Mauritian niouk yen / Boulette chouchou

Niouk yen is a classic traditional Mauritian food that you can find all around the island, especially in asian restaurants or street food stalls. These dim sums are made up mostly with a vegetable called Chokos/Chayote.

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5 from 9 votes

mauritian niouk yen / boulette chouchou / chokos dim sum

Servings 20 units

Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

Ingredients

• 1 kg chokos (chouchou)
• 100 g chicken mince
• 2-3 shiitake mushroom finely diced
• 25 g rice vermicelli stick (mifoon)
• ½ cup corn/tapioca starch (poudre cange)
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 3 tsp salt
• 1 tsp white ground pepper
• oil for frying

Instructions

Preparing the ingredients

• Wearing gloves (Chokos can make the skin very itchy), peel off the chokos' skin. Using a paring knife, make sure to remove all the little bits of skin in the little canals.
• Cut the chokos in half or quarter and grate them into in large bowl.
• Add 1 tsp of salt to the grated chokos, mix well and let it sit for 5 minutes.
• Transfer the grated chokos into a tea towel and squeeze it several time to extract the maximum amount of liquid out of it. Discard the liquid and set the chokos aside in a large bowl.
• Heat up some oil in a frying pan. Cook the mince chicken and the shiitake mushroom and season with 1 tsp of salt. Set aside to cool down.
• In a pot, heat up some oil for deep frying (190C/380F). Put in the rice noodle sticks until they expand, about 10 secs only. Remove from oil and set aside.

The dim sum mixture

• In the large bowl with the grated chokos, add in the chicken and shiitake, crush in the fried rice noodle, add in your seasoning (corn/tapioca starch, fish sauce, white pepper and remaining salt). Combine everything well.
• The mixture should have a sticky consistency that's just enough for it to hold it's shape when rolling into a ball.
• Start rolling the dim sums into golf-sized balls. Spray some oil onto a steamer tray and place the balls onto the tray for steaming.

Steaming the dim sums

• Steam on medium high heat for 20mins
• Optional — sprinkle with chopped spring onions and serve with some fresh chilli sauce!

Video

Course: Entrée

Cuisine: Asian, Chinese, Mauritian

Keyword: Chicken, Pork