Jicama, or bangkuang in Hokkien, is a type of root vegetables that contains lots of water. It has a crunchy texture and slightly sweet to the taste. I bought some jicamas the other day to make “poh piah” (Chinese burrito)– speaking of which, I forgot to take pictures again… Anyhow, I bought too much so this is what I did with the extras– I made bangkuang kueh or commonly known as “soon kueh” in Malaysia.
Soon Kueh/Bangkuang Kueh Recipe (skin recipe is from Rose’s Kitchen)– makes 40 pcs:
Skin Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups rice flour
3/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
600 ml water
Filling Ingredients: cooked jicamas (see below for recipe)
Method:
- Sieve rice flour and tapioca flour into a big bowl.
- Boil 600ml water with salt. When boiled, pour into the flour mixture and quickly stir with a wooden spoon until all combined and cooked.
- Dust board with tapioca flour and transfer the dough onto the floured surface. Add in oil and knead well until smooth, adding more tapioca flour if needed. Rest dough for 10 minutes.
- Dip hands with water and knead dough again until smooth and pliable. Divide dough into 40 balls. Cover them to prevent drying.
- Roll out each balls thinly. Place in 1 1/2 tbsp of filling, fold in half and seal edges by pinching the sides together. If the edge opens up after you pinch, dip your finger with a little tapioca flour then pinch again.
- Place kueh on greased steaming trays, sprinkle with some water and steam over high heat for 10 minutes. When kueh puffs up, it is ready. Remove and brush with oil generously to prevent sticking together.
Jicama Filling
Ingredients:
2 lbs jicama/bangkuang
1 carrot
2-3 tbsp dried shimp (rinsed)
2-3 cloves garlic
Seasoning: my seasoning is based upon estimation or agak-agak. I like mine a bit peppery from ground white pepper and slightly browish color. Adjust the seasoning according to your taste.
- salt
- ground white pepper
- soy sauce
- sugar (adjust according to the sweetness of jicama)
- chicken powder
Method:
- Peel jicamas and carrot. Cut into thin strips. Chop garlic and dried shrimp, set aside.
- Heat oil in wok, saute garlic and dried shrimp until fragrant. Add jicamas and carrot strips, stir fry a while then add seasoning. Continue stir fry until jicamas are soft and ingredients are almost dry. Set aside to cool before wrapping.
Note:
- Brush soon kueh after steaming so they don’t stick together. If stacking up into layers, place plastic wrap between each layer will also help getting them out.
- Leftover soon kueh– just pan fry until the skin is golden and crispy, serve with sambal chili and a cup of coffee… shiok!
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I must say those soon kuehs look delicious!! ill try your recipe next time im cooking 🙂
OMG! One of my favourites. I miss these alot. Would love to make these, but I can hardly find jicama near my place. What would you suggest as substitute?
BTW love the shine on the skin 🙂
Hi Nasifriet,
Substitute for jicama… hmm let me think. The thing about jicama is that it has a very mild sweet taste with crunchy texture, so something that will share the same characters– maybe daikon (though liquid must be drawn before cooking, and it’s kind of firm crunchy instead of light crunchy of jicama), radish (never cook radish so not sure if it will remain the crunchy texture after cooking), celery for sure will be good and crunchy after cooking, but it has the celery taste (try using inner young celery and blanching before cooking, to remove the taste). Maybe even try Asian pears? It has mild sweet taste and crunchy like jicama, but it might draw liquid and soften during cooking… whatever it is, be sure to season the soon kueh filling well with ground white pepper, salt and sugar because that’s what give soon kueh flavors.
Hope it helps. Good luck!
Regina
Thanks for the tips, Regina. I thought so, too that daikon is the closest substitue. I’d love the idea of using the Asian pears, but I don’t think I have found any. If there are, they’ll cost a bomb 😦
I’ve used either radish or daikon in making chai tau kueh. Pretty good I must say. You’re really good in cooking, and baking. Ever considered opening a Malaysian resto or brasserie? I’m sure it’ll be a best seller 😉
Nasifriet,
OH, how sweet of you! I always tell my friends that cooking for pleasure is one thing, but cooking for a living is a total different story– I might get stressed cooking in a restaurant everyday and lose my passion in what I love to do. Who know… Right now my time is fully occupied by my three young children (age 10, 7 and 4), meals, school works and house chores– we don’t have relatives live near us so everything is DIY. Maybe I’ll get into catering business, when my children are much older and free up my time.. (dreaming…) 🙂
Regina
Water measurement doesnt seem right. the dough is very wet and hard to work with.
Hi Lynette,
I haven’t made this fir quite a while. As far as I remember the dough is bit on the wet side— it’ll stick to your hand as you knead, but still workable. You can lightly flour (with rice flour) the work surface and your hand as you work along but don’t add too much at a time. Hope this helps.
Regina