When I was a little girl my family would go on Saturdays to New York’s Chinatown. I remember the curious scents of sweet cakes sold by cart vendors, of briny fish, of delicious roasting meats and occasional floral incense. There was always a great deal of noise from restaurant kitchens and bargaining shoppers, punctuated by the rattle of the subway below our feet.
As much fun as it was to window shop and people watch, my family was there really for one reason only… The Food. We are a family who loves to eat. I can easily recall watching with amazement as my father and grandmother ordered nine courses at a favorite restaurant and the management delivering seven of them to the table before gently recommending we take the last two home for the sake of our health!
We would walk from there along the streets and even after having eaten a seven course meal my father would buy Chinese pastries and little sweet hotcakes to eat on the way home. Mind you, they were all gone within a few minutes thanks to my Dad…
A favorite small plate my family liked to have on the side is a folded noodle dish called Cheung fun. I saw a recipe in a recently acquired copy of Wilson Tang’s “The Nom Wah Cookbook”. Nom Wah tea parlor is an establishment my family and I went to for a change of pace from our usual haunts. Intrigued I set out this fine spring day to make this dish I remember so fondly from my childhood. Mr. Tang gives a plain version ( my favorite as a child for it’s smoothness) as well as one that has shrimp and one that has cilantro and scallions. Since I didn’t have any shrimp but wanted something hearty enough to serve Martin and Byron for dinner, I combined two of the versions, substituted the shrimp for ground pork and swapped out the cilantro for some fresh chives I saw at our beloved favorite Farm stand (Montgomery place Orchards).
Nom Wah’s Cheung Fun (slightly altered)
Ingredients:
240g (1 1/2c) Glutenous Rice Flour
27g (3tbs) Tapioca Starch
9g (1tbs) Wheat Starch
12g (1tbs) Potato Starch
(1/2tsp) Salt
560g (2 1/2c) Luke Warm Water
228g (1/2 lbs) Ground Pork
Fresh Scallions, Sliced finely
Fresh Chives, Sliced finely
Method:
- Generously Oil a 9″x13″ baking pan
- Ready steaming equipment . I used my Combi-oven on steam setting but my grandma used to set an inch or two of water in a large stock pot and set a steamer basket in the water for the pan to rest on like a platform. Get the water to a boil and lower the temperature to a fast simmer.
- Sift together Rice flour with the starches and salt before mixing in the lukewarm water. Whisk it well!
- Pour enough of the batter into the pan to well coat the bottom. You don’t want it to be too thick or it will be hard to roll later.
- Sprinkle on the pork and greens evenly and set to steam for 8-10 minutes.
- The Cheung fun is ready when you see it bubbling.Remove from steamer and let cool until it is of a tolerable temperature for handling.
- Roll it up, cover with a sweet and savory dipping sauce (recipe to follow) and garnish with more fresh herbs. I also added some sriracha for fun.
- *Special note* You can make these in advance and just re steam them rolled up (but no sauce) for a few minutes to heat them up.
Sweet and Savory Dipping Sauce:
Ingredients:
120g (1/2c) Light soy sauce
180g (3/4c) Dark soy sauce
168g (3/4c) Sugar
228g (1c) water
1 1/2tsp Oyster sauce
1 1/2tsp Chicken powder (Chicken Bouillon powder)
- Put all ingredients in small pot and heat on medium low until sugar is dissolved
- This recipe makes a LOT of sauce! I cut it in half and there was still plenty.
Stone House Mouse 