Cheung Fan

[helenas]

Cheung Fan aka fresh rice sheets.

I'm looking at the recipe in Trang's Essentials of Asian Cuisine and it reads like making them is not that difficult but quite fun.

Has somebody tried making them and if yes any advice to neophyte?

[Transparent]

Don't you need special steaming equipment and tons of it at that? Each rectangular steamer you have only does 1 thin sheet. You'd need quite a few to make what you would need for a meal or appetizers.

[Ben Hong]

It can easily be done, if you have at least four bamboo steamer trays which are large enough in diameter to hold a 9"pie plate. Steam two plates at a time. If you pour the flour slurry thin enough, they cook within 4-5 minutes at high steam, just enough time to take up the cheung foon from and repour the first two plates.....remember to well oil the plates each time and keep the steamer just rocking hot. You get the side benefit of having your house turning into a steam bath, unless you have a commercial range hood.

[Dejah]

Speaking from experience, they are a pain!

I had a hard time keeping up with supply. It seemed like I was steaming and steaming, and by the time everyone else had had enough, I didn't feel like making anymore for myself!

I use a packaged flour for making cheung fun. Before that, an olderly aunty showed me the hard way... squeezing the gluten out of a lump of very wet dough!

Now that was what we'd call FROM SCRATCH. I haven't repeated the recipe since. I just buy the pre-packaged cheung fun from my Asian store whenever I get to Winnipeg. These are quite good re-heated in the microwave. They are firmer than ones served at dim sum, but great for when you get home and wanted more!

[hzrt8w]

Indeed, I agree that making Cheung Fun at home is a major pain. In places where fresh Cheung Fun is readily available, don't waste time on the attempt.

The rice flour slurry is quite easy to mix. But Cheung Fun needs special steaming equipment to form. If you pour the mixture in a flat plate for steaming, invariably you will have cheung fun that's thick and it tastes "floury". The restaurants make it with rectangular shallow pans with tiny holes (like a coffee filter, except the holes are for steam to get through from the bottom up). Then they lay a thin sheet of wet white cloth on top, use the cloth to hold up the liquid mixture while steaming. Once the rice flour hardens, they take the cloth out (with the rice sheet), lay it on top of a metal counter/board, peel off the cloth and let the rice sheet laid on top. Then roll up the sheet.

If you want Cheung Fun with filings (e.g. ground beef, shrimp, BBQ pork), add the filings on top of the rice flour mixture before steaming.

It is a lot of work, and not worth it unless you plan to make a lot of them. And you need a big steamer.

[Dejah]

I think I used a double thickness of cheesecloth stretched over the top of my steamer to make cheung fun. Like Ben said, your water's gotta be "rockin' hard."

Once set, roll it up off the cloth with your chopsticks.

I agree with hzrt that if you steam cheung fun on a solid plate, they will be thick and heavier. That's what we did with the flour gluten fun made with aunty's recipe. They were ok . . .but . . . not cheung fun

Pre-packaged rice flour for cheung fun is available in Asian grocery stores in Winnipeg.

I can't imagine why any Winnipegger would want to make these. There are many dim sum restaurants and they are not expensive. Just think of all the other "sides" you can pick up off the carts along with cheung fun!

[helenas]

ok against all odds i attempted to make them tonight.

The technique in Blonder's Dim Sum book didn't involve the cloth just a large skillet and small non-stick baking pan. You pour the batter in greased baking pan and let it float in covered skillet for 5min or so.

I sprinkled soaked and minced dried shrimp, scallions, cilantro and sesame seeds right after pouring the batter.

Of 4 rolls i made, the 3rd one came almost perfect. There is of course a learning curve as i had no clue what i'm doing or what to expect. But the result was quite tasty so i'm ready to try more soon.

Corinne Trang mentions a vietnamese version called Bahn Cuon. so i googled and found the interesting blog piece:Stall 1006 - Banh Cuon. Watch the movie - looks familiar?

[jo-mel]

The first time I made these, I used Rhoda Yee's recipe which calls for steaming the batter on an oiled pie plate. It turned out just fine.

The second time I made the same recipe, it fell apart. I failed!

After that --- I bought the ready made! Easier!

[Dejah]

That film was pretty cool!

I have been thinking about how aunty and I steamed the cheung fun. We used teflon coated round cake pans. The pans were set on a wire rack with water up to the bottom 1/3 of the pan. This way, the cheung fun cooked from the bottom as well as from the top.

