Chinese rice noodle rolls (chee cheong fun) are steamed and can have various fillings.  (For plain cheong fun and sweet sauce (teem cheong / timzheong) recipes, see here.  For cheong fun with shrimp, see here.)  My parents used to buy cheong fun with dried shrimp from the grocery stores quite often until they heard that they contain the harmful additive borax.  Now that I know how easy they are to make from scratch, minus the additives, my parents can enjoy these again.

Cheong Fun (Rice Noodle Roll) with Dried Shrimp and Green Onions Recipe

makes 8 to 10 rice noodle rolls; adapted from Waitakere’s Redneck Kitchen (The video instruction here is very helpful.)

150 g rice flour

1 1/2 tbsp wheat starch

2 tbsp cornstarch

150 ml room temperature water

250 ml boiling water

1 tbsp vegetable oil plus more for greasing the pans

1/2 tsp salt

3 stalks green onions, green parts only sliced thinly

2 tbsp Chinese dried shrimps, soaked in hot water for 5 minutes and then chopped into small pieces

(Note:  Some people prefer more filling in their cheong fun, so adjust the amount of green onions and dried shrimp to your taste.)

sweet soy sauce (Chinese rock sugar and soy sauce to taste, heated until sugar has dissolved and then cooled completely.)

Whisk together the rice flour, wheat starch, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl.  Stir in the room temperature water and mix well.  Then stir in the boiling water and mix well.  Add the oil and stir well until you have a smooth, thin batter.  Let the batter rest at room temperature for at least 1 hour (this is important or else your rolls will come out too moist and sticky).

Set up your steaming equipment (see instructions here).  I set a rack in a wok of water.  Bring the water to a boil over high heat.  Meanwhile, prepare a bowl of cold water that’s large enough to put your pan in – this will be the cold water bath.  Then lightly grease as many non stick, round cake pans as you own (I use 9 inch round pans).  When the water is boiling, ladle enough batter into your cake pan to spread a thin layer across the bottom that reaches the edges of the pan.  Place the pan on the rack and add a sprinkle of green onions and a sprinkle of chopped dried shrimp.  Cover the wok with the lid, and steam for 5 to 6 minutes over high heat.  Remove the tray from the steamer and set it in the cold water bath.  While it’s cooling, pour the batter into the next prepared pan and repeat this process.  You may need to re-grease your pans between uses.  When the steamed rice noodle is cool enough to handle, run a rubber spatula around the pan to release the edges of the rice noodle.  Then working from one end of the pan to the other, gently peel the rice noodle from the pan as you roll it.  Set the roll aside on a clean plate and repeat the process until you have used up all of the batter.  Pour sweet soy sauce over the rolls and serve warm.  Once cool, the rice noodle rolls can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days.  Or they can be frozen.  Defrost before reheating in the steamer or in the microwave.