Chai Pau Ubi Medan/ Chai Kueh (Steamed Vegetable Dumplings)
Servings: 14 large pieces
This popular snack in Southeast Asia is made shredded jicama and carrots enclosed in homemade soft, chewy sweet potato tapioca wrap and steamed to perfection. Served with chili sauce on the side
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Equipment
Ingredients
Fillings:
- 250 gr shredded jicama
- 100 gr shredded carrots
- 50 gr green beans cut off both ends and chopped
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil
- 4 cloves garlic peeled and finely minced
- 100 gr shrimp optional, peeled, deveined and chop finely
- 1 tsp sugar or more to taste
- Salt to taste
Dough:
- 200 gr peeled sweet potatoes cut into small cubes
- 80 gr tapioca starch plus more for dusting
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil
Chili sauce:
- 3 red jalapeno peppers or you can use 2-3 Tbsp of store-bought sambal oelek
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp vinegar or juice of a lime
Instructions
Prepare the filling (can be prepared few days before and keep in the fridge):
- Preheat oil in a large wok or skillet. Saute the garlic for about 10 seconds, add the shrimp (if using) and cook until they turn color, about 30 seconds or so. Add the jicama and carrots and cook until they are soft. Add salt and sugar stir to mix everything. Have a taste and season with more salt or sugar to your taste. Remove from the heat and let it cool off completely before wrapping
Prepare chili sauce:
- Place all the chili sauce ingredient in a food processor and blend until smooth. Pour into a small saucepan and cook until the sugar dissolves. The sauce should be slightly sweet and tangy. Adjust by adding more sugar or vinegar to your liking. It should be spicy with slightly tang and just hint of sweetness
Prepare the dough:
- Pour in 80 grams of tapioca starch in large mixing bowl. Add salt and stir to mix. Set aside. Get this ready before you cook the sweet potatoes
- Put the sweet potato pieces in a saucepan. Pour in water, just enough to cover the sweet potato. Boil the sweet potato until fork-tender, about 5-8 minutes or longer depending on the size you cut. Immediately remove the boiling hot sweet potato pieces and put them inside the mixing bowl that has tapioca starch in there. Keep the boiling water in case you need it. Use a potato masher or a fork to mash the sweet potatoes together with the tapioca starch. This is the key to making a chai pau dough that is resistant to tear. The heat from the sweet potatoes will "cook" the tapioca starch at the same time as you mash them together, making the dough flexible and resilient
- When it's not so hot anymore, use your hand to knead the dough. It should form a sticky dough. I don't need to add any liquid at all. This depends on your sweet potatoes too. Add 1 Tbsp of oil and continue to knead. The dough is much easier to handle now with the oil and you will be able to form one dough mass. The dough may be still a bit sticky to touch, but not too much. If it is too sticky, you may add a teaspoon of tapioca starch or more as needed. If it's too dry, then you can add a bit of the liquid from cooking the sweet potatoes, make sure the liquid is still hot. Don't keep adding starch. The more starch you add, the tougher the dough going to be. Cover it and let it rest for 15 minutes or longer. It is important to rest the dough
Wrapping:
- After the rest, you will find that the dough is even more flexible and resilient now. Divide the dough into 14 equal pieces, roughly about 40 grams each. I find that 50 grams is too big. I prefer 40 grams for each dough
- You can roll the dough out using a rolling pin into a circle and then put a filling in the middle and fold it over to form a half-circle shape. Pinch the top to seal. My favorite way of wrapping is to roll the dough into a ball and then push your thumb into the middle of the ball and using your thumb and index finger (dust them with a bit of tapioca starch) to go around the side to form a bowl (refer to photo above). Put the filling in and use the back of the spoon to press the filling to pack it down and then seal the top. Repeat with the rest
Steaming:
- Bring the water in a steamer to a rolling boil. Place a piece of banana leaves on top of the steamer rack and brush with some oil. Arrange the chai pao on top and steam on high heat for 12-15 minutes. The skin will turn bright orange and slightly transparent. Remove from the steamer and let them cool down. They appear to be very soft when they just come out from the steamer. 10-15 minutes later, you can easily move them to a serving platter. Brush with a bit of oil and serve with the chili sauce
Storing:
- The chai pau dough doesn't get tough even after a day at room temperature. You can store them at room temperature for a maximum one day and then keep them in the fridge and reheat in the steamer or microwave to warm them up
- For longer storage, I recommend freezing the uncooked chai pau instead. Place them on a baking sheet lined with a parchment paper, not touching each other for about 1 hour. Then transfer to a freezer bag and they won't stick to each other anymore. They can be kept for up to one month max
- When ready to serve, do not thaw, they can be steamed straight from frozen following the steaming method above. The cooking time might be a bit longer if they are frozen
Notes
They will harden as they cool down and this is normal. Just reheat or microwave for few seconds and the skin will be soft and chewy again
