Cantonese Zhongzi

Shanghainese zhongs. For Shanghainese zhong, see this post. Shanghainese zhongs are easier to make, requiring less ingredients. The rice doesn't need to be pre-soaked or fried but has to be marinaded for at least half an hour. The pork also doesn't need to be fried. Never leave the pork skin on for Shanghainese zhongs.

Let's take a break from my travel posts.

Last Saturday was Duanwu Jie, a day most people associate with glutinous rice dumplings called zhongzi (or zhong for short). As a kid, I was told that Duanwu Jie (meaning double five, as it always falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar) is celebrated to remember a righteous, uncorrupted advisor to a Chinese king about 2500 years ago. There are many versions of the story but no matter which version, the story is the same: righteous man was drowned/forced to drown in river and rice dumplings were thrown to the fish in the river to stop them from eating his body. For the same reason, dragon boat races evolved from villagers paddling their boats in the river and making loud noises to scare the fish away.

This is the second time that I made zhongzi (zhong for short). My first attempt was 5 years ago (how time flies!) and my son declared my zhongs not as good as my MIL's. That disappointing verdict, the awful amount of work and the fact that store-bought zhongs, at RM3.50 to RM7, are very affordable, deterred me from further attempts until last week when, after eating yet another disappointing store-bought zhong, Wey gave me the green light to make him Shanghainese zhongs. Growing up eating his Na's Shanghainese zhongs which were stuffed with big lumps of fatty pork, Wey stubbornly refuses to give any credit to zhongs not made by his Na (Shanghanese for grandma). I am more accepting and I like both Shanghainese zhongs and Cantonese zhong but if I have to choose, I'll still take Cantonese zhongs over Shanghainese, provide they are both home-made. Although Shanghainese zhongs have a wonderful aroma of soy sauce and wine, the filling is just pork whereas Cantonese zhongs have pork, nuts, beans, salted egg yolks, mushrooms and dried shrimps and a hint of 5-spice powder. My FIL defends Shanghainese zhongs and grumbles that other zhong are ''ja chi ja ba" (a jumble or mixture, in an unpleasant way).

I very nearly gave up wrapping the zhongs. I had never wrapped triangular-shaped zhongzi before and the zhong leaves were short and narrow. Rice fell out of the corners of the zhongs and the leaves tore, and I had to unwrap the zhongs again and again. I very nearly put everything in one big pan and steamed it as huge pudding but I remembered how we disliked my dad's pillow zhongs which were so big (larger than an iPad) that we had to eat it as a family and Dad would cut it and reheat it by frying, resulting in a giant plate of jumbled rice and filling. Anyway, it took me a whole day to wrap 22 triangular zhongzi, five of which leaked rice when it cooked, and 23 Shanghainese ones.

It's hard to give exact measurements because I tweaked the recipe as I worked, tasting and adding more seasoning as needed. Also, the size of the zhong can vary. I tend to make my zhongs bigger than the commercial ones. The recipe here is a guide and you should adjust it to your taste. It's never late to make zhongs. Keep them in your freezer and they can be re-boiled or steamed months later. Zhongs, like Chinese baos, are great snacks to bring on trips because you just have to unwrap them and eat them without using any utensils. At home, to keep our hands from getting oily, we use forks or spoons.

It was totally worth the effort to make these zhongs because Wey declared them the same as his Na's (he still doesn't bother with Cantonese zhongs) and he loves them so much, he eats two a day.

The filling ingredients for Shanghainese zhongs are not fried but the filling for Cantonese zhongs are pan-fried to deepen the flavors.


Making rectangular or 'pillow' zhongs.




Rectangular 'pillow' zhongs are the easiest to wrap. Always use weed strings or thread to tie the zhongs; do not use plastic or raffia strings.


Making triangular zhongs. Here's a video on how to wrap triangular zhongs.




Cantonese zhongs

Cantonese Zhongzi (makes about 20 or more)

dried bamboo leaves, hard tips/petiole snipped off, leaves boiled about 15 minutes until softened, soaked at least 6 hours or overnight (otherwise it will give a slight bitter taste) & then washed well

weed (boiled to soften) or strings to tie (do not use raffia)

1 kg glutinous rice, picked through & soaked 2 hours and drained for 1/2 hour before using
about 800 gm belly pork with skin on, cut into 3 cm cubes*

10 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked till soft and halved, squeeze lightly to remove half the water

20 dried chestnuts, soaked and boiled 10 minutes or 1 cup black eyed beans, soaked

1/3 cup dried shrimps, washed and soaked 10 minutes only

10 salted duck egg yolks, halved using thread or wire (cuts cleaner)

20 pieces dried scallops, soaked 15 minutes to soften

1/3 cup finely chopped garlic

1/3 cup finely chopped small red onions

seasoning for pork:  

2 T light soy sauce

1/2 T dark soy sauce

1 piece red bean curd (nam yue**), mashed + 1 T sauce

dashes of white pepper

1/4 t to 1/2 salt 

1 t sugar

1 t 5-spice powder (more if like; I prefer a subtle flavor)

* you will get some lean cubes of meat so cut small pieces (about 1.5 to 2 cm cube) of fat and add them to the leaner meat.
** this is a secret ingredient revealed to me by a lady who has been making zhongs for sale for 40 years.

