How to make Chwee Kueh without Wheat Flour | Water Cakes with Preserved Radish and Special Sambal

How to make a gluten free version of this Singapore hawker snack classic, Chwee Kueh without wheat flour.

Chwee Kueh is a Singapore hawker classic of steamed rice cakes topped with a sweet and salty preserved turnip mince. It is usually served with a dollop of sambal on the side.

It is a typical breakfast, although it’s also a snack option in the afternoon. These are sold very cheaply, 3-4 cakes in a packet costs some $2 or so. Usually the stall is at a hawker centre, and manned by an old auntie/uncle just flipping out rice cakes all day long. I had a craving for these, but there were no nearby stalls for me, so I decided to whip these up.

Not as easy and straightforward as I expected, but a couple of attempts in, I managed to whip up a good batch! The chai poh/chye poh were easy to make but the rice cakes were a little bit trickier.

Chye Poh/Chai Poh (Preserved Radish)

Chye Poh or Chai Poh are preserved radish pieces, and common in Chinese home cooking. A common variation is sweet turnip, which is interchangeable with radish. You can also find them in Thai cuisine. They are commonly purchased already pickled for super cheap at the supermarket.

Sometimes you can come across two versions of the same chye poh – sweet chye poh or salty chye poh. For chwee kueh, the sweet chye poh will work better. You can also use the salty chye poh, just make sure you rinse it a bit more, and up the sugar levels. Sweet chye poh is still salty, by the way.

Using Tapioca Flour in Place of Wheat Starch

The rice cakes are soft, and tasteless. All of the flavour is from the savoury sweet chye poh, or preserved sweet turnip topping. The bulk of the flour used is rice flour. Note that this is not to be confused with glutinous rice flour.

You really need the extra non-rice flour to give the rice cakes a more solid texture. Original recipes required wheat starch – different from plain flour – but I have tapioca flour on hand and used that instead. I have more uses for tapioca flour than I do wheat starch anyway. I adapted from this recipe and it came out very well.

Using Cornstarch

No tapioca starch? Try cornstarch. I tried a version with just cornstarch and it solidified a lot more. It was more of a firmer, bouncy, jelly texture. Taste-wise, it was still good though, so if you don’t mind the non-traditional firm chwee kueh texture, it’s an option to explore. This is the chwee kueh with cornstarch, one even formed that dimple.

… or Just Rice Flour!

Now, if you’re really hard pressed for tapioca flour or cornstarch even, you can use just the rice flour! But you’ll have a sort of softer pudding, or a compressed congee? It will also not look as smooth. I could still easily scrape it out of my ramekins though. The steps are a lot simpler too. No need to add boiling water, simply stir in 800ml of room temperature water. Everything else is the same, including time in the steamer. The next time I want to make a batch for myself, I’m going to just use rice flour :p.

This is what the rice flour-only chwee kuehs look like. It looks mushier than regular ones, but trust me, it does hold its shape.

Using Ramekins as Mould

I don’t have the traditional moulds, but I do have ramekins. You can also use cupcake/muffin cups, muffin trays, even a glass bowl, anything that can go in the steamer safely.

When I first used the ramekins, I made the mistake of filling it up to almost the brim. This resulted in uneven cooking, and I could not get the rice cake out smoothly. By smoothly, I meant I broke all of them while trying to take it out. Lol. The second time, I filled it only halfway through, and it came out in one piece. This recipe makes for 10 half-ramekin sized rice cakes.

Measuring Cup as a Batter-Pouring Device

After making my batter, I went the extra step of pouring it into my measuring cup. It made pouring the batter into the hot ramekins in the steamer soooo much easier. I tried with a ladle initially, but it required at least two pourings for one ramekin. Not efficient. Plus, I accidentally steam-burned my hand, boo. Any container with a spout will work too – use a water jug if you have to!

Special Sambal

I personally cannot have chwee kueh without the sambal on the side. You can use your own ready-made bottled sambal, but if you want to make one from scratch then give my recipe a go! It’s a bit more effort, but it will taste like as if you got it from the hawker stalls. My recipe makes for about one cup of sambal. Keep the balance in the fridge, it can keep for 3 weeks!

