Teochew Peach-Shaped Dumplings (Puen Kueh / Peng Kueh)

Is it just me or is the year swooshing by real fast? It's already the start of October now and soon enough we will be talking about Christmas and New Year! And since this is the final exam month, parents and kids will be pretty busy. I guess as a parent, we usually try our best to physically or mentally support our kids to skid though these tough weeks. Whether you seat down and do revision with them or just giving them encouragement all the way, I am sure they will appreciate it. One of the things I like to do during this time is to make more comfort food, it delights the kids and fills the tummy too. So I finally get to work on this family favorite kueh. It's Puen Kueh, traditionally a Teochew kueh that is usually shaped like a peach and colored in pink. It's usually stuffed with glutinous rice, dried shrimp, mushrooms and boiled peanuts, yum!
I am sure many of you have seen and also eaten this kueh before. It's very fragrant and the chewy texture from the skin and glutinous rice is very satisfying. ;) Believe it or not, I actually plan to make this kueh for a good 3 months and finally got the chance to make it last week. ;) From finding the perfect recipe to getting the mould and ingredients, then finally the time to make it! So you can imagine how happy I am when I finally bite into one of these babies, lol!

Recipe Adapted from "Delightful Snacks & Dim Sum' by Agnes Chang
Ingredients for Puen Kueh (makes 22-25):


Ingredients for filling
550 g glutinous rice, soaked overnight and drained

3 tbsp fried shallot oil
1 tsp chicken powder
8 shallots, peeled and chopped
100 g dried prawns, soaked, drained and roughly chopped
8-10 dried mushrooms, soaked, drained and diced
70g peanuts, soaked and boiled with a touch of salt or used canned ones is fine


Seasoning:
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt

Ingredients for Skin
550 g rice flour 
120 g tapioca flour 
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

760 ml boiling water

3 tbsp fried shallot oil or cooking oil
1/4 tsp of red food colouring gel

Method For Filling:

• Prepare the steamer over medium fire. Then steam the pre soaked glutinous rice with a knotted pandan leaf (optional). Steam for a good 40-45 mins. Note that I added about 100 ml of water into the rice to steam together. And continue to drizzle 25 ml water over the rice every 10 minutes. This ensures the rice to cook more evenly. Make sure you give it a taste test before stopping the fire.
• Now we prepare the other ingredients for the filling. In a wok, add 3 tbsp cooking oil over medium low fire. Add in chopped shallots, cook till slightly brown and aromatic. Add mushrooms and roughly chopped dried shrimp. When the whole mixture is aromatic, add in the steamed rice and seasoning. Give it a good toss to make sure everything is well combined.
• Lastly add in the peanuts. I add them last because I didn't want them squished when tossing. 
• Once everything is uniformly mixed in. Set the filling aside and prepare your kueh skin.

Method for Dough Skin

• I usually use the stand mixer to do the kueh dough mixing. As there is usually boiling water involve and needs to be rapidly combined, the mixer will do a better job then a spatular or hand. It's too hot!
• So in a large mixing bowl, add in both flours, sugar and salt, give it a quick mix to combine. Then get ready your boiling water while the mixing blade is still turning at its lowest speed. Ever so carefully drizzle in the hot water in while the mixer is on, don't pour all at a go! The dough will slowly come together. Once all the hot water has been added, add in the 3 tbsp of oil and the food colouring. Continue to mix till the dough becomes one inform pink shade. You might need to scoop the dough around to get it to mix well since it is kind of sticky. But don't worry, it will be less sticky when it cools down a little.
• Cover the skin dough with a moist towel and proceed to set up your wrapping area. You will need extra oil to grease the mould and the steaming plate where you place the kuehs. Have your steamer ready on medium low while you are wrapping.
• I can't really give you the amount of dough skin you need to wrap one kueh, as I myself got it through trial and error. You can start off using 50-60g, gradually add or remove as you need. 
• Flatten the dough skin to 1/4cm thickness. then spoon about 2 tbsp of glutinous rice filling in the middle. Carefully wrap up and seal any openings. Place it in the greased puen kueh mould and press gently to let it take the mould's shape. Knock on the edge to release the kueh out. Repeat till all the skin or filling is used up.
• Steam the kuehs for 10-15 minutes. You are essentially steaming to cook the skin only since the filling was already pre-cooked. Repeat till all the kuehs are steamed. Brush a little cooking oil or shallot oil on the surface of the steamed kueh to prevent it from sticking.

I have been using this old school mould for years. It only costed me $2? It's not a fancy mould but it has been doing it's job well. 

The result was quite satisfactory. :) The texture of the skin was just right and the flavour of filling was good too.When it was freshly steamed, my kids and I happily enjoyed a couple of them together, just plain with no sweet sauce or chili. Yup, it's that good ok, haha.

I tinted the skin dough to pink so as to take on the traditional Peng kueh look.  If you opt not to add any food colouring, be prepared to have white puen kueh!

I have made this recipe for countless times and passed it to many of my friends and family to try. Most of them have enjoyed it very much. It's an old school treat that will always bring back fond memories of childhood! I am glad I am creating it for my kids now. :)

2 days after I made these Puen Kueh, I cut the remaining pieces and fried them up. All crispy and golden....super yum! ;D As expected, my kids love this more then the steam version....including my hubby of course. Even when we buy these peng kueh from stalls outside, we usually pan fried them till  all crunchy on the outside before eating them. Yes its better fried....most of the time. :P 

Guess I will have to be making this again pretty soon. Thanks for reading!