Taiwanese sesame sandwich (Shao Bing)
Cooking time: 30 mins
Makes 6
Ingredients
For the dough:
2 cups of plain flour
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
Sesame seeds to sprinkle
1 chinese cruller (yo tiao)
For the roux:
½ cup of vegetable oil
1 cup of plain flour
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.
2. Start by making the roux, which basically helps create the layers to the pancake. Heat up a pan with the vegetable oil.
3. Add the 1 cup of plain flour and stir regularly until it reaches a light golden colour.
4. Just before it starts to burn, remove from heat and set aside to cool.
6. Once a smooth dough is achieved, set aside to rest for 30 minutes.
7. Take out the dough and using a lightly floured surface, start rolling the dough with a rolling pin into a square until it is roughly 0.5cm thick.
8. Sprinkle the roux evenly all over the dough.
9. Carefully roll the dough away from you, with the roux encompassed until it forms a long roll.
10. Take a sharp knife and cut roughly 4cm thick pieces. You will see a lovely spiral pattern inside.
11. On a lightly floured surface, using the rolling pin, roll out one piece of the cut dough flat.
12. Fold the dough into thirds and roll again to form a rectangular shape, roughly 0.5cm thick.
13. Repeat on all the pieces of the cut dough.
14. In a bowl, roughly beat an egg. Take a brush and brush along the top of a dough piece with egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds. This will help the seeds stick and give that lovely golden colour after baking.
15. Repeat on all the pieces of dough.
16. Place all the dough flat on a lightly oiled pan and place in the oven.
17. Bake for roughly 15 minutes, until golden brown.
18. Turn all the pieces over and bake the other side for 5 minutes.
19. Remove from the oven and carefully cut, from the bottom side each piece along the grain in half.
20. Take the chinese cruller, cut into 6 pieces and then again in half along the stick. Taking two cut halves of a cruller, insert into each shao bing and serve immediately.
Dried Bbq Pork (Bak kwa)
My many trips through Asia left me craving for dried bbq pork (bak kwa). Usually, the are sold freshly char-grilled and hot from a street stall in Taiwan and eaten as a snack. Not only are they delicious, but they are also so easy to make in the comfort of your home and will leave your guests amazed when they try this devine nibble. Serve it before a meal or with a glass of wine or beer and you will be the talk of the town!
Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 1 hour 15 mins
Ingredients
- 500 gram mince pork
- 100 gram sugar
- 5 gram chilli powder
- 1 tablespoon rice wine (mi chiu)
- 1 teaspoon caramel syrup
- 1 teaspoon salt
Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius.
2. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, adding the rice wine and syrup last.
3. Line a baking tray with baking/parchment paper.
4.Slowly spread the mince across the baking paper, to the edges of the tray, roughly 0.5cm thick. You may need to use 2 trays depending on the size of your oven/tray.
5. Turn the temperature of the oven down to 100 degrees celsius and place the tray in the centre of the oven. If you have 2 trays, switch the trays halfway during cooking time.
6. Bake the mince pork for 1 hour with the door ajar.
7. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
8. Slowly peel off the pork from the baking paper, turn it over and return to the oven.
9. Cook for another 15 mins to colour the other side.
10. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
Tips:
1. Store in an air-tight container. It should last up to a week but if it were my household, it wouldn’t last that long!
2. Slightly fry it to get the char-grilled effect before eating.
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