Note: 2 to 3 days before wrapping the zhongs, marinade the pork with the seasoning and leave in a bowl wrapped with cling film in the fridge. Turn once a day to mix well.

1. Assemble everything in front of you. Keep zhong leaves covered with a damp cloth.

2. In a heated wok, fry the dried shrimps over low heat with 1 T oil, 1 t each of garlic and onions until fragrant and dried. You can fry the dried scallops with the shrimps too, if you like a drier and more fragrant flavor and taste, but if you prefer softer scallops, do not fry ( I don't). Remove.

3. Add 1 T oil to the same wok, then add 1 t each of the garlic and onions, and the mushrooms. Add 1 t light soy sauce, a pinch of salt and 1/2 t sugar and fry about 1 minute. Remove.

4. Add 2 T oil to the same wok, add 1 T each of garlic and onions and fry the pork over medium-low heat until pork is seared all over but not cooked inside.

5. If the wok is not covered with burnt bits, do not wash. Put 2 T oil into the wok, fry 1 T each of garlic and onions and 1/4 t (or more, if like) 5-spice powder, and then add the rice. Now add 1 T light soy sauce (and dark, if you want more color), 1 t salt, a few shakes of white pepper and--this is something nobody tells you--a few shakes of msg. Fry rice over medium heat until it looks dry but not burnt, about 3 to 4 minutes. Taste one grain of rice. It should taste saltish. if not, add 1/4 to 1/2 t salt, mix well. Remove.

6. Fold two bamboo leaves into a cone, fill with 2 T rice (or 1T if using a larger spoon) and pack it firmly with the back of your spoon. Drop a piece each of mushroom, scallop, chestnut, egg yolk, pork (2 pieces if cut small) and a tsp of dried shrimps onto the rice. Top filling with 5 to 6 T rice (or half that if using large spoon), pack it again with the spoon, then wrap and tie firmly but not too tightly because the rice needs space to expand.

7. Put all the zhongs (tie them in bunches of 5 or 6 to make handling them easier) into a large pot and cover with water. Boil for 2 1/2 hours to 3 hours, longer if zhongs are very big. After an hour of boiling, taste the water. If water tastes saltish, fine. If not, add more salt to the water, wait 10 minutes, taste again. Leave the cooked zhongs in the pot, covered, for another 1/2 hour (saves cooking longer).

Zhongs are eaten hot or warm, never cold. Serve some Chinese tea, sit down and enjoy the rewarding sight of your family devouring your hard work.

Steamed Sesame Nian Gao

So CNY is over and you've given away RM2000 in ang paos (but your kids have gotten back more than that amount), spent thousands on CNY food, flowers, decorations, fireworks and firecrackers, new clothes, new brooms, pots and pans, new TV even because you can't loose to your friend's new 60" (or whatever, I have no idea what's out there now) flat screen. You've forked out another thousand ringgit on the unicorn troupe to come eat lettuce and mandarin oranges from your garage roof to ensure another good year for the family (so you really think happiness and prosperity can be bought). You've met old friends you meet once a year and you've been updated on where they travelled to last year and how well their kids are doing. You've eaten that obligatory dinner with relatives you can't stand (thank God it's once a year) and taken family photos that you'll never get to see. You've also gained 5 kgs on top of the 2 kgs you gained at Christmas. And of course you have leftover nian gao, sticky rice cake.

Tell you what. Instead of frying your nian gao in egg, try Chef Tay of Hyatt Kinabalu's simple way of coating the nian gao with toasted sesame seeds and steaming it for a minute, just enough to soften the nian gao. It's yum with Chinese tea.


Nian gao can keep for a couple of days without refrigeration but they start to go bad (they go moldy and can taste sour even if not moldy) about 5 days after they are steamed so keep any uneaten nian gao in the fridge. Better still, eat the nian gao asap. 


1. Cut into thin slices.


2. Toast the sesame seeds in a pan. It's faster and browning is more even.


3. If the nian gao is still soft and sticky, the sesame seeds will stick easily.


If the nian gao has gone hard, steam it for under 1 minute just to soften and wet the surface for sticking. Steam too long and the nian gao will be hard to handle.



