What Are Chinese Rice Crackers Called?

Chinese rice crackers, also called prawn chips or shrimp chips are tasty Asian snacks that have attracted the love of both adults and minors. The popularity of these snacks has always been increasing because they’re gluten-free. Besides, they’re also readily available when you visit a good Chinese Super Market and you can easily prepare them at home.

How Are These Crackers Made? Understand the Details

Traditionally, the Chinese Crackers were made from a combination of dried shrimp mixed with tapioca flour/tapioca starch. The choice of Tapioca flour is intentional as it’s gluten-free. In the rice version of the crackers, finely ground rice flour is mixed with shrimp/prawn paste.

Water is added to this mixture to obtain a dough. The dough is spread on a flat surface to form a sheet. It’s this sheet that’s cut into different shapes to obtain the individual crackers. After they’re sun-dried, they’re packaged and sold to consumers.

You can purchase pre-fried crackers or unfried ones and deep-fry them at home. Asian supermarkets have a wide range of crackers to choose from. In addition to the Chinese version, you can pick other varieties such as:

· Japanese crackers

These crackers have a softer texture as puffed rice is the binding agent used when making them. Its taste is weaker compared to the Chinese variety of crackers. They’re ideal for people who love rice instead of noodles.

· Korean Crackers

The crackers have wheat flour and soy sauce is added for flavouring. They’re tasty snacks for those who love crisps.

· Thai Crackers

They also have traditional tapioca flour with a touch of Thai chilli to make it sweet. However, you can pick a flavour of your choice if you’re preparing the crackers at home.

How Can You Make Your Crackers at Home?

Fortunately, Chinese Crackers only need a few ingredients making them one of the easiest snacks to make. You require prawns/shrimps, finely ground rice, water, salt, sugar, and ground white pepper.

The first step is to make your prawn paste. You prepare the prawns by removing the shells. Put your prawns in a blender, add water, and crush them into a smooth paste.

Transfer the prawn paste from the blender to a sizeable bowl. Add rice flour to the paste. After that, you can add the seasoning elements including salt, sugar, and pepper. Mix the ingredients carefully until you obtain a perfect dough. Balance the water content in the dough to ensure it isn’t too stiff.

Press the dough until it obtains a flat shape. It should assume the shape of the tin you intend to use when steaming it. Prepare your steaming tin by spreading oil on its surface. You can then steam your dough for about 1 hour to ensure it’s fully cooked.

After steaming your dough, give it a few minutes to cool. You can then cut it into small equal slices. Sun-dry your slices until there are brittle. A dehydrator can also be used to dry the crackers.

The next step is to deep-fry your crackers. They require 180 degrees Celsius of pre-heated oil. Place the slices carefully in this oil to prevent the oil from splashing. You can then remove the slices from the oil while ensuring you fully drain the oil from them.

Place them on a flat surface and give them time to cool. Store them in a water-tight container to enable them to maintain their perfect shape.

If you don’t have the time and patience to prepare your crackers at home, you can purchase these delicious snacks at HiYou supermarket. You are assured of high-quality crackers at affordable prices.