Cooking The Books

Fried Beef and Spring Onion Buns

You know you're a little obsessed with food (or have a food problem really) when you're watching youtube videos in a foreign language just to drool at food, whilst you should be working too.  That's what I was doing last week with this youtube clip.  Whilst the langauge was too much for me the fried beef buns really caught my eye so I decided I'd have a little go at recreating something similar myself. 

I thought about making these with Chinese chives then settled on spring onion as they're far more accessible.  In fact if you're into cooking Chinese food then these are likely going to be a store-cupboard meal, and damn cheap too - spot on for these thrifty times.  Even if you haven't got the ingredients I think you can buy them all in a standard supermarket, although you'll have to put up with those tiddly bottles of stuff they sell.  I've tried and failed many a time to fold the delicate spirals of bao but I just cannot get them presentable, here though I get to squash them flat after I massacre them, which is perfect.

The results, even if I say so myself, were outstanding.  The wrappers held everything in during cooking so with the first bite masses of juice burth out - fragrant with ginger, sesame and spring onion and rich from the beef.  A dip of soy, rice vinegar and chili cut through the fat and added welcome heat.  With 250gr of beef and 200gr of flour this should have done a couple of people but I ate them all, feeling pretty bloated by the end - but smiling.

Fried Beef and Spring Onion Buns

Makes 6, which should do two of you

Wrappers

200 gr of dumpling flour (or half plain half strong white)

100 gr boiling water

Pinch of salt

Filling

250 gr of minced beef, not too lean, you want those juices

3 spring onions, finely chopped

1 ts finely grated ginger

1 TB light soy

1 TB rice wine

1 TB sesame oil

1/2 ts sugar

1/2 ts salt

Pinch of white pepper

Dip

1 TB light soy

1 TB rice vinegar

1 ts chili oil

Splash of sesame oil

Method

Mix the flour with a pinch of salt then add the boiling water, stirring well to combine.  Knead for a cople of minutes until smooth, then wrap in clingfilm and let rest for an hour.

Mix filling ingredients until well combined.  Stirring in one direction really brings them together.  Leave this to rest until the dough is ready.

Roll 1/6 of the dough (this will be 50 gr) out into a circle about 12cm across, you can flour the work surface if it is sticking.  If you can it is handy to have the edges thinner than the middle. Whilst doing this leave the rest in clingfilm so it doesn't dry out.

Place 1/6 of the beef in the middle (slightly over 50 gr here) then fold the wrapper around it.  I do this by continually pleating around and around.  When you reach all the way around there will be a hole so pinch it shut with a twist.  There may be excess dough at this point, you can nip this off with some scissors.  Once selaed squash, pleated side down, into something about 6-7cm diameter and 2cm thick.  Repeat 5 times.

Heat some oil in a large frying pan over a low to medium heat.  Fry the buns for 8-10 minutes, turning occasionally, until golden.

Mix the dip ingredients together and serve.  With the boiling juices inside it is probably best to wait a couple of minutes before eating though.

Sichuan Crescent Dumplings in Seaweed Broth

This recipe is a turning point for me.  Up until now I had always made my own dumpling skins, I thought I was trying to make my dumplings the best I could but, as Meemalee pointed out, I think it was just machismo - or possibly masochism.  Now I've bought a pack and enjoyed the greatly reduced preparation time and the result I will be macho no more.  If pre-made skins fit the job then pre-made skins it shall be.

This recipe is lifted from a book I bought it China.  Normally I'd painstakingly translate with a dictionary but I really couldn't be arsed so turned to twitter where Lizzie of Hollow Legs fame, well Lizzie's mum anyway, came to the rescue - thank you.  The beauty of my Chinese cookbooks, outside of being rammed with the most weird and wonderful recipes that you just don't see in English language Chinese cookbooks, is they frequently don't have any quantities for ingredients so you have to play around with amounts until the dish is to your taste - gone is blindly following a teaspoon here, 100gr there.  With this in mind I don't feel at all bad claiming this recipe as my own.

Sichuan crescent dumplings are frequently quite bland, flavoured only with a little salt and ginger juice, with the finished dishes deriving their taste from punchy sauces, whether that is chili oil or strange-flavoured (that's a real thing, honest). 

Here the dumplings themselves are rammed with flavour though - Chinese chives are a common ingredient but this is the first time I've seen Sichuan preserved vegetable in a dumpling.  It works wonders too, the slightly pickled bite cutting through the pork and the chili from the preservation process adding welcome heat.  It's not only for flavour either, it adds squeaky crunch to an otherwise soft filling. 

I love the re-hydrating effect of a bowl of soupy dumplings and here the seaweed adds a lovely savoury note, reminiscent of a breakfast miso.  If you prefer it the dumplings would be more than acceptable dry though, with maybe a little chili oil for added warmth.