4. Steam the sesame-coated nian gao for a couple of minutes, depending on how hard it is and how soft you want it.

Loh Bak Bun

Loh bak bun (white carrot/radish 'flat cakes') is my mom's favorite Chinese go or kuih before she forgot it's her favorite. She bought it whenever she saw it on breakfast stalls and now I buy it for her whenever I see them. She needs me to remember things for her and sometimes it's very frustrating for me. Ok, it upsets me sometimes but I know the frustration comes from not wanting to accept that she's not the way she used to be.

Mom made very good kuih (a Malay word that originated from the Hokkien word koe for teatime snacks, usually made of rice or glutinous rice flour and steamed) but her generation never wrote their recipes down in paper or blogs so many recipes have disappeared. There is hope though because daughters and sons remember the taste of what their moms (or dads) cooked and through many tries, family recipes can be recovered.

I got the recipe for loh bak bun (the bun is pinyin and doesn't mean bun as in steamed flour buns, but it means a flat 'cake' or snack) right on my fourth try. The first time, mom insisted on adding rice flour to the glutinous rice flour so that the bun wouldn't be too sticky. The bun turned out hard and got harder when it cooled. The second batch was made with pure glutinous rice flour and I liked the stickiness but there was a floury texture, like the bun wasn't cooked through even though I re-steamed it.

The most common bun recipe, especially in West Malaysia I think, is made of wheat starch and tapioca flour, like for ha gow. The wheat starch makes the wrapper or 'skin' translucent and shiny while the tapioca starch gives the skin some structure because wheat starch, when cooked, is very soft and slightly sticky. I was sure that's not how our local loh bak bun are made so wheat starch was out for me. The third time, I made the wrapper or 'skin' with glutinous rice flour and cornstarch and it was totally not the right texture. The fourth time, I added potato starch which I had plenty of.

Bingo. The texture of my fourth batch of loh bak bun was soft, smooth, sticky, slightly (and very slightly, I didn't want it any more than that) chewy--exactly how I like it. The filling was delicious and I gobbled two bun within a minute. How am I going to face the people in KL next week, with my wobbly thighs and turkey neck and droopy buns (the human type)? Why can't we just eat without growing fat?

Besides being a snack, loh bak bun is eaten at breakfast too. What I do is fry the filling the night before so that it cools and the liquid dries up. The next morning, it just takes 3 minutes to make the dough, 5 minutes to fill the bun (cut the banana leaves night before) and another 5 to 7 minutes to steam them. I make my bun twice as big as what I get at the stalls. It's robbery at the stalls because the loh bak buns are now 80 sen each, some RM1, and they are half the size of my palm with hardly any filling. I made about 20 large loh bak buns for RM5/USD1.60. RM1.50 for the radish, RM1.00 for the dried shrimps, about RM2.50 for the glutinous rice flour and the banana leaves are from my garden. That's 25 sen for each bun, and they are nearly twice as big as and with lots more filling than the ones sold in stalls. I'd get rich if I have a breakfast stall at some kedai kopi.









The traditional shape for loh bak bun is the flat pillow shape.


Loh Bak Bun (makes 20 large palm-sized bun)
The filling:
1 Chinese radish ("white carrot"), about 400 gm
2 to 3 T dried shrimps
2 t veg oil + extra for brushing
salt, white pepper and chicken stock granules

* you can add some carrots if like

The dough:
4 cups packet of good glutinous rice flour
3/4 cup potato starch flour
2 cups boiling water

--banana leaves, cut into palm-sized oblong pieces

1. Grate the radish (I don't remove the skin) into very fine strips. Wash the dried shrimps, soak 5 minutes in water to soften (keep the water) and then mince them finely.
2. Heat up a wok/frying pan and add 2 T veg oil. Fry the dried shrimps until fragrant, about 3 to 5 minutes or until you can't standing their jumping about.  Add the radish strips, then season with salt, chicken granules (commercially, msg is used) and plenty of white pepper. This snack should have the flavor of the radish, dried shrimps and white pepper. Add the soaking liquid from the dried shrimps, cover the wok for a couple of minutes, then remove it and continue to fry under medium heat until the radish is transparent and all the liquid has evaporated. Taste and season if necessary. Dish out and cool.
3. Put the flours into a large bowl and pour the boiling water over, using a pair of chopsticks or spoon to mix the water and flours in circles. The resulting lumps of flour will become semi-transparent. If you don't use boiling water, the dough will break apart and be hard to shape.
4. Put the dough on the counter and knead until smooth, about 1 minute only.
5. Divide the dough into 20 or more portions, rolling them on your palms to make them smooth. Cover the dough and dough balls as they dry quickly.
6. Flatten a dough ball, put 1 tablespoon or more of the filling in the center and fold the two sides together. Pinch the sides to seal. You can either make a ridge along the sealed edges or turn the bun over and shape into a 'pillow'.
7. Cut and grease the banana leaves (so the bun won't stick to the leaves), place the filled buns on the leaves and steam 5 minutes for small buns and 7 to 8 minutes or longer for larger buns. When buns are nearly done, brush them with a light coating of veg oil.

