Teochew Ku Chai Kueh (veggie dumplings)

潮州人最出名的其中一項美食是菜粿，我是潮州人，尤其喜歡吃菲菜粿。我的倆位姐姐傳承母親的手藝都能做出很好吃的菜粿，只有不喜歡煮食的我從未學做過…
來到這裡，想吃什麼就動手做吧！先準備餡料…不大能知道應配材料的量，蝦米似乎太多了，炒出來的餡料味香熏滿整屋。
接著是將澄麵粉及薯粉攪拌做外皮… 生手就是生手，没有經驗，粉團是須要揉久一點才能均勻的，而我做出來的菜粿皮像 'mo ben'，也不會捏出好看的菜粿款… 所以第一批蒸爐的菜粿見不得人，第二批的免強上鏡…大小各異形狀！

I am ‘Teochew’ – a district in China my family came from. One of the popular, delicious ‘Teochew’ foods is ‘chai kueh’ (veggie dumplings) and I like ‘ku chai kueh’ (with chives) very much. My two sisters learned to make delicious ‘chai kueh’ from our mom; only I didn’t like to cook and never learned how to do it…

Now I am here, so if I miss the food I have to make it myself! At first, I prepared the filling…I was not sure of the ingredient amounts and it looked like there was already too much dried shrimp. When I fried the filling, the smell filled the house and it was so good.

After that, I made the wrappers with wheat starch and potato starch… I am not experienced and a new learner, and didn’t know the dough had to be kneaded a long time to become smooth. That’s why my ‘chai kueh’ wrappers looked ‘ugly’. And I don’t know how to pinch the dumplings into a nice shape…so the first batch of ‘chai kueh’ turned out sad, and I just tried to show off the second batch…they are all different shapes and sizes!