Ingredients:

• 150g Rice Flour
• 20g or 2 tbsps Tapioca Flour
• 200ml Room Temperature Water
• 600ml Hot Boiling Water
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 tbsps Oil

Chye Poh Topping:

• 150g Chye Poh
• 2-3 Shallots, chopped
• 2 cloves Garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
• 1/2 tsp Sesame Oil
• 2 tbsps Sugar
• Sprinkling of White Pepper

Sambal:

• 20g or 20 stalks of Dried Chillies, soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes
• 1 Onion, or 3-4 Shallots
• 3 cloves of Garlic
• 1/4 Cup of Water for blending
• 1/4 Cup of Oil
• 20g Dried Shrimps, soaked in warm water and chopped
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tsp Salt

Chwee Kueh with Chye Poh and Special Sambal | Water Cakes with Preserved Radish

Recipe by Sha

0.0 from 0 votes

Course: Eats, Recipes

Servings

10

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

30

minutes

This recipe makes 10 rice cakes.

Ingredients

• Chwee Kueh with Tapioca Starch

• 150g Rice Flour

• 20g or 2 tbsps Tapioca Starch

• 1/2 tsp Salt

• 200ml Room Temperature Water

• 600ml Boiling Water

• 2 tsp Vegetable Oil

• Chwee Kueh with Cornstarch

• 160g Rice Flour

• 15g Cornstarch

• 1/2 tsp Salt

• 200ml Room Temperature Water

• 600ml Boiling Water

• 2 tsps Cooking Oil

• Chye Poh Topping

• 150g Sweet Chye Poh

• 2-3 Shallots, minced

• 2 cloves Garlic, minced

• 1 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce

• 1 tsp Sesame Oil

• 2 tbsps Brown Sugar

• 1/2 tsp White Pepper

• 2 tbsps Cooking Oil

• Sambal

• 20g or 20 stalks of Dried Chillies, soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes

• 1 Onion, or 3-4 Shallots

• 3 cloves of Garlic

• 1/4 Cup of Water for blending

• 20g Dried Shrimps, soaked in warm water and chopped

• 1 tbsp Sugar

• 1 tsp Salt

• 1/4 Cup of Oil

• Cookware

• Ramekins, or steam-safe moulds

• Steamer

• Measuring cup, or any container with a spout for easier pouring of batter into moulds

Directions

• Chwee Kueh Rice Cakes
• Combine the flours with salt, and add the room temperature water. Stir or whisk, to get a thick batter.
• Add the hot water and oil, and whisk. It should turn into a watery liquid batter.
• Meanwhile, brush oil on your ramekins or moulds. Place these in your steamer, and leave it in for about 5 minutes.
• Pour in the batter up to halfway of the ramekins. Make sure to stir the batter before pouring, as the water might have separated from the flour mixture.
• Let the chwee kueh cook for 15 minutes.
• A dimple should form in the middle, this is normal. Let the chwee kueh rest in the steamer for about 10 minutes, before getting the rice cakes out of the ramekins/moulds. Use a small spatula, or a butter knife to ease the chwee kuehs out of its moulds.
• Chye Poh Topping
• Rinse the chye poh under running water about 3 to 4 times to get rid of excess salt. Chye Poh will still be salty. Drain as much as possible.
• In a pan, heat some oil and saute the chopped shallots and garlic.
• Once fragrant, add chye poh, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar and white pepper.
• Stir fry for about 5 minutes to combine and cook.
• Sambal
• Blend soaked dried chillies, shallots or onions, garlic and water to a paste.
• In a pan, add oil and let it heat up.
• Lower the heat and add the blended dried chilli paste. Saute until the paste has dried to a darker hue, and the oil has split. That’s when there it red oil floating on top of the paste.
• Add chopped dried shrimps, sugar and salt. Saute for about 5 minutes to combine.

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @nomadetteats on Instagram