Sichuan Crescent Dumplings with Seaweed Broth

2 as meal, more if sharing dishes

1 pack of dumpling skins, mine had 20 in which was perfect

200gr minced pork, not too lean

50gr of Chinese chives, finely sliced

35gr Sichuan preserved vegetable, rinsed and finely chopped

1ts rice wine

2ts light soy

1/3ts salt

1/3ts ground white pepper

1/2TB cornflour

Soup

300ml chicken stock

2ts dried wakame seaweed

Small handful of coriander leaves

Method

This is nice and simple, just mix everything together.  If you stir in one direction the filling will eventually come together as one big sticky lump.

To fill brush the edge of a dumpling skin with water (this isn't required if you make your own skins but the pre-made are a little dry), place a heaped teaspoon in the middle and fold the skin over into a semi-circle, being careful to remove air then squashing to seal.  These are not pleated dumplings.

For the soup bring the stock to boil and add the wakame.

Bring a saucepan of water to boil and add the dumplings, simmering for 3 minutes, until cooked through and floating.

Remove, serve in one bowl if sharing and two bowls if a meal, adding the seaweed broth and coriander to finish.

Bak Kwa/Rou Gan - The Other Chinese Barbecued Pork

I've not been blogging too much recently, trying to save my posts for recipes that are really worthy of publishing.  I finally found one in this wonderful dish and then, literally as it was in the fridge marinating, fellow blogger and recent acquaintance From Chopstix to Steaknives goes and blogs the exact same recipe.  It seems I'm not the only one with obscure little Malaysian cookbooks to pilfer recipes from and post on the web.

After cooking and eating and the girlfriend describing it as 'the best thing you've cooked since I've known you' (which spans 8 years) I have to go through with the post though.  Also the cookbook calls for the meat to be dried in the sun till at 70% weight before being barbecued and as both us bloggers are currently London based, and January London based at that, we've had to figure out our own ways to cook it, which differ.  It's up to you to see which one you prefer.

I first encountered this pork in Singapore where the street vendors quickly cook the thin sheets over charcoal.  The sugar caramelises, combining with the smoke and fat into a most enticing aroma that lingers in the air.  The same pork is all over Kuala Lumpur too, where a yellow and red fronted chain sells it both fresh and in packs, even down to little individually wrapped bite-size pieces. I discovered very quickly that this sweet, salty and chewy pork is very much like crack in its addictiveness, big bags disappeared as if there was a whole in the bottom.  Searching the floor it was clear the only place it had fallen was down my throat though. 

For some reason I'd never thought about making it until last week when I looked through said cookbook and the recipe sat before me.  Whilst I couldn't dry it in the sun I thought a low oven may help and so cracked on.  I'm glad I did as it somehow hardly suffers from the lack of cooking over charcoal, first bite and I was instantly back in KL, even down to the lovely cool air-conditioning - although that may well just have been London in January.

Bak Kwa - Chinese Barbecued Pork - Recipe

Makes 8 pieces, so you probably want to double or triple the recipe

300gr pork mince

90gr caster sugar

1/2 TB fish sauce

Scant 1/2 TB oyster sauce

Pinch of bicarb of soda

1/2 ts light soy

1 TB rice wine

Method

Mix all the ingredients and leave in the fridge overnight.

Cut a sheet of greaseproof paper to fit in a standard (35cm-ish wide) baking tray then place the pork on top, patting out well with your hands.  Lay a sheet of clingfilm on top then roll the pork out with a rolling pin until it is maybe 5mm thick, at which point it should pretty much cover the paper.

Slide the paper onto the baking tray and dry the pork in an 80C fan-oven for 45 minutes.

Remove, cut the pork into 8 and then place on the rack of a grill pan, so air can circulate around it for the final cooking.

Turn the oven up to 200C and cook the pork for 10 - 12 minutes, turning once, until is reddish-brown and starting to char around the edges.

Leave to cool for a few minutes then demolish in its entirety in 5 minutes flat.

Rou Jia Mo - The Chinese Hamburger

Whilst this reminds me more of kebab than a hamburger it was billed by that name when our paths first crossed and so it's stuck with me.  I was in Xi'an at the time and, after dutifully learning the Chinese symbols for the dish and spying them on a window, the gf and I had popped into a tiny little restaurant to have some liang pi, a famous cold speciality of the region consisting of wide flat noodles with shredded cucumber, all dressed in a spicy and sharp vinegar, chilli and sesame paste dressing.  Whilst tucking into a lovely rendition of it I noticed that the purely Chinese writing of the place was punctuated by a single handwritten A4 page stuck on the wall, which proclaimed 'Chinese Hamburger 3.5RMB'.  Not wanting to miss out on such a thing with the point of a finger I took the 35p gamble and was presented with this most delectable dish.

The bread was crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, more similar to a pitta bread than anything else I've had which, given Xi'an's large muslim population, makes perfect sense.  Inside though Islam's influence was definitely lost as it was stuffed with pork belly, stewed till meltingly tender then smashed up into the sauce, which was fragrant with the usual Chinese suspects of cinnamon and star anise.  It was absolutely gorgeous and I vowed to blog it as soon as I got back.  I may have failed miserably on the timing but I got there eventually.

