MAKING CHEUNG FAN

Cheung fan (腸粉) are soft fresh sheets of rice flour batter steamed till set with a little filling - shrimp, beef, pork, or whatever - then folded over, drizzled with a soy sauce, and minced scallion on top to garnish.
Usually they are slashed or cut when served, to allow any condiments you add to penetrate, and for ease of chopsticking.

In commercial establishments, a wet sheet of cloth is tightly stretched over a rectangular steamer, then rice flour batter is ladled on and smeared flat, a little bit of filling material is strewn over one side, and within mere moments the cloth is lifted with the now cooked noodle sheet on it, and another cloth put in place. Meanwhile a deft hand with a spatula separates the cheung fan, dexterously jiggling it into a loosely folded wedge or roll.


At home you do not have a large rectangular vat of fiercely boiling water with a perforated metal plate on top.

But you have a steamer.

So what you can do is use pie pans instead of taught wetted cloth, either lightly oiled or with a little Pam sprayed on. The steaming time is a little longer, because your cheung fan will be thicker. And instead of nice sharp-edged rectangular rolls, yours will be a little thicker around the middle.
Salad plates in lieu of pie pans will also do - the result will be cute little cheung fan which are quite suitable as a mid-day snack.


CHEUNG FAN: BATTER

One cup plain rice flour.
Quarter cup tapioca flour.
Two TBS cornstarch.
Two TBS oil.
Half a teaspoon salt.
Cold water.

Sift dry ingredients together. Slowly stir water into it, add the oil, and keep adding more water while stirring till you have a batter that looks like heavy cream - approximately 1¾ to 2¼ cups water in all. Let it stand an hour, re-stir.
It is now ready for use.

Grease a pie pan, ladle in enough batter to thinly cover the bottom, and place in the steamer. After about a minute to a minute and a half, add the filling along one side. Steam for another four to six minutes, depending on how thick your layers are. Remove the pie pan from the steamer, and prepare a second pan while the first one cools.
As soon as you have added a filling to the second cheung fan, separate the first one from its pan with a flexible spatula, rolling as you go. Proceed in this manner till all the batter is used up. There should be about eight or nine cheung fan stacked on the plate when you're done. Drizzle a little sesame oil over for fragrance, slash into segments to show the filling, and garnish with minced scallion.


CHEUNG FAN: FILLING

You can us thin slivers of of beef (remember to rinse a bit, or soak in a little rice wine briefly to remove that charnel-house fragrance that adheres to the meat), or very fresh shrimp, peeled and veined, or even minced fresh cilantro, which will lend a soft fruity-herby-floral tone to the noodly sheets.
Chopped char-siu or rehumidified dry shrimp are also common.


炒粿條

If you make the cheung fan without any filling, they can be sliced into broad strips and served with ripped roast chicken and vegetables, or stirfried in pork fat with oysters and shrimp, like kway teow. Add some beansprouts (芽菜 ngaa choi、豆芽 dau ngaa) and scallion or chives, plus a drizzle of soy sauce, and serve with sambal on the side.



NOTE: this is a "reprint" of a recipe from two years ago, in this post:
LEFT-OVER TURKEY: CHEUNG FAN, RICE FLOUR NOODLES IN SOUP, AND JOOK.
Some people asked for it.
So here it is.



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