Steamed Vegetables Dumplings: baby boab tubers (Chai Kueh II)

I'm here in Melbourne for nearly 1.5 month now, my mind still couldn't stop craving for the Malaysia and Singapore street food.  This round is steamed vegetables dumplings or chai kueh. I try my best to look for jicama whenever I go market but I couldn't spot it anywhere, then I realised jicama is not a common food here. Even in the Asian Grocery Shop, is unusual for them to sell jicama!! Huh! another surprise for me!

One day, I purposely drove to Springvale market, it is far from where I live. I found something look like jicama in the market but the skin of the vegetable tell me it is not, I asked around what type of vegetable is that, but the sale girl at the shop didn't know what type of vegetable it is too. They place it together with purple beetroot. I want to try my luck, I bought a big one home.

The smell of this vegetable is a bit different from jicama when it is raw, but after shredded and cooked no one can tell the different. I google the name of this vegetable from Internet and found that it is called baby boab tubers, a good replacement of jicama.

I made 50 bite size pieces from this round of Chai Kueh making :) The dumpling skin as usual is easy to handle and the result is crystal clear soft dumpling skin.

Recipe for filling from Ah Tze's Kitchen Play

Ingredients:
600g baby boab tubers, shredded
200g dried prawns, soaked and chopped
1 big carrot, shredded
4 tbsps sugar
2 tsp salt
2 medium bowl of water
cooking oil
80g chopped garlic
6 stalks of mushroom, chopped
some corriander, washed and chopped

Method:

1. Heat the oil in wok, stir-fry garlic until fragrant.
2. Add in dried prawns and fry until fragrant.
3. Add in jicama, carrots and mushrooms. Stir fry for 5 mins, add in water. Let it simmer until the vegetable is soft and cooked. Add corriander. Add in sugar and salt to taste. If you like me, prefer my vegetable to taste sweet to cover the raw smell of the boab tubers, you may add in more sugar. Let it cool for later use.

Recipe for dumpling skin adapted from Hot Favourites Kuehs and Pastries cookbook, with minor changes

Ingredients:
300g wheat starch flour
300g tapioca flour
500 ml hot boiling water 
2 tsp salt
6 tbsp cooking oil

Step:
1. Place wheat starch flour, tapioca flour, and salt in a bowl. Make a hole in the centre and pour in hot water. (the water must be boiling hot) Mix well with a pair of chopstick, mix to form a dough. 
2. Add oil and knead to form a smooth dough. (make sure to knead well so to produce soft dumpling skin) Cover with wrapping film, set a side to rest for 30 mins.
3.Flatten the dough to a thin layer, use the ring cutter to cut out the individual dumpling skin. Roll dough to form a thin circle.
4. Wrap 1 tbsp of filling with each dough. Fold into semicircle and seal the opening by pressing the edges together.
5. Line steamer with non stick baking paper or a piece of banana leaves. Place the chai kueh on top and steam for 10~15 mins or until the dumpling skin turns translucent.
6. Remove the chai kueh and brush the surface with some oil. Serve hot.

Dumplings in the steamer ready for steaming