Hakka Soon Kueh

Hakka Soon Kueh (客家笋粿) is a steamed dumpling made of yam and tapioca flour with shredded bamboo shoots, turnips, mushrooms,fungus, pork and dried shrimps as filling. Although the word 'soon' as in (笋) in Chinese means bamboo shoot but I did not use them in my kueh as my kids are allergy to them. Do I still call these "Soon Kueh" then? Anyway, nowadays almost all modern versions of this dumpling are made without the "soon".

What is the difference between a Hakka Soon Kueh and the normal Soon Kueh?
Hakka Soon Kueh uses yam as part of its dumpling skin but the normal Soon Kueh uses a mixture of flours minus the yam.

I did look into a few recipes for the Hakka Soon Kueh skin, the main ingredients used are yam and a variety of flours namely, glutinous rice flour, rice flour, tapioca flour and potato flour.

I used a recipe off the yahoo knowledge site but the dough didn't work. It was too dry to be molded into a flat round disc for wrapping purposes, it cracked all over the place. To salvage the dough, I used the method as in the Hakka Cha Guo where I cook a portion of the dough and knead it into the raw dough. The method worked so well and the dough was so manageable.

Here's my version of the Hakka Soon Kueh. Enjoy it with black sweet sauce and your choice of chilli.








Ingredients:
Soon Kueh skin:
300g yam (cut into pieces of 1 cm thick)
1/4 tsp salt
dash of 5 spice powder
150g tapioca flour
3 tbsp boiling water + 1 tbsp corn oil

Filling:
180g turnip (shredded)
5 chinese mushroom (soaked till soften and shredded)
40g black fungus (soaked till soften and shredded)
100g pork belly (shredded)
40g dried shrimp (soaked till soften and shredded)

Seasoning
1 - 1.5 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
0.5 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp white pepper
salt to taste

Others:
Cooked shallot oil

Method for Filling:
1. Heat up the wok with 2 tbsp oil, stir fry dried shrimp, followed with pork then the rest of the ingredients.
2. Add in the seasoning and fry till ingredients are cooked.
3. Remove and place in a colander to drain away excess liquid.
4. Cool completely before using.


Method for the Soon Kueh skin:
1. Steam yam pieces and mash while still hot. Add in all the rest of ingredients and knead into dough.
2. Remove 75g of the dough and cook it in boiling water till it floats to the top.
3. Knead this cooked dough into raw dough. Leave it to cool before using.
4. Divide dough into 20 portions. Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough and shape it into a round disc (I used a rice bowl to cut it into a round disc).
5. Wrap in 1 tbsp or enough filling and sealed the edges firmly.
6. Place soon kueh on a oiled plate and steam over boiling water for 6 - 7 minutes.
7. Brushed each piece of soon kueh with the cooked shallot oil to prevent them from sticking together.
8. Eat it plain or serve them with sweet black sauce and your favourite chilli.