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Chai Kuih (Crystal Dumplings)

Play the video instructions for making Crystal Dumpling on YouTube

Malaysia’s Penang is divided into island and mainland. Penang island mostly populated by Hokkien people and mainland by Teochew people. During tea time, if you want to eat classic snacks or pastries from different places of origin, you will definitely find them at the Kuih stalls in major wet markets or hawker centres. You can easily get Chai Kuih (Crystal Dumpling), one of the classic snacks of the Teochew people at the kuih stall. You can also find delicious traditional snacks such as chives pancake, Nyonya pastry, curry puff or turnip cake at there.

Chai Kuih, one of the classic snacks of the Teochew people in Penang
Chai Kuih, one of the classic snacks of the Teochew people in Penang

The traditional recipe of Chai Kuih is not transparent or crystal. It uses rice flour and tapioca flour, and added some pigments to make a pink peach shape or dumpling shape. In recent years, the crystal dumpling sold by kuih vendors have been very popular among the public. We have half of Teochew descent. Although the elders of the family do not have the habit of cooking crystal dumpling, but we all love to eat. Because Chai Kuih is one of our favorite traditional food, so we would like to explore the recipe, learn it and share it with our family.

Chai Kuih Ingredients
Chai Kuih Ingredients

The hardest part of making Chai Kuih is the dumpling skin and dough. It will become very sticky if put more water. If you have experience in making dumplings, then this is not hard for you to make a beautiful crystal dumplings. Just need a few practice and patience If you are first time on making dumplings.

fold and pinch the edges together then pleat up the edges neatly and decoratively
fold and pinch the edges together then pleat up the edges neatly and decoratively

I have seen Li Ziqi steaming cakes with mulberry leaves before. Inspired by her, we also tried steaming Chai Kueh with mulberry leaves this time. Letting the Chai Kuih taste a bit more scent of mulberry leaves can help reduce the greasy feeling, on the one hand, it can also reduce the waste of disposable baking paper.

substitute baking paper with mulberry leaves
substitute baking paper with mulberry leaves
Chai Kuih

Chai Kuih (Crystal Dumplings)

Chai Kuih (Crystal Dumpling), one of the classic snacks of the Teochew people in Penang. We have half of Teochew descent and Chai Kuih is one of our favorite traditional food.

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Course: Snack
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: Dim Sum, simple delicious, Traditional
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings: 26 pieces
Calories: 70kcal

INGREDIENTS

🥟 Skin Dough

  • 150 g Wheat Starch
  • 90 g Tapioca Starch
  • 330 ml Boiling Water
  • 0.5 tsp Salt
  • 2 tbsp Cooking Oil

🧄 Garlic Oil

  • 2 cloves Minced Garlic
  • 2 tbsp Cooking Oil

🌰 Jicama Filling

  • 220 g Shred Jicama
  • 40 g Shred Carrot
  • 3 cloves Minced Garlic
  • 15 g Dried Shrimps
  • 1 tbsp Cooking Oil
  • 1 tbsp Oyster Sauce
  • 0.25 tsp Sugar
  • Some Pepper
  • 80 ml Water (Soaked dried shirmps)

🥬 Chives Filling

  • 160 g Chives
  • 3 cloves Minced Garlic
  • 15 g Dried Shrimps
  • 1 tbsp Cooking Oil
  • 1 tsp Oyster Sauce
  • 0.25 tsp Sugar
  • Some Pepper


INSTRUCTIONS

🥬Filling

  • Soak dried shrimps for 1 hours, dry and minced it.
  • Jicama and carrot peel skin and shred.
  • Cut chives into small pieces.
  • Sauté minced garlic oil and set aside.
  • Sauté all minced dried shrimps and garlic.
  • Separate half portion into chives. Adding oyster sauce, sugar and ground pepper. Mix well and set aside.
  • Adding shred jicama and carrot into pan mix with sauté garlic and dried shrimps, seasoning with oyster sauce, sugar, ground pepper and soaked dried shrimps water. Stir fry until the water has evaporated then set aside.

🥟 Crystal dumpling

  • Shift wheat starch and tapioca flour, then add in salt.
  • Pour boiling water and stir well.
  • Add in oil and stir until the dough absorbs oil.
  • Wait until the dough cold down knead the dough with hand until smooth.
  • Cover the dough with wet fabric and let it rest for 10 minutes.
  • Divide the dough into 26 pieces, each of it around 21g.
  • Flatten the dough and roll the edges until thin.
  • Put in fillings fold and pinch the edges together then pleat up the edges neatly and decoratively.
  • Put a piece of baking paper or apply a layer of oil to avoid sticky, then put in crystal dumpling
  • After water boiling, steam with high heat for 10 minutes.
  • After steamed, apply garlic oil on each crystal dumpling while it still warm.

INSTRUCTIONS VIDEO

NOTES

💡Tips :
  1. Must use boiling water, otherwise the dough cannot be formed.
  2. Dried shrimp is an important ingredient of this dish, so you need to choose good dried shrimp. We use Perak Tanjung Piandang’s dried shrimp.
  3. After filling and shaping, you can keep in refrigerate. Just steam it when you want to eat.

NUTRITION

Serving: 1piece | Calories: 70kcal | Carbohydrates: 9.8g | Protein: 0.6g | Fat: 3.2g | Saturated Fat: 0.5g | Cholesterol: 2mg | Sodium: 60mg | Potassium: 42mg | Sugar: 0.6g | Calcium: 11mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @my.lovelyrecipes or tag #mylovelyrecipes!

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Chai Kuih