58.A typical Chinese breakfast： You Tiao

Tweet

Chinese you tiao

Oil fried strips/sticks

油条

I also call them "Chinese churros". :)) The way of making the two and the taste of them are very similar. So whenever I could not get Youtiao, I would have churros instead to ease down my desperation. So you can see my emotional attachment towards it. :)

But, in contrast to Spanish churros, which are more of an afternoon snack, Youtiao is a popular Chinese breakfast. In English, probably it can be described as “oil fried strip’ ('You' means oil, tiao means things in strip shape) - just like churros.

In the North East of China, there is a term “lao you tiao” (old fried stips/sticks) used among locals to refer to somebody who is very skillful,--- not always a positive description though. :))

You tiao in China

'You tiao' are very popular across different regions in China, of course, different regions have different way of serving them, for example, in North, we have them with soy milk, where other places, it can be wrapped in an other thin ‘pancake’, or stuffed with sausage.


Normally people would buy them from the morning ‘stalls’ in the street, or eat them in 'open for breakfast' restaurants. Less and less people make them at home nowadays. … Well, almost, except my dad. :))


My lovely doesn’t trust the oil used for frying You Tiao sold in the stalls, so if we want to have it, he would still make it at home. But when I was little, my dad would make it on almost every Sunday morning. Hearing my dad cooking You tiao in the kitchen was one of my most relaxed memories of my childhood ‘holidays’.

Back then in China, people still had to work six days per week, we, as kids who just entered school, very much looked forward to Sundays. And on Sunday morning, my dad would get up around 7am, put on his favorite music, and cooking You tiao, so we could have a relaxed Sunday breakfast around 8, otherwise it would be at 6 something. -- It was such a good break for the busy study schedule. (Probably you already heard the hectic schedule for students in schools in China.)

The recipe: Chinese breakfast You Tiao

Youtiao are not difficult to make -- raise up the flour, make it into shapes, then fry it in the oil. However, to make it nice is not so easy. (At least to me, I started to learn making it at home after the increasing ‘foodsick’’, but failed many times).


Different kinds of raising agents can be used for raising the flour dough, the trick is that you need to make it less ‘solid’ as you would make … for example, bread, but still good enough to hold up as a whole. The most important part for making ‘Youtiao’ is, after frying, the flour dough would raise up, having ‘bubbles’ in the middle, so the ‘Youtiao’ is very soft.


Well, saying that, there is another type ‘youtiao’ is crispy, which is also good, but the flour dough needs to be very thin.


And for the shape, if you buy from the restaurants or the ‘Youtiao’ stall, they normally are in ‘stick’ shape, but homemade is normally as a ‘fried flat bread’ with some cuts in the middle -- easy for separating it when eating.

Ingredients:

Flour, yeast (I used yeast, but other raising agent if you are familiar with will also ok), salt, oil

Preparation

Preparing: (raising up the flours)

I normally use the proportion as 4 cups of flour, 1 and half cup of water, and 2 tablespoon of oil, 1/2 tablespoon of salt, around 5g of fast yeast.

Cooking:

1) Brush the board with oil, and place raised flour dough on top of it.

2) Press the dough down to flat (around 1cm thick, for example), and divide the big dough into smaller portions.

3) You can use a rolling pin or just hand to press the smaller dough into thinner flat sheet. (Around 0.5cm, probably?)


4) Use a knife to make couple of ‘cuts’ in the middle of the ‘flat sheet’.

5) In a wok, pour in oil (quite deep). When the oil is very very HOT, (if it is not hot enough, the dough would not raise up with bubbles, instead will be ‘solid’), place the ‘flat sheet’ in the oil.


6) Keep on turning over, make sure both sides are ‘raising up’.

7) Then remove it to the plate.

The final result

--- Done, for your Sunday morning treat. :))


In northeast China, we normally have it with either rice congee or more popular with soy mike (to soak ‘Youtiao’ in the soy milk).