Durian Tang Yuan

    Durian mochi/tang yuan--sooner or later someone will come up with this or maybe someone already has but this is my version.

I had a bit of leftover durian flesh and had no idea what to do with it. Then I saw a copy of Silkroad, the Dragonair inflight magazine that Yo had brought for me. The latest issue featured Hong Kong dessert houses and the new desserts, the most unusual one being a bitter gourd sherbet. Now that's a dessert I can't wait to try next time. It must be quite an eating experience!

Instead of red bean or sesame paste, I filled my tang yuan (glutinous rice balls) with the lefttover mashed durian flesh, sprinkled some dessicated coconut (fresh shaved coconut would've been perfect but I was too lazy to run out for that) over and drizzled a light gula melaka (palm sugar, the best-tasting sugar in the world) syrup over. I served the tang yuan warm because tang yuen hardens when chilled.

The durian-filled tang yuan, covered with sweet coconut flakes and gula melaka, was stunning. I hope this has not already been done before because I'm patenting this for my dessert house! I'm kidding but I think if I have a dessert house, this item will be a huge hit. If there's one thing I've gained from the Jelliriffic! Challenge, it's the obsession in creating new recipes. The mushy durian is a little bit tricky to handle but you can half-freeze it. You must make this.

    How good can durian get? This good.

Durian Tang Yuan (makes 7 to 8 balls)
3/4 cup finest, freshest glutinous rice flour
1/4 cup room temp water
1/4 cup durian flesh, mashed with a fork and hard clumps removed & half-frozen
Topping: fresh or desiccated coconut shavings
              light gula melaka syrup*

* if not available, any other sugar syrup

1. Mix the flour with the water until the dough comes together. You may have to add more flour or water. Divide into 7 or 8 small portions.
2. Dust your palms, roll one portion of dough into a smooth ball, then press it into a flat circle (not too thin or the durian will seep through) and put a teaspoon of durian flesh inside. Pinch the edges together to seal and roll again into a smooth ball. Repeat until all the dough is done. Place tang yuan into fridge to firm up, about 15 minutes.
3. Bring a pot of water to boil. Take the tang yuan out from the fridge. Dust your hands again with glu rice flour, roll the tang yuan between your palms until round and smooth and drop them into the boiling water. Immediately use a pair of chopsticks or slotted spoon to move the balls so that they don't stick to the bottom of the pot. Turn the heat to medium. When the balls rise, they are done. I like to switch the fire off, cover the pot and wait a couple of minutes.
4. Scoop the balls out with a slotted spoon onto a bowl. Sprinkle coconut shavings over and drizzle with sugar syrup.

Durian Pillows

Durian pillows.


My pancakes were too thick. I like the durian flesh and cream separated although taste-wise it doesn't matter. The filling was mushy because the pillows were not chilled before the photo session.




Store-bought durian pillows were thin-skin and small enough for only one mouthful or two dainty bites.

Hub and I were at a dinner last Saturday and the host served durian and mango 'pillows', thin crepes stuffed with durian or mango and cream, folded into the shape of a puffy rectangle pillow. The dainty durian pillows cost RM8.90 for 3 (RM5.90 for mango pillows) and were so small that one of them can fit nicely into a Chinese soup spoon. The cream and durian were blended together, a clever way of scrimping on the durian. Durian is so strongly flavored that a little bit of it can jazz up a large amount of cream. In Hong Kong and Peninsular Malaysia, the cream and durian are in distinct layers of about 50:50.

I found the recipe for the pancakes here and was happy with it because the pancakes turned out very smooth. However, my pancakes were three times as thick as the store-bought ones, which was why the corners of my pillows broke and also why I couldn't get the pillows to look puffy without making them the size of an egg. I took one of the store-bought pillows apart and found that each pancake was half a pancake. Maybe the trick to getting a very thin pancake is to pour the batter into a cool non-stick pan, swirl the batter so that it spreads out thinly and then put it over a low fire and cut each pancake into half.  I'll do that next time.

I thought I'd like the 50:50 ratio of durian to cream but found that the pillows taste smoother and better if there's more cream. The best durian for this is kampung (village) durian because they simply taste better. Also, I find that some of the new hybrids have a strong raw onion flavor. I used coconut milk as per the recipe but I've changed that to fresh milk in the recipe because I found that coconut milk messes up the durian flavor. The store-bought pillows didn't have any coconut flavor. With the replacement of rich coconut milk by the fresh milk, a bit of melted butter will keep the pancakes softer and tastier.I used organic eggs to give the pancakes a bit of color.

