Teochew Kuchai dumpling

I had a little too much of Chinese chives or know as kuchai ready to harvest and, of course, I didn't want any of them to go to waste.

So, what better way to use them than making one of my favourite Teochew snacks-Kuchai Kuih?

With it's soft, chewy rice-flour skin generously filled with fragrant Chinese chives, garlic, minced pork and dried shrimp, this little savoury kuih is simple yet incredibly satisfying. And, to be honest, I have been craving it for a while, so this was the perfect excuse to make a batch!!

Freshly steamed and served with drizzle of chilli sauce, homemade Kuchai Kuih is hard to resist-especially when the chives come straight from the garden.

Kuchai Kuih freezes well, so making a larger batch is a great way to preserve those extra chives rather than letting them go to waste.

Ingredients:

For the skin:

• 75g wheat starch flour
• 75g tapioca starch flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• 175ml hot boiling water
• 1 tsp cooking oil

For the filling:

• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 100g ground pork
• 20g Chinese chives, cut into about -2 inch in lenght
• 15g dried shrimp, soak in warm water
• 5 shiitake mushrooms, soak in warm water
• 1 tbsp cooking oil

Seasoning:

• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• ¼ tsp ground white pepper

Method:

For the filling: Finely chopped the pre-soaked dried shrimp. Cut the soaked mushrooms into small pieces.

Preheat 1 tbsp cooking oil. Sauté the garlic and dried shrimp until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add mushrooms, chives, and seasonings. Sauté until the chives are soft and the mixture is dry. Let the filling cools down completely before wrapping.

Making the wrapper: Mix the wheat starch, tapioca flour, and salt into a bowl and whisk to mix and then pour the hot boiling water in. Use a chopstick or a spatula to stir. It will be really sticky at this point. Keep stirring until it roughly comes into a rough dough. Add cooking oil and continue to knead until the dough is smooth and not sticky. Cover and rest for 5 minutes.

Shaping: After 5 minutes, uncover and transfer onto your worktop. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Work with one dough at a time and keep the rest covered.

Dust the worktop light with some flour, then roll out the dough into a thin layer. Using a cutter, cut into round wrappers. Continue to roll out the balance of dough and cut into round wrapper. Any excess of the dough after the cutting can be combined again to make more wrapper. We are now ready to wrap the dumplings.

To make the dumplings, first spoon 1 heaping tbsp chive filling into the centre of wrapper. Pinch the centre of wrapper tightly to seal.

Next pinch the lower half (right side) of the dumpling to seal. Then, bring the upper half (right side) of dumpling forward and press to seal. Next, pinch the lower half (left side) of chive dumpling to seal. Then, bring the upper half (left side) of chive dumpling forward and press to seal.

Press together both sides of chive dumpling to wrapped it up tightly. Continue to do the same for the rest of the wound wrappers. And you are done!

Lightly oiled a steaming tray or line the bamboo steamer if you have one. Arrange the pleated chive dumplings on the steaming tray.

Place on a prepared steamer. Steam for 8-10 minutes or until the skin turns translucent.

Remove from steamer onto a wire rack. Brush with some garlic oil and leave to cool a while before transferring to a serving plate. These chive dumplings are best eaten fresh served with sweet chilli sauce. So enjoy!

If you are making a big batch, you can freeze the remaining. Place the chive dumplings onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper, not touching each other. Freeze in the freezer for 1 hour and then transfer to a freezer bag. This way, the chive dumpling will not stick to each other. When ready to serve, steam over high heat for 15 minutes or until the dumplings are cooked through.