You tiao dipped in soya milk

48. Chinese home made tofu with sauce

Tweet

豆腐脑 －鸡蛋卤

Making tofu at home

The first part of this recipe is like making tofu at home yourself! How exciting! The first time I saw this package (actually in Japanese) in a shop I picked it up immediately without second thoughts, and placed it into my shopping basket.:))

Although the package says that the mix inside should be used for making firm tofu, I did something a bit different and used it to prepare a very traditional Chinese recipe -- Tofu nao .

'Dofu nao’ is actually the northern Chinese name for it (in the south, I think it is called 'dofu hua'). Tofu nao is a very common part of Chinese breakfast , and it is normally sold in the markets as ready to eat. However, my mum normally likes making it at home for dinner.

The making of Tofu nao involves just turning the soy milk from liquid form to a more solid form using a "firming agent". The result is, however, not quite solid but rather very soft (like steamed eggs). And depending on what flavor you like, you can make different kinds of soup to pour on the tofu; so, when eating, you can combine soup and tofu. In northern China, we normally make it savory, where in the south, it can be sweet.

Normally soy milk can be home made or powdered. However, the soya milk sold in a carton or a ‘can’ is not good for this recipe. Next, the firming agent is very important. ( lu shui is the one normally sold in China), I haven’t found anything similar in the UK, so this package with the firming agent is really the easiest thing to use. This tofu package is sold in many Japanese and Chinese supermarkets.

The recipe: Chinese tofu nao

There are two steps for making this - making the tofu, and making the sauce for pouring on top of it. In northeast Chinese recipes, egg soup or black fungus soup are quite popular for this. In this recipe I just simply made the soup with egg only. Here it goes.

Ingredients:

A pack of tofu mix,
egg, oil, salt, sesame oil.

Making the tofu

I mostly follow the instructions on the package.

1) Empty the soya powder sachet in a deep sauce pan, and add in around 0.8l cold water.

2) Bring water to boiling, and keep on stirring the powder in water.
After 3 minutes boiling, turn off the fire, and add the ‘firming’ agent into the soya liquid.

3) Stir well, and transfer the liquid to a deep edged plate.

4) Cover with kitchen foil for about 10 minutes.

Making the sauce:

1) In a heated wok, pour in 2-3 tablespoons of oil.

2) When the oil is hot, pour in cold water -half of the amount of water in the soya liquid.

3) Meanwhile, break two eggs, whisk well.

4) When the water is boiling, pour in the eggs, and stir a big to prevent the eggs form together. (You can also add in corn flour for thickness).

5) Add in 1 teaspoon of salt, vegetable/mushroom essence (optional), stir well.

6) Turn off the fire, add couple of drop of sesame oil.

Serving

Pour the egg "soup" on top of the tofu nao. When eating, take the spoon to grab from the bottom of the plate, so you should have a piece of soft tofu with the sauce altogether in the mouth.
Traditionally, it is good to have Chinese bread with it, otherwise, boiled rice is also good.

22. Chinese egg made flat bread (Ji Dan Bing)

Tweet

Chinese egg pancake

鸡蛋饼

Every time mentioning or cooking ‘Jidan bing’ always, always makes me think of my deeply be loved auntie. And that day a few years ago, when I was very sick and sad lying in bed, didn’t want to eat anything, after rejecting all the food she suggested, she went back to the kitchen, and a few minutes later, she brought this to me, that was the first thing I properly ate in days. Seeing my friends visit me, she then went back to prepare more --- it was the first time my friends got to know my auntie, they all said that I was very lucky to have a really kind and understanding auntie …. of course, a very good cook as well. She had lots of recipes that I never learned, and now I will never be able to learn from her…

Bing, or Chinese Flat Bread

If ‘bing’ is translated as ‘Chinese flat bread’, ‘Ji dan bing’ should be translated as ‘egg made flat bread’. It is one of the most popular foods in Northeast China. I say ‘food’, because I am really not sure how to categorize it, it is not normally served as ‘main’ for a meal.