A lot of work but got a good facial out of it!

[Gastro888]

Dejah - Wait, what did your auntie do with the gluten from the wet dough? Do fill us in - I've often wonder how these were made back in the day.

[itch22]

Vietnamese cooks make their's by tieing a cloth drum tight over a steamer or pot and pouring the slurry over that. Great texture and taste, compaired to the plate method, but if you are not cooking on a regular basis your hands may not be used to the gusts of hot steam and could be burned.

[Dejah]

Dejah - Wait, what did your auntie do with the gluten from the wet dough?  Do fill us in - I've often wonder how these were made back in the day.

←

Aunty used 4 cups all purpose flour. Enough hot water was added to make a stiff dough. Then she poured 5.5 cups warm water over the dough. We kept working and squeezing the dough until all the gluten was extracted. This took about 15 minutes of squeezing to get the wheat starch. She then strained and discarded the left over mass.

We used a deep frying pan for the "steaming", and 8" teflon cake pans. The pans were floating on about 1" of boiling water in the frying pan. One soup ladle of "gluten milk was poured into the pan and the filling sprinkled in. The frying pan was covered and cheung fun steamed for 2 minutes. The pans were then floated on cold water. The cheung fun was rolled and lifted out for devouring!

itch22, the cloth tied tight over a steaming pot was how my sister used to do it . . . double thickness of cheese cloth. The water has to be really boiling so that the thin batter will set immediately.

I think I'll continue to buy!

[Gastro888]

Wow...that's so fascinating. Neato!

Man, you could make a killing make good fresh ones in an area populated with alot of Asians. Perhaps I should go into a business venture down here. Fresh cheung fun and noodles. Hmm.

[plunk]

I tried Blonder's recipe in Dim sum too and encountered most if not all of the problems in this thread! It's hard to float the pan in the water so that the sheet is of an even thickness so most of them had at least one corner that was thick and floury. I vividly recall trying not to burn myself on the hot steam and by the time I got a good one, I wasn't hungry for them anymore.

Now that my curiosity is satisfied, I'm sticking to the purchased ones!

Edited February 8, 2005 by plunk (log)

[hzrt8w]

Vietnamese cooks make their's by tieing a cloth drum tight over a steamer or pot and pouring the slurry over that. 

←

Having watched the video, I agree that it is an ingenious and practical way of making cheung fun and ????? (the Vietnamese term is for rice flour wrapping the minced meat).

But I think a lot of skill is needed to pour the rice flour slurry onto the drum surface. The drum "skin" will warp when there is weight on top. So you have to do it very quickly, try to spread the rice flour as evenly as possible on top of the drum.

I have an idea that if you have a metal plate/dish you can spare, ask a handyman (read "hubby") to drill many 1/8 inch holes at the bottom. Make a look like a giant coffee filter. Grind away the shape edges from drilling. Then place it in the steamer, lay a wet cheese cloth on top. Then you can pour in the rice flour slurry on top and let it form. Have a few wet cheese clothes so that you can separate the rice sheets while the other one is being steamed. This may just work!

[sheetz]

I used to make the char siu cheung fan rolls all the time with rice flour and disposable pie plates. I steam them by floating the pie plates in boiling water. To make them of uniform thickness you first spoon the batter in the plates and hold them down in the simmering water for a few seconds to make them set. (Have the flame off at this point.) Once it is set you can cover the pan and turn the heat up. It's really pretty easy!

[hzrt8w]

I steam them by floating the pie plates in boiling water.  To make them of uniform thickness you first spoon the batter in the plates and hold them down in the simmering water for a few seconds to make them set. (Have the flame off at this point.) Once it is set you can cover the pan and turn the heat up. 

←

Do you make more than 1 plateful of cheung fun at a time? If you do, do you change plates or just scrape off the cheung fun and repeat? Do you have 2 pots of water? One warm and one boiling?

[sheetz]

Do you make more than 1 plateful of cheung fun at a time?  If you do, do you change plates or just scrape off the cheung fun and repeat?  Do you have 2 pots of water?  One warm and one boiling?

←

You can do it pretty quickly with two or three pie tins and one pot of water if you are working by yourself. If you have two people you can do 2 pots of water and 4-5 pie tins. The actual steaming time on high heat is only a couple of minutes.

[plunk]

This is probably one of those things that seems easy in concept but hard to do the first time on your own unless you've already seen someone else do it in a home kitchen.