This dessert is simple and quick to make and you'll get plenty of "ooohhhs" and "yummms" especially when the pillows are served very chilled, with a good coffee. Allow at least 4 a person; the pillows are really that good.


For making durian cakes and desserts, boxed durian will work out a lot cheaper. Get them late at night when the vendors slash their prices.



Durian Pillows (makes 16 x 12 cm diameter or 8 to 9 large ones)
The Pancakes:
160 gm plain flour (some recipes use Hong Kong flour)
350 ml fresh milk (coconut milk will tone down the durian flavor)
1/2 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled
pinch of salt
2 organic eggs*

*as advised by Zurin, an extra yolk will make the pancakes softer and easier to fold.

1. Mix the pancake ingredients together. Pour batter over a sieve into a bowl to get a fine and smooth batter.

2. Lightly grease a non-stick frying pan with melted butter and pour in a small ladle (you'll have to find which size is best; try making a large pancake and cut that into half) of batter and swirl the batter around to get a very thin pancake. Cook over a low fire until the pancake is done. It takes less than 30 seconds. No need to turn over but if you do, turn over for two to three seconds only. Repeat until all the batter is done. Cool. If like, you can grease the frying pan before every ladle of batter is poured.

note: as advised by Sonia, to get thin pancakes, pour more than enough batter into the frying pan, swirl the batter to cover the whole pan and then pour the extra batter back into the bowl of batter.

Filling:
300 gm fresh dairy cream (estimated)
1 tbsp caster sugar (to taste)
2 cups durian flesh* (estimated)

* or pieces of mango or other soft, flavorful fruits

1. Whip the cream with the sugar until stiff. Chill
2. You can blend the durian flesh or mash it with a fork. I think I prefer to mash with a fork because the blended durian was too mushy and the fibers were all cut up.
3. You can mix the cream with the durian or leave separate.

To assemble:
Put a heaped tablespoon of whipped cream onto the center of the pancake (smooth/unfried side facing plate), top with a level half tablespoon of durian flesh, and fold into a small, puffed rectangular pillow. If you have mixed the cream and durian, just plop a large tablespoon onto the middle of the pancake and fold. Chill very well before serving.

Green Butter

"Green and butter it"



Basil pesto reinvented: Pesto made with butter on toasted baguette. Sweet basil and cherry tomatoes from my garden.

In Europe last year, my hub embarrassed me frequently by requesting for butter everytime we had bread. For this Chinaman, dinner rolls and bread are to be eaten with butter, not oil and vinegar. When we finally got to London, he was thrilled to be served butter with bread without having to request for it and I was too, because good bread with good butter is one of the most delicious and comforting things to eat, especially when you are watching your diet.

Sweet basil grow so fast in our tropical sun that I often give them away to restaurants. This most distinctly Italian herb needs to be trimmed frequently or it goes to seed and die. I was getting a loaf of baguette last Sunday when it came to me: pesto with butter instead of olive oil and the Royal Selangor Pewter Nick Munro jelly moulds for the Jellyriffic Challenge would be perfect for that. And that's how today's green butter recipe came about. Spread on freshly toasted baguette and eaten with a  chicken stew, we think green butter is divine! If you are making a batch of pesto, try frying up some green eggs too. Yummy.

p.s. I used the pesto butter to fry eggs and bread for breakfast and they tasted wow. Pesto never fails and butter just makes it even better!

Green Butter
3 Tbsp of home-made pesto (recipe here)
100 gm softened but firm salted butter (use the best butter)
a small handful of toasted pinenuts

1. Whisk the butter with an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy.

2. Drop the pinenuts and 3 tablespoons of pesto into the whipped butter and fold to mix well.

3. Scoop into the RSP Nick Munro jelly moulds, packing the butter in firmly. Cover with wrap and chill until firm.


Nick Munro designer jelly moulds from Royal Selangor Pewter. Yes, that's me reflected on the mould.

Flower Buns

Flower twist buns (hua juan) with spring onions, salt and sesame seeds.


Plain flower buns.



The most common--correct--way to shape the flower buns is shown in this video and the buns look like these. Basically you twist the bun like I did but do not pile it high:

I know I've posted on mantou (Chinese buns) before but there's a good reason for re-posting: improvement to the recipe and a new way of shaping the buns, which I came up with based on the shape of the buns I ate  at a local restaurant.

