Sesame jewels. The Chinatown treat home-made.

Let’s continue with the Chinese festivities for Lunar New Year, click here for many ideas).
Now, 芝麻球 , zhimaqiu, pearls with sesame. Hot, golden, crispy, and the inside sweet and melting. Everybody buys them it seems. But they are really quick and simple to make. Also you will know what they are made of.

The inside is boiled azuki beans mixed with sugar (here kurozato black sugar), mashed with a fork.
The dough is made of mochiko, and you can also use shiratamako, both are processed glutinous rice flour. You really need this ingredient, or an equivalent, and not ordinary rice floor. (read here about these rice flours)
Add enough lukewarm water to obtain a sort of playdo.

Then shape the balls and roll them in sesame seeds.

Then fry about 5~8 minutes in oil at about 160 degrees Celsius.

Freshly made. They have to be served hot.
They are not as perfectly round as those you buy, but you’d solve that as doing like they do at the stalls : taking them out of the freezer into the oil. They hold their shape… I don’t think that’s necessary.

So you have a crispy thin crust around, soft white dough and creamy filling.

Enjoy with jasmine tea.

Daikon mochi, the lucky white carrot cake

That’s not a dessert of course, but the dim sum classic. Turnip cake, radish cake and I spare you the Chinese names, mostly because I’m unable of typing them. In Japan, it’s called daikon mochi. It’s actually made of daikon radish, even in China. But usually not of mochi (sticky rice), but plain rice flour.

So, shred 2 cups of daikon radish. Add 1/2 cup of water, cook a little till daikon gets a little tender.

Add rice flour. I use 上新粉 (joshinko), a processed Japanese flour. Add as much as you can to make a solid dough, still stick.

Flavoring : I fried onion, garlic and some red chili. Cut negi leek greens. Plus salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg.

Steam the mix till it changes of color to slightly yellow and slightly transparent. I put it about 40 min, in the rice-cooker with some water under the bowl.
Then if you’re a perfectionist, you let it chill, then place in the freezer 1/2 hour to harden and you can slice it perfectly when it’s half-frozen.

Yes, I made the casual version, I took the paste still soft with a spoon and stir-fried both sides. Serve with hot chili sauce and sesame oil as a dip. And Chinese tea.

A silky Chinese dessert, annin doufu

Soothing shades for a refreshing dessert. There are 100 versions of these almond milk jelly cubes, the Chinese blanc-manger. Annin doufu is literally almond tofu but it’s so often made with soy like today. In Japan, dairy versions are common.

I jellified with agar some soy milk cut with water. It’s flavored with cane sugar and bitter almond extract.

Cut in cubes.

Serve chilled.

Let’s add a typical seasonal Chinese fruit : litchi.

Panda-man

These Chinese meat-stuff steamed buns are called nikuman in Japan and butaman in Osaka. “-man” is a short for manto/manju which meant bun. Niku is meat. Buta is pig and in China, meat is pig, or they would settle for anything else, but that should be pork. Panda is meat too.

I don’t make my butamans because I can’t get any as in Osaka they sell them at every corner of street.
It’s because home-made is always fun and it’s the December Daring Cook Challenge. Click here.

I don’t know over the world but in the Chinatowns of Kobe and Yokohama, the fancy pandaman is a big hit. Inside, it’s meat. Well pork. That could be something else : spiced crystal noodles, sweet been paste, custard…
That’s the first time I try this fancy version and it’s very easy.

I prefer the buns filled with something soft and sweet.
The filling is very simple :
ground meat (fat pork)
onion, ginger, garlic (fresh)
shochu (sweet potato schnaps)
tobanjan Chinese hot chili sauce
potato starch
1 fresh Chinese chili pepper

Stir stir-fried the meat with lots of onion, wet with the wine, the sauce and water, let simmer till onions become like paste, let half of the day, so the meat absorbed the liquid. Recooked with more onion, ginger, the fresh chili, starch. Let cool.

Stuff the dough.

Seal, turn and…

… custom into pandas with black dough.
I have added baking powder to the dough. Because. We do that here in Osaka. Because. I think that makes them more fluffy.
For the rest, the recipe is the one of the challenge.

The black dough is colored with calamari ink, nero di sepia (from Italian grocery).

Cooked and raw.

Juicy sauce inside fluffy bread…

Steam !

