Pork Cheung Fun
Delicate Pork Cheung Fun is a Dim Sum Classic
Traditional cheung fun uses ground meat, sliced fish, shrimp, and fried Chinese donuts as filling. After being steamed, it is wrapped up into a long roll and cut into segments. Cheung fun has crystal-like, diaphanous thin skin and a smooth, pliant texture. Although traditional preparation methods are quite complex, delicious pork cheung fun can be made in the comfort of one's own home following this easy recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups (150 grams) sticky rice flour
- 1/4 cup (30 grams) cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons (15 grams) wheat starch
- 1.76 ounces (50 grams) lean pork
- 2 Chinese cabbages
Seasonings
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 0.17 ounce (5 grams) crystal sugar
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon (5 grams) chicken bouillon
- 1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) salt
- 1 stalk green onion
- 1 ½ tablespoons (10 grams) potato starch
- some peanut oil
- some cooking oil
Cooking Directions
Preparations
- Wash Chinese cabbage. Blanch quickly in boiling water until sufficiently hot. Remove.
How to make the seasoning juice
- Heat pan. Add some peanut oil, 1 teaspoon (5 grams) light soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, and crystal sugar. Bring to boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low. Boil until crystal sugar had melted. Mix in ½ teaspoon (2 grams) chicken bouillon to make the seasoning juice.
How to make cheung fun filling
- Wash and chop green onions. Wash and mince lean pork. Add chopped green onions, salt, potato starch, ½ teaspoon (2 grams) light soy sauce, and ½ heaping teaspoon (3 grams) chicken bouillon to minced meat. Use chopsticks to stir in one direction to create a paste. This is the cheung fun filling.
How to make cheung fun
- Add sticky rice flour, wheat starch, and corn flour to bowl. Add 2 cups water. Stir into a fine rice noodle paste.
- Add lots of water to steamer pot. Add a steamer basket to the pot. Bring water to boil over high heat. Lay a sheet of oil paper that is slightly bigger than the steamer basket into the steamer basket. Spread a bit of cooking oil on it. Stir rice noodle paste evenly. Ladle out an appropriate amount onto oil paper. Use ladle to spread it out into an even circular shape.
- Tip: Add rice noodle paste depending on the size of the steamer basket. If you add too much, it will be difficult to steam properly, affect the taste, and will not achieve the proper translucency and luster.
Put it all together
- Spread filling from step 3 evenly over rice noodle paste. Cover. Steam over high heat for approximately 3 minutes until the rice noodle paste becomes translucent and the meat filling changes color.
- Remove from steamer basket. Use spatula to quickly wrap the filling up. Use spatula to trim the ends of the cheung fun. Cut in half. Scoop into plate. Add blanched Chinese cabbage from step 1. Drizzle seasoning juice from step 2 on top. Serve.
- Tip: The cheung fun must be rolled while it is still hot from being steamed, otherwise it will lose viscosity and becomes more difficult to roll.
Zhanjiang Pork Cheung Fun
Zhanjiang pork cheung fun is a favorite snack among Zhanjiang locals. The fact that it has become a top choice for – or perhaps even an indispensable part of – breakfast for Zhanjiang residents is proof of how much they love this dish. And there is good reason for this too.
White, Thin, Smooth
Zhanjiang pork cheung fun is made by steaming rice milk to produce rice noodle rolls that are white, thin, and smooth. The surface of pork cheung fun should be white as snow and the sheets of rice noodles should be as thin as paper. Its sleek, glossy exterior is excellent at whetting appetites. Pork cheung fun has a tender texture. Biting into pork cheung fun can best be described as "fragrant, smooth, delicate, and tender".
Cheng Fun Condiments
Another one of Zhanjiang pork cheung fun's highlights is its condiments. Zhanjiang locals are quite particular about their cheung fun condiments, which include sweet and savory sauce, rice wine vinegar, peanuts, sesame seeds, garlic paste, chili sauce, and tomato sauce. This wide range of condiments allows diners to season their cheung fun according to their own personal tastes to ensure they're completely satisfied with the flavors. Besides pork cheung fun, what other dishes offer such tasty variations and ways of eating?