Cheung Fun

Where This Goes Wrong

Stir the batter before every single ladleful.

Two millimetres. Any thicker and it is stodgy.

Roll it hot. A cool sheet cracks.

Cooking Cheung Fun

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1. Whisk the rice flour, tapioca starch, cornflour, salt and water to a thin smooth batter and stir in the oil.

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2. Toss the prawns with the cornflour and salt.

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3. Warm the sauce ingredients together until the sugar dissolves, then set aside.

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4. Oil a flat metal tray that fits inside a large steamer and set the steamer to a hard boil.

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5. Stir the batter well, then ladle just enough into the hot tray to coat it about 2 mm deep, tilting to spread.

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6. Scatter a few prawn halves, spring onion and coriander over and steam 4 minutes, until the sheet is set and bubbling.

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7. Lift the tray out, run an oiled scraper under one edge and roll the sheet up on itself into a fat cylinder.

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8. Cut into 5 cm lengths and keep warm. Repeat, stirring the batter before every pour.

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9. Pour the warm sauce over just before serving.

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Why the Method Works

The batter must be stirred immediately before every single pour, because rice flour settles to the bottom of the bowl within about a minute and an unstirred ladleful gives you a translucent, holey sheet at the top of the batch and a thick chalky one at the bottom. Pour it thin — barely two millimetres — and roll each sheet the moment it comes out of the steamer, while it is still hot and pliable. A cooled sheet cracks along the fold.

Storage and Reheating

Best immediately. Refrigerated 1 day and re-steamed 3 minutes.

Swaps and Variations

• Out of spring onions? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.

Good With

• Chilli oil
• Har gow
• Jasmine tea

Cheung Fun Nutrition

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

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