair of chop sticks and then add the potato flour and knead until smooth.  Wrap in cling film and set aside for 5 minutes.  Make into a long roll and cut into 12 equal pieces and flatten the dough into a round disc and wrap into little hung guê.  

It is also possible to divide the long roll of dough into 8 equal pieces and you will eat larger hung guê. In fact, I prefer the larger hung guê and in future I will divide the dough into 8 equal pieces and make larger hung guê! LOL

Steam the hung guê for 8 minutes and leave them in the steaming basket for another 2 minutes with the heat turned off.  

Serve the steaming hot hung guê with Coleman mustard gai4la4 芥辣 and Teochew chilli oil 潮州辣椒油. 

What have I learnt

This is what I have learnt from handing this dough.  First of all, you need to knead the dough while it is very hot.  If you have a Kenwood Chef, perhaps with a dough hook, you could knead the dough while it is boiling hot.  I like using my hands so I can feel the texture of the dough and be aware if I need to add more wheat starch.  

Secondly, if you were to make the dough in the morning and then wrap in the evening, then the steamed dumpling's skin will break easily after steaming, like those in second rate Chinese restaurants.  So make only what you need and do not make extra as you cannot keep the dough.  

If you were to oil your hands with vegetable cooking oil then handling this dough will be a lot easier and you will find it does not stick to your hands or work top.

I find granite top to be best in ensuring the dough takes its form easily. Other tops will do as well - there is no need for you to go out and buy a granite top! 

If you have a Chinese chef knife - a large Chinese chopper, you will find it very easy to flatten the dough into round discs ready for wrapping.  Otherwise, you need to use a small rolling pin like everybody else.

When you steam the dumplings and the heat / steam is too hot, the dumplings' wrapper will break easily as well.  Getting the temperature right is a skill you need to master.  Hence,steaming with bamboo baskets is best as there is so much leakage for the steam that there that it will naturally not be too hot to steam excellent dumplings. 

If you do not add salt into the dough mixture, then the wrapper will be tasteless. So, I would add a little salt if I were you.  

Traditionally, lard was added into the wrapper mixture, but nowadays nobody in their right mind cooks with lard and hence vegetable cooking oil is optimal.

This "hung guê" is an example of shui jing jiao 水晶餃 and another example of a shui jing giao 水晶餃 is xiajiao 蝦餃 and perhaps you would know this dumpling by its Cantonese name "ha gao" 蝦餃 or steamed prawn dumpling.  Shui jing 水晶 means crystal and this means if you were to make the wrapper well, and after steaming, you will be able to see its filling.  

Teochew people, especially those from Swatow 汕頭 are famous for their "zui zia giu" 水晶球 or "zui zia bao" or 水晶包.  Any Chinese people, who know about food, will know this, like the way Cantonese people are famous for their prawns dumpling - ha gao 蝦餃 or xia jiao. 

"Hung guê" is just another version of this "zui zia giao" 水晶餃 which we Teochew people are famous for, thanks to the Cantonese who has made this dumpling famous around the world. 

26 July 2013 Friday - I read my old notes last night and saw a few years ago I used a different proportion for the two flours and decided this morning to try using these proportions.

80 grams Tênghung 澄粉 wheat starch
40 grams huang ze hung 蕃薯粉 potato flour
3/4 cups of boiling hot water 滾水 gung zui
1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp oil

I really found no difference in the wrapper and the texture of the skin is still kiu kiu.

Kiu kiu - in Taiwan cooking shows which I see on YouTube, I notice they use the letter Q for kiu in the subtitles and I suppose there is no Chinese character for this word and I must check my Teochew dictionaries.  There is also no English word to describe this texture.  The best I heard was rubbery - but who would describe the texture of their food as rubbery as this gives a very negative context.  Like so many words in the English language which has been translated to English, I think kiu kiu should be included in the Oxford English dictionary.  

28 July 2013 Sunday - there are many ways to wrap hung guê and here is an example of how it could be wrapped.  I wrapped this recently and hope you like the shape.