(Recipe from the Daring Cook Challenge)

Bun for Steamed Char Sui Bao (Cantonese BBQ Pork Bun)

Bun Ingredients

1 cup milk, scalded
¼ cup (60 gm/2 oz) sugar
1 tablespoon oil
¼ teaspoon (2 gm) salt
2½ teaspoons (8 gm/1 satchel) of dried yeast
3 cups (420 gm/15 oz) plain flour
(1 cup=240 ml, 1 tablespoon=15 ml, 1 teaspoon=5 ml)

Scald milk and then stir in sugar, oil and salt, leave to cool until it is lukewarm. Once it is the right temperature add yeast, leave until yeast is activated and it becomes frothy, about 10 – 15 minutes.
Sift flour in to a large bowl.
Add milk/yeast mixture to the flour. Bring the flour mixture together with your hands.
Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for approximately 10 minutes. The dough should be smooth and slightly elastic.
Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Leave to rise until it is double in size. This will take from 1 – 2 hours depending on weather conditions.
Punch down dough and divide in to 20 equal portions.
Roll each dough portion in to a 7 – 8cm (2¾ – 3 ¼ inches) round.
Place 1 tablespoon of filling in the centre of the round, gather the edges together at the top and place on a 8cm (3 inch) square of baking paper. Repeat until all dough has been used.
Cover and let rise for 20 minutes.

Place buns in bamboo steamer, leaving space between the buns.
Heat water in a wok until it is simmering and place steamers one on top of each other in the wok.

Place lid on top bamboo steamer and steam for approximately 12 minutes.

I folded my first Char Siu

Char Siu is the Hongkong version of the Chinese pork roast. Japan has a very different one that I’d write Cha-shuu as the only common point is it’s meat.
The HK one is spicy and red. That’s what we have today.

It’s this month’s Daring Cook Challenge (click here to see other’s meals and full recipes)

Our Daring Cooks’ December 2012 hostess is Sara from Belly Rumbles! Sara chose awesome Char Sui Bao as our challenge, where we made the buns, Char Sui, and filling from scratch – delicious!

I also made these panda buns (see next post)

Let’s start the Chinese party ! You really should try it as that requires planning, but you don’t have much to do.

I used beni-koji a Japanese natural red coloring, so it’s not so vivid. I had not all the sauces, “only” one soy sauce, oyster sauce, nam pla, hot chili. And I’ve used mizuame (glucose gel) not the maltose that I don’t wouldn’t be able to find. For the rest I followed the recipe of marinade below.

Voila ! I have marinated it overnight, slow-baked : 1 hour at 120 degree C, then under the broiler to make the lacker with more layers of marinade.

It’s a cut of ham, with some fat. It’s totally tender and juicy and the fragrance of spices float around…

Bring veggies.

Sand bao.

steaming bao
cheating bao (ready in 5 minutes)

Char siu bao ready to be enjoyed…

Recipe from Daring Cook Challenge

Char Sui (Cantonese BBQ Pork)

Ingredients

1 pork fillet/tenderloin (roughly 1-1.5 pounds)
4 large cloves of garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon (3 gm) ginger, grated
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 ½ tablespoons maltose (you can substitute honey)
1 ½ tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon shaoxing cooking wine
½ teaspoon (2 gm) ground white pepper
pinch of salt
½ teaspoon (2 gm) five spice powder
½ teaspoon sesame oil
½ teaspoon pillar box red food colouring
(1 tablespoon=15 ml, 1 teaspoon=5 ml)

Directions:
Trim the pork loin to remove fat and tendon and slice lengthways so you have two long pieces, then cut in half. By cutting the pork in to smaller pieces to marinate you will end up with more flavoursome char sui. If you want to leave the pork in one piece you can do this as well. Place in container that you will be marinating them in.

Combine all the other ingredients in a bowl and mix well to combine. I placed my maltose in the microwave for a few seconds to make it easier to work with. Maltose is quite a solid hard sticky substance.

Cover pork well with ⅔ of the marinade mixture. Marinate for a minimum of 4 hours, I find it is best left to marinate overnight. Place the reserved ⅓ portion of the marinade covered in the fridge. You will use this as a baste when cooking the pork.

Cooking Method 1 – Oven

This is the first way that I experimented with cooking the char sui.
Pre-heat oven to moderate 180˚C/350°F/gas mark 4.
Cover a baking tray with foil or baking paper. Place on top of this a rack on which to cook the pork.

Place pork on the rack and place in oven.
Bake for approximately 10 minutes, basting and turning.
Turn the heat up to moderately hot 200˚C/400°F/gas mark 6 for the final 20 minutes as this will aid the charring. Cook until cooked through.

Cooking Method 2 – Seared in pan & then into the oven
On reading more I discovered this method, it was meant to give a better charred finish. Not sure that it did give a “better” result, but the pork was a lot more moist.
Pre-heat oven to moderate 180˚C/350°F/gas mark 4.
Cover a baking tray with foil or baking paper. Place on top of this a rack on which to cook the pork.
Place pork in a hot frying pan or wok. Sear it quickly so it is well browned

Remove from pan/wok and place pork on the rack and place in oven.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes, basting and turning until cooked through.

Cooking Method 3 – BBQ

This method I feel gave the best result. If you have access to a BBQ use it. The pork had a better BBQ flavour and was also very moist.
Place marinated pork loin on the grill of your BBQ

Cook on a medium heat, approximately 15 minutes, until cooked through.
Be careful to watch that you don’t burn the pork.