This thinly steamed rice paper that is often brimming with various fillings and rolled altogether tastes the best when it’s fresh out of the steamer. With this recipe, you can make it fresh at home anytime!
Where can you buy cheung fun?
Cheung fun, also known as cheung fan, is a traditional Cantonese dish with Guangdong origins and translates to “steamed rice roll.” These rice noodles come in steaming plates straight off of dim sum carts in restaurants or street carts all over the world, typically for breakfast. Using rice noodle rolls as a base is simple, but also allows for many different variations when we talk about fillings. Often you can find fillings of shrimp, roasted pork (char siu), beef, vegetables, or even fried dough (youtiao) and topped with drizzles of different seasoning sauces. Some varieties are also based on region, for example, in Malaysia they have a variant called chee cheong fun, which is served with sweet shrimp paste, fried shallots, and sesame seeds.
Similarities to Vietnamese bánh cuốn
In Vietnam they have bánh cuốn, which is an often thinner style rice noodle roll filled with ground pork, wood ear mushrooms, and fried shallots. It’s served and topped with nước chấm. It’s often thought that bánh cuốn originated from cheung fun through migration, as with other versions of this dish, and it’s so similar that there must be truth to this.
Tools needed to make this
When I first learned how to make cheung fun at home, I was a little worried about not having the right tools to make thin and soft rice paper. While my mom made plenty of bánh cuốn at home–perfectly steamed to the right thickness every time–she also had a cheese cloth steamer contraption that my dad handmade for her. Since bánh cuốn is a lot thinner than cheung fun, I found that you can replicate the rice noodle rolls two ways: buying a steamer box or creating a makeshift steamer box using a rectangular tray, a large saucepan or pot with a lid, and a rack to raise the tray above the water. I went for the latter since I had everything at home. You want to make sure that the saucepan or pot is large enough so that the tray fits perfectly inside and that its sides are big enough for the tray to sit on a rack above water. I would also recommend NOT using a pot with sides that are too high because this could restrict your hand movements for rolling the rice noodle paper while steaming–it also gets pretty hot in the steamer so you want to roll as quickly as possible. For this recipe, I used a quarter sheet pan, a 12 inch saucepan, a circular wire rack from 99 Ranch, and a lid for the pan. I also used a whisk to combine all the ingredients and a silicone spatula to help roll the steamed rice noodle.
Cheung fun / rice noodle roll ingredients
The ingredients for these rice noodle rolls take two sets of different types of flours and starches that you can find in many Asian grocers: rice flour, glutinous rice flour, tapioca starch, and potato starch. Please note this recipe calls for TWO different types of rice flour, this is very specific so make sure to purchase regular rice flour and glutinous rice flour. In addition to the flours, we also mix in salt and filtered water to bring the liquid together. If you want to adjust the texture to your preference, you can also the ratios for tapioca and potato starch.
Char siu filling ingredients
For this recipe’s filling, I used char siu because pork is amazing! All you need is roasted char siu from your local Chinese restaurant or grocery store, or leftovers char siu from your Chinese meals. Recipe for making this at home is coming soon! Here’s my recipe for homemade char siu! For the sauce you’ll need oyster sauce, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, five spice powder, garlic, sesame oil, and water and cornstarch mixture. Similarly, the drizzle of seasoning sauce each roll gets before serving contains dark soy sauce, lighter soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, water, and oyster sauce.
Char siu filling instructions
Step 1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the flours, starches, and salt with a whisk. Step 2. Add the water to the flour mixture and whisk thoroughly. Whisk the contents quickly so they don’t clump. Let this liquid rest for at least 20 minutes. Step 3. While your liquid is resting, you can prep your char siu filling by chopping your char siu into small pieces. In a saucepan, combine the oyster sauce, light and dark soy sauces, sugar, five spice powder, garlic, and sesame oil. Turn on the heat to medium-high and stir. In a small bowl mix together the cornstarch and water until it’s dissolved, then mix into the saucepan. Wait for this sauce to boil, then lower it to medium and cook for another two minutes or until it reaches the consistency of molasses. Add the char siu and cook for an additional one minute. Remove from the heat and then rest until you add the filling.
Seasoning sauce instructions
Make your sauce by adding dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, water, and oyster sauce together in a small pan over medium low heat until the sugar dissolves. Place into a container and leave it on the counter until you are ready to drizzle onto the rolls.
Cheung fun / rice noodle roll instructions
Step 1. In your saucepan or pot, add the wire rack and add enough water so that it sits slightly underneath the rack. Add your tray on top and cover with the lid. Preheat your steamer before putting the cheung fun liquid. Step 2. Using a brush, lightly spread some oil on the tray to prevent your rice paper from sticking when it steams. Step 3. Then, add enough rice noodle liquid to cover the bottom of the tray (try to use as little as possible so your rice paper doesn’t end up being too thick). I like to move the saucepan around so that it covers evenly. Step 4. Place the lid on top and steam for about two minutes. After two minutes, check to see if your rice paper is beginning to form. If you move the tray around and most of the liquid stays put, you can sprinkle your filling over the rice paper. If it’s still very liquidy and/or not sticking to the corners, place the lid back on and steam for another minute and re-check. The goal is to add the filling while its still slightly tacky, so it sticks to the batter. For this recipe, we used char siu. Then, close the lid again and steam for an additional five minutes. Step 5. Remove the lid after it’s finished steaming. It should look firm and slightly translucent, and you typically see large bubbles underneath the rice noodle throughout. Using a silicone spatula, carefully lift one side of the rice noodle (preferably the shorter side), and fold it over itself by one inch and continue to roll until you reach the other end. Use the spatula to lift the cheung fun from the tray to your serving plate. Step 6. Before serving, I found that if you leave the roll to rest for about two minutes, the texture firms a bit and you get the perfect combination of soft and chewy rice noodles. Drizzle the sauce on top of the cheung fun. I like to add some chopped scallions for extra color. Cheung fun char siu is best served with other dim sum recipes like chicken feet, char siu bao, pork and shrimp shumai, egg tarts, Chinese broccoli and with oyster sauce, and xiao long bao. To learn how to best eat cheung fun with chopsticks, read my chopstick tutorial.
What is a fun roll?
A fun roll is also called cheung fun or cheong fun. It’s a thinly steamed rice paper that is filled with various ingredients like shrimp, meat, vegetables, and even fried dough, and then rolled or folded. It’s primarily eaten as a snack or for breakfast in Chinese restaurants or from street carts in Asia.
Is chee cheong fun gluten free?
Yes, the rice noodle roll in chee cheong fun is gluten free because it uses a mixture of rice flour, tapioca starch, and potato starch. However, if you use a seasoning sauce, please note that most soy sauce does contain gluten so please check the ingredient list.