The amount of water was too little in my previous Chinese buns recipe. Maybe it's true that some chefs don't teach you everything or reveal the full recipe. I've been testing and improving the basic bao recipe which I learnt in a bao-making course years ago and I found that if I add a lot more water to the original recipe, the buns will be softer and moister. I also don't bother to get special bao or Hong Kong flour, both of which are very fine and white (read: bleached) flours. I am sticking to plain flour, and I particularly like the good old Rose Flour for making Chinese buns. Rose Flour is not highly bleached so it gives a yellowish tint to the buns but the fragrance of the flour will more than make up for the less-desirable color. Last week, I had a craving for home-made (read: ammonia-free) buns. Home-made buns are good when just out of the steamer but once they cool, they loose some of the softness because ammonia and other additives are not added to the dough. The point of home-made food is to avoid all those commercial chemicals as much as possible but if you insist, then get Hong Kong flour or bao flour which will give a finer and softer texture. The dough must be kneaded very well, preferably with a machine. I've not had good results making dough with my hands in the past but because my cake mixer is still not repaired, I had to use my hands and the buns still turned out soft so I think if you keep to the amount of flour in the recipe, kneading by hands still gives good results.

I've updated my Chinese buns posts--the baos, the mantou and flower buns recipes are one and the same. Now get a packet of plain flour and practice making plain buns to go with one of my best recipes: spicy gong bao chicken, coming up next.



Flower Buns (makes 10 large or 15 to 18 small buns)

A Ingredients:

1 tsp dry yeast

2 Tbsp water

-mix A ingredients together.

(Sshh...if you know your yeast is active, just mix A and B ingredients together at once. I do that all the time)

B Ingredients:

350g Bao or HK flour or Rose (plain) flour

1 tsp double-action baking powder

50g (or less, say 30 g) fine sugar 

200 to 250 ml water* (amended)

1 Tbsp shortening (Crisco) or veg oil

*If you use 250 ml and you are kneading by hand, add 200 ml first and knead in the remainder slowly, 10 to 15 ml each time, so that the dough is not too sticky to handle. Depending on the type of flour, you may not need all the water.

1. Sift the flour and baking powder together (usually I don't bother if the flour is fresh). If using shortening, rub it into the flour evenly.

2. Mix A with all the B ingredients in a mixer bowl and knead at medium speed till very smooth, about 6-8 minutes. The dough should be quite soft. Never mind if it's slighty sticky. Continue kneading until it isn't sticky. If kneading with hands, put dough back into the bowl and cover with a cloth. Rest for 30 min or until doubled, depending on room temperature.

3. Divide dough into 50g portions for larger buns or into golf-ball portions for dainty buns.  Dust your hands and the work surface lightly with some flour. Sometimes I don't because this dough doesn't stick. Flatten each ball, roll into a small oval shape as long as your hand and about 3 to 4 cm wide. Use a metal pastry cutter and cut the dough into thin strips of 1/2 cm, thinner than that if you are making mini buns.

4. Brush the cut strips of dough with veggie oil.

5. Take the ends of the dough, one end in each hand, and twist around your thumb and tips of your forefinger.

6. Stretch the dough by pulling gently as you twist it around the tips of your thumb and forefinger. Tuck the end underneath the bun by pulling the last bit down to meet the other end that's at the bottom. Got it?

7. Here's how it looks from the top: a tight coil, like a chignon. I feel so clever that I figured this out. It must be from playing with my daughter's long hair.
8. Place the buns on a small square of baking paper to proof. Let the buns proof for 30-45 minutes or until doubled. Do not overprove or buns will wrinkle when steamed.
9. Steam at high heat for 4 minutes for small buns, 5 to 6 minutes for larger buns. A bamboo steamer basket gives best results because the steam can escape instead of dripping onto the buns and messing them.
Note: To make flower buns with spring onions (Lily from Jiangxi told me that this is how her dad makes the buns), mix finely-cut spring onions, salt and veg oil or sesame oil and spread over the rolled out dough. I used sesame seeds too for extra flavor.

Meat-filled Egg Triangles

Growing up, I loved my mom's jin dan gok (pan fried egg triangles) which are mini omelettes with a filling of ground meat, usually pork. My MIL used to cook a soupy version of egg triangles with veggies for her MIL who didn't have much teeth power left. I prefer the dry version which is tastier.


According to Hub, his mom's soupy egg triangles dish is a simplified version of a fancy Shanghainese casserole of many kinds of meat and seafood. In the pot of goodies in this photo, the egg triangles were made into egg rolls (on the left of the pot).

The minced meat can be cooked beforehand and just before serving, fry the omelettes so that they get to the table piping hot. You can douse some dark soy sauce over. Goes very well with rice and kids especially will love this. I'm thinking as I write this, that for extra flavor, you can add finely chopped preserved veg (tung choy) or preserved radish (chai por) or chives or spring onions to the meat when frying.  In fact, feel free to add some green peas or corn if that's one way to make the kids eat more veg.