Rou Jia Mo - The Chinese Hamburger

Makes 4

The Bread - Or Mo

200gr plain flour

120gr water

1 TB baking powder

1/2 ts salt

The Meat Filling

325gr pork belly, no skin.  The streaky rashers from supermarkets are ideal.

1 TB light soy

1 TB dark soy

1/2 ts sugar (I like the light brown stuff)

3" cassia bark/Chinese cinnamon

1 piece of dried tangerine peel, about half a tangerine's worth

1 star anise

Extras

Coriander

Chilli oil

Method

Mix the salt and baking powder into the flour then add the water to make a soft dough.  Knead for a couple of minutes to bring together then place in a bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave to rest for an hour or so.

Cut the pork into 1cm sticks through the layers (so 1cm x 1cm x thickness of the belly) and place in a saucepan with all the other filling ingredients.  Cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer for an hour and a quarter until tender. Whilst cooking add water so it doesn't boil dry but you want the sauce to reduce a lot so don't add too much.

Cut the rested dough into quarters and shape each into a disc 7-8cm diameter and a little under a centimetre thick, do this on a floured work surface as it will be a little sticky.  Heat a large frying pan over a low to medium heat and then cook the bread (without oil) for 2.5 to 3 minutes a side, until golden in places and cooked through.

To Serve

Remove the pork and chop or crush into the sauce.

Split the bread, brush one side with chilli oil, top with a quarter of the pork and a good amount of coriander and tuck in.  It's pretty easy to knock down a couple of these per person.

Soupy Pork and Dried Shrimp Potstickers

The last Oriental snack I made contained minced pork fat, an ingredient I'd always omitted when following recipes that contained it.  The result was a revelation, transforming prawn filled spring rolls from plain tasty to ridiculously tasty, holding the filling together and lubricating from within.  Another ingredient I'd seen and omitted in dumpling recipes was jellied stock and I decided to have a go and see if it was as dumpling-changing as the fat.  Whilst it wasn't quite such an epiphany it definitely works and I'll be looking to use it again in the future. 

The aim of this ingredient is to get moisture into the dumpling and the extreme example is the xiao long bao, where soup can be far more prominent than any solid filling.  You don't have to go to such extremes though and in small amounts it adds flavoursome moisture.  By jellying the stock you can work with it, combining it with other ingredients and getting it into a wrapper, something that would be impossible with a liquid stock.  Come cooking the gelatine melts and, assuming you've sealed them properly, you're left with liquid filled dumplings.  The fine circular folding of the xiao long bao is notoriously hard to achieve, especially with my chunky man-fingers, so for first attempts I went for the potsticker-style, something I can just about manage to turn out - despite my larger digits.

The addition of dried shrimps is an attempt to replicate a pork and dried shrimp baozi which I had in Beijing, a steamed bun that itself was dripping with juices when you bit into it.  The saltiness of the shrimp works fantastically with the pork and adds a deep savouriness to the soup, which itself has a slimely good mouthfeel from the gelatine.

Soupy Pork and Dried Shrimp Potstickers

Makes maybe 20-25

Filling

250gr minced pork

3 TB dried shrimp, roughly chopped

200ml of pork or chicken stock that sets

2 spring onions, finely chopped

2cm ginger

1 TB light soy

1 ts sesame oil

Big pinch of white pepper

1 ts rice wine

Pinch of salt, careful though as the shrimp and soy are salty

Dumpling Skin

300gr dumpling flour (or half and half plain and strong flour)

75gr boiling water

75gr cold water

Pinch of salt

Method

First off make the dumpling skins, as these need to rest for an hour.  Mix the cold and boiling water together and add to the flour and salt.  Knead till smooth then cover in clingfilm and leave to rest for an hour.

For the filling mix everything except the stock till well combined.  Cut the stock into 1cm cubes and then add to the filling.  Working quickly squash everything through your fingers till combined, the stock will break down a bit but should stay in reasonable sized lumps.  Stick the bowl back in the fridge so it doesn't warm up and the stock melt.

On a floured surface roll the dough into a 2.5cm diameter sausage (it may be easier to split and do this twice, covering the second half until you're ready so it doesn't dry out) then cut into 1cm thick slices.  Roll each out till thin and about 7cm diameter.

Take a skin, place a teaspoon or so of the filling in the middle, pinch the edges together to seal in the middle then pleat each side, starting from the middle and working out.  When you pleat do not stretch the dough into the pleat, if you fold it rather than stretching you will form a nice crescent shape.  I normally manage three or four pleats per side, whilst doing this try and keep air out of the dumpling.

Two cook heat a little oil in a frying pan over a medium heat.  Place the dumplings in flat side down and fry for 3 minutes.  Add half a cup of water to the plan, place a lid on top and steam for another 3 minutes.  Now remove the lid and give 2 more minutes cooking until the water has evaporated.

Serve with whatever dipping sauce you want. My favourite is black vinegar with julienne ginger in but chili oil, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce all work well too.