Hue steamed rice cakes are judged by the dimple in the middle of each one, the sign that the batter was mixed right and steamed at the right heat. The cakes are thin and lightly chewy, topped with shrimp floss, spring onion oil and a crisp puff of pork skin.
The hardest part is the thickness of the batter, since a thin batter gives soggy cakes and a thick one gives firm cakes with no dimple. The batter needs a full 30 minutes of rest and a stir before every ladle, because rice flour settles to the bottom. The bowls have to be heated in the steamer first, since cold bowls make the cakes stick and hard to lift out.
This batch weighs about 1.1kg, at roughly 105 calories per 100g.
Method
Mix 1 bowl fine rice flour and 1 tablespoon tapioca starch with 2 bowls warm water and pass it through a sieve. Season with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon MSG and rest the batter for 30 minutes.
Remove the heads from the prawns, boil them, peel, pound them fine, then dry fry in a pan into floss, seasoning with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Keep the cooking water.
Fry the puffed pork skin until golden and cut it into small dice. Finely chop the green chilies.
Make the spring onion oil: put chopped spring onion in a bowl with 1/5 teaspoon salt and 1/5 teaspoon MSG. Heat 2 tablespoons oil and pour it over the spring onion, then add 1 teaspoon cold oil and stir.
Bring the water in the steamer to a hard boil, set the small bowls inside to heat through, then brush them with oil. Stir the batter well, fill each bowl two thirds full, cover and steam for 5 minutes.
Mix the dipping sauce: 5 teaspoons of the shrimp cooking water with 1 tablespoon kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, 1 tablespoon fish sauce and the chopped green chili.
Arrange the cakes on a plate lined with banana leaf, scatter over the shrimp floss, spoon on the spring onion oil, add the pork skin and pour over the dipping sauce.
Tips
Spring onion oil needs a little cold oil added after the hot oil goes in, which keeps the onion green and crisp.
Choose thin, bright golden pork skin with no rancid smell, since that is what puffs evenly in the pan.
kOBE Monk Fruit Blend dissolves slowly, so stir the dipping sauce again after 5 minutes before tasting.
Stir the bowl of batter before every ladle, because settled flour gives thick cakes and thin ones.
Five minutes of steaming is enough, since longer leaves the cakes wet and flattens the dimple.
Dry fry the shrimp until light and completely dry so it keeps, as any moisture left softens it by the next day.
Need kOBE Monk Fruit Blend?
The recipe above is sweetened with kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, measured 1:1 like sugar. See the product page or send us a message.