Unfortunately, no one in my family seems to make this themselves.

[Fred12fred]

I agree with the majority of the posts here...it is much easier to buy ready-made than to make them yourself.

I followed a recipe from the Frugal Gourmet's Three Ancient Cuisines book and found that, while tasting fairly good, the result wasn't worth the effort.

But, on to my question, I have been reading the wonderful food blog "Cha Xiu Bao" (http://chaxiubao.typepad.com/), and on April 1st, 2005, he had posted a comment on cheung fan and in there, he shows a picture of the rolls with a brown-ish sauce on the side.

It looks to me like some sort of sesame based sauce and he seems to make a reference to a sesame sauce as well..

Does anyone know what sauce this is? And, more importantly, how would one go about making this?

All of the dim sum restaraunts that I've been to serve cheung fan with a sweet soy-based sauce (which, by the way, the Frug provides a very good version of in the aforementioned cookbook).

Edited April 6, 2005 by Fred12fred (log)

[Yuki]

I agree with the majority of the posts here...it is much easier to buy ready-made than to make them yourself.

I followed a recipe from the Frugal Gourmet's Three Ancient Cuisines book and found that, while tasting fairly good, the result wasn't worth the effort. 

But, on to my question, I have been reading the wonderful food blog "Cha Xiu Bao" (http://chaxiubao.typepad.com/), and on April 1st, 2005, he had posted a comment on cheung fan and in there, he shows a picture of the rolls with a brown-ish sauce on the side.

It looks to me like some sort of sesame based sauce and he seems to make a reference to a sesame sauce as well..

Does anyone know what sauce this is?    And, more importantly, how would one go about making this? 

All of the dim sum restaraunts that I've been to serve cheung fan with a sweet soy-based sauce (which, by the way, the Frug provides a very good version of in the aforementioned cookbook).

←

It is traditional to serve plain cheung fan(pan fried or steamed) or cheung fan with shrimp and green onion with some sweet soya sauce, sweet sauce(Similar to hoisin sauce), sesame sauce, and a sprinkle of sesame. When there is fillings in the cheung fan then it is only served with some sweet soya sauce .

Most people just buy the sesame sauce in jar but the sauce is usually a bit thicker than I like, so I thin them out with some oil.

In egullet, there is a thread dedicated to the sesame sauce....

Click

Edited April 7, 2005 by Yuki (log)

[hzrt8w]

Most people just buy the sesame sauce in jar but the sauce is usually a bit thicker than I like, so I thin them out with some oil.

Click

←

Well said, Yuki.

The sesame paste you buy in jars is very thick, and should be mixed with more sesame oil when used on cheung fan. My experience is, over time (you probably won't mix the paste with oil all in one shot) the ratio is probably 3:1, or even more.

[balex]

Dejah - Wait, what did your auntie do with the gluten from the wet dough?  Do fill us in - I've often wonder how these were made back in the day.

←

Aunty used 4 cups all purpose flour. Enough hot water was added to make a stiff dough. Then she poured 5.5 cups warm water over the dough. We kept working and squeezing the dough until all the gluten was extracted. This took about 15 minutes of squeezing to get the wheat starch. She then strained and discarded the left over mass.

We used a deep frying pan for the "steaming", and 8" teflon cake pans. The pans were floating on about 1" of boiling water in the frying pan. One soup ladle of "gluten milk was poured into the pan and the filling sprinkled in. The frying pan was covered and cheung fun steamed for 2 minutes. The pans were then floated on cold water. The cheung fun was rolled and lifted out for devouring!

itch22, the cloth tied tight over a steaming pot was how my sister used to do it . . . double thickness of cheese cloth. The water has to be really boiling so that the thin batter will set immediately.

I think I'll continue to buy!

←

I am confused. When you make a dough and wash it, the starch dissolves into the water making it milky and the gluten is the spongey stuff left behind that is used in a number of dishes. Here do you use the starch or the gluten? Or am I hopelessly confused?

[Dejah]

From what I remember, the starch that is collected from all the squeezing and wash is used to make the cheung fan. It is a labour intensive chore. The lump that was left over was into the garbage. I am not sure if you can use it for anything.

I am in need of a cheung fan fix!

[hzrt8w]

There is a good picture of cheung fan (Hong Kong style) by blogger Chaxiubao on his website:

http://chaxiubao.typepad.com/./photos/unca.../p1010024_2.JPG

Edited September 13, 2005 by hzrt8w (log)