Meat-filled Egg Triangles
4 eggs
3/4 to 1 cup ground meat (pork or chicken)
salt & white pepper
oil for frying

1. Add a pinch of salt and some white pepper to the eggs and beat well.  Season the meat with a pinch of salt and white pepper. A few drops of light soy sauce and sesame oil can also be added if like.

2. Put 1/2 T veg oil into a frying pan or wok and fry the meat at low heat, stirring well to break up and separate the meat, until cooked. If you want a moist mince, mix 1/2 cornflour and 2 T water and stir into the meat, stir-frying for 20 seconds more for the cornflour to cook. Remove and cool.

3. Heat up a clean wok or frying pan and add 1/2 T oil. Pour in 2 T of the beaten egg and when the edges begin to bubble and cook, swirl the pan or wok to spread the egg into a wider circle, like a thin crepe.

4. Quickly put 1 T (put more if you like the triangle to puff up) of the cooked meat on one side of the egg crepe and use a spatula or ladle to flip the other half of the egg crepe over to cover the meat, so the egg crepe is now a semi-circle. Fry the other side too until lightly golden. Remove and repeat with remaining egg and meat. Serve hot with rice.

5. Cooking with veg: Put some oil in the wok and fry the veg. Add some salt and 1 cup chicken stock to the veg, slip the fried egg triangles onto the veg, digging the veg apart so that the egg triangles are immersed in the liquid. Cover and simmer 2 minutes. If there's too much liquid, put the fire on full blast to reduce the liquid. Dish onto a plate and serve immediately. 

Scallion Pancakes Revisited

Scallion pancakes are best rolled very thin.  I couldn't make the pancakes too thin because the lard melted easily and made a mess, causing the pastry to break and pushing the spring onions out. On another try, I used shortening (Crisco) and the results were much better.

Recently I'm crazy about scallion pancakes, cong you bing (onion oil pancakes), sometimes called Chinese pizza. I prefer them to Korean pancakes because cong you bing are more fragrant. They are also easy and quick to make and cost very little. All you need are scallions, salt, oil/shortening and plain flour. Sesame seeds are optional. Scallions are more suitable for the pancakes because they are have thicker leaves and you can still taste them after they are cooked, unlike spring onions which are thinner and delicate. Scallions, however, do not smell as fragrant as spring onions. I have pots of spring onions in my backyard so I use those instead of scallions.  I also have a large patch of Chinese chives that have been growing perennially and they can be used in place of the scallions to make jiu cai bing. You can also add ground meat or even fried bacon bits, like I did here.

Scallion pancakes from street vendors in Shanghai are usually thick and about the size of a small saucer, handy for eating on the go. The pancakes from restaurants are twice as big, very thin and crispy and I prefer them to the vendor-type. Whether thick or thin, scallion pancakes are best eaten when hot. Once cold, the pancakes are heavy and soft.

Whoever came up with the flaky pastry for scallion pancakes was a genius. The dough is flattened into an 'ox-tongue' shape and oiled, then rolled and coiled. When fried, the pastry separates into layers, the outer pastry crispy while the inner pastry is soft. If the pancake is rolled thin enough, the whole pancake is crispy. Most recipes do not call for lard or oil in the flour but I do add some to make the pastry short.

You can mix the salt and oil with the scallions but the water in the scallions and the oil will dissolve the salt and give a general saltiness to the pancakes. I prefer to layer the ingredients so that I can taste a grain of salt here and there. I think the worst recipe I've come across is one where the salt is added to the flour. I also prefer to use shortening (lard is good too but tends to melt easily) because it doesn't wet the dough like oil does.

Scallion pancakes are best eaten as a light meal with hot and sour soup because the sourness cuts the oil and refreshes the palate. You can also eat the pancakes as a snack with a cup of hot green tea.

Scallion Pancakes (makes 5 to 6 large pancakes)
3 cups plain flour
1 1/3 cups boiling water
3/4 cup finely sliced scallions
medium-texture salt (I'm told that vendors add msg)
veg oil or lard or shortening (shortening is best)

1. Sieve the flour into a bowl, pour the boiling water in (leaving 2 T, as all flours have different absorbency) and use a pair of chopsticks to mix, swirling round and round until all the flour form lumps. Wait a minute if you can't handle the hot dough. Gather into a ball. If needed, add the remaining water. Mix in 1 heaped T shortening. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Add more flour if too soft, or more water if too hard. Overall, the dough should be soft-firm when you press it with a fingertip. Cover and leave 10 minutes or you can even continue without resting the dough.

2. Divide the dough into 5 or 6 pieces. You can also use the whole ball of dough in one go to make a long roll but I find that working with small pieces of the dough is easier. Roll one piece of dough into a cylinder and flatten into 'ox-tongue' shape (oblong) of about 1/2 cm thick. Brush veg oil or spread shortening over entire surface. (I prefer shortening because it doesn't melt too easily in hot weather so that the pancakes won't break so easily when rolled.) Sprinkle the pastry with a generous pinch of salt, followed by the scallions (but leave the furthest edge clear so that the scallions will not get squeezed out when rolled) and roll, tucking in snugly. Now coil the roll, the seam inside the coil so that it can't open. Sprinkle some sesame seeds over and flatten with your palm. Roll into a thin pancake, the thinner the better.

It's best to cook one pancake and taste it so that you get an idea of how much salt to use.

3. Heat up some oil (1/4 cup or less) in a frying pan and fry the pancakes one by one until crispy. Turn over once only. The oil must be quite hot so that the layers of pastry'll separate and puff. Cut pancake into wedges and serve hot with a dip of black vinegar and light soy sauce if like.

Korean Potato Pancakes, Gamja Jeon

When I saw Lilyannette's gamja jeon or Korean potato pancakes, I knew I had to make them for breakfast asap. Breakfasts are testy meals in our home because Wey is always too sleepy/grumpy to eat. He prefers savory brekkies and since he eats in the car on the way to school (a not-so-uncommon practice here given the early start of school), I have to make sure the food doesn't spill easily.

I've only ever eaten and cooked pa jeon, a veg pancake with seafood that my Korean neighbor had taught me years ago. I love potatoes and a friend whose sons are six-footers has this theory that kids are taller when fed on potatoes so I'm desperately adding potatoes to my 16 year-old's diet. The truth is, I think, other than genes, easy eaters like my older son are tall because they eat everything and get a better range of nutrients. Anyway, I googled gamja jeon and stumbled upon a fantastic site for Korean recipes. Aeri's blog has very authentic Korean recipes and I like that like me, she posts what she cooks for her family. From what she has posted, you can make just about any kind of jeons so I used whatever I had in the fridge--bacon and leftover canned tuna. I added chives from my garden and half a chili and a couple of shiitake mushrooms that were drying up. Jeons are great for using up veggies and meat that you otherwise wouldn't know what to do with and also good for kids who otherwise won't eat veggies. It makes so much sense to feed my family savory pancakes stuffed with carbs, protein and vitamins than pancakes of carbs, sugar and fat (read: pancakes with maple syrup and butter--the Canadians won't be pleased). Really, if you think about it, a lot of sweet stuff like cakes and desserts are plain unhealthy food that makes us fat and sick. That's why I have stopped stocking my fridge with juices and sweet snacks and cakes are only for birthdays and special occasions.

Lilyannette's gamja jeons look light and crisp, almost like tempura. I didn't measure the ingredients and my gamja jeons didn't turn out as light but were still crisp outside and soft inside. And tasty. I think pancakes are versatile and you can test and try until you get the texture you like. For lighter pancakes, use less flour or use Korean pancake flour from Asian grocers. A bit more oil will make crispier pancakes. Be creative and throw in any veggie you have or like and come up with your own signature jeons. If making jeons for breakfast, you can cut the veggies and meat the night before. Grate potatoes when needed because they oxidize and brown easily.

Korean Potato Pancakes, Gamja Jeon

3/4 cup meat (bacon/tuna/crabsticks)

1 cup mixture of finely-cut veg such as carrots/chives/spring oions/bell peps/long beans/zucchini etc

2/3 cup onion, chopped finely

2 medium-sized potatoes (about 400 gm unpeeled), grated finely
1 red chili, thinly sliced

1/2 cup plain flour (or Korean pancake flour, which makes lighter & crispier pancakes)

2 large eggs

1/8 t salt (or to taste but remember the dip is salty) 

pinch of white or black pepper

Choganjang dip : 3 t light soy sauce and 1 t white rice vinegar but I like to substitute 1 teaspoon of the light soy sauce with dark soy sauce (Lee Kum Kee's) for a slightly sweetish taste. 

1. Grate the potatoes finely but not so fine that they turn mushy. I don't squeeze out the nutritious liquid.

2. Mix everything together in a bowl. The batter should be very thick. If using bacon, fry it until fat is transparent or better still, until golden brown~btw, canned tuna tastes great but Wey prefers bacon~

2. Heat up a non-stick frying pan. Grease lightly (for crispy pancakes, use more oil) with veg oil. Drop a large spoonful of the batter and flatten it out into a circle about 10 cm/4" diameter for eating with your hands, smaller if serving with chopsticks. Another way is to make a big pancake (saves time) and cut into wedges. When the bottom side is golden brown, turn over.

3. Serve hot with the dip.