My auntie used to prepare these for me when I got hungry in between two main meals, so I guess it is a kind of ‘snack’ or side dish on the table. It is a bit like 'pancake', but Chinese style. :)))

Once just by chance I made it at home, my husband really liked it, and suggested it would be a lovely breakfast. Ha… back home with my parents, this kind of simple Chinese breakfast can never be acceptable, but compare it to simple toast, it is really not bad ---- There you go, I shall introduce it as a simple ‘quick fix’ breakfast menu, takes about 10 minutes.

Before writing this down, I had a quick look on

Read more »

14. Oven baked Chinese bread: Shaobing

烧饼 -- Dianxin from North

Chinese shao bing

Tweet

Chinese Shao Bing

Shao bing always been one of my all time favourite food. I just love those crunchy layers and the smell of sesame. However, I only just learnt how to make shao bing in very recent years. Since I could not get it  over here, and I was dying to have it, I tried very hard to recall how my auntie made it, then I came up with these ones. :)

Shaobing is one of the most popular ‘bakeries’ in China, or probably we say that it is a 'dian xin' from North China. Here, you probably can see the difference between North Chinese food and Cantonese food.

I just noticed that in some English translations, shao bing is referred to as ‘flat bread’. Well, if it is just ‘flat’ ‘bread’, there are far too many flat breads in Chinese food.

Types of Shao bing

The most famous shao bing comes from Shandong Province. They come in different varieties and with different fillings, for example, sugar, red beans, spring onions… Normally, the surface is very crispy, and the inside has many different layers. And in different regions, people eat them together with different types of food. For instance, in the South, people might have it with soya milk for the morning breakfast, whereas in the North, we have the savory ones with soup, and sweet ones as side dish or just as snack. The one with sesames is the basic one. It takes probably 20 minutes to make around 10 of them after preparing the dough -- fairly easy and quick… and tasty. Good for a weekend treat, and if you make some more, you will have good breakfast (much better than just having toasts) -- for a change. :))

Shao Bing: The recipe

Ingredients:

Plain flour, dry yeast, (or self-raising flour) salt, sesame paste, toasted sesame

Preparing the dough:(if you are using plain flour and yeast to raise the dough, not self-raising flour)

The amount of flour needed depends on how many you want to prepare. I normally use four and half cups of plain flour, and 1 sachet of dry yeast (7g) for the making around 10 -12 shaobing, mixed with one and 1/3 cup of warm water, and 2 teaspoons of salt.
Knead the dough well, and leave for one hour or wait for it fully raised.

Preparing the ‘filling’:

Dissolve 3 tablespoons of sesame paste in .. probably 1 tablespoon of water and 2/3 teaspoon of salt --- the sesame mix is supposed to be a bit salty, so it all depends on your taste. The mix should be neither liquid, nor very thick.

Oh, I have always been a bit lazy about dissolving the sesame paste, and lately, I found a lazy solution :)) The bottle of sesame paste sold in supermarkets always contains some ‘oil’ on the top, whereas the paste itself sinks down to the bottom. I use a small spoon of ‘oil’ mix into the paste first, it basically takes no time to mix it well, then add a some water to dissolve it further -- way more easier than just adding water. ---- Don’t tell this to my mum, otherwise she would ask, “how can you grow up and become more and more lazy?” -- It is true, I remember that, when I was little, dissolving sesame paste was the only thing I could help my mum with when she prepared cool noodle dishes, and I was so proud that I could help, I whisked the paste so hard until my wrist got sore. And now…. I am trying to find the laziest solution. :))

Shaping Shaobing:

1) Divide the dough into smaller portions, around 4-5cm wide, around 7-8cm long, and about 3cm thick.

2) Roll the small dough into a flat sheet. (0.5cm thick, maybe)

3) Spread prepared sesame mix on the flat sheet.

4) Roll up the ‘sheet’ tightly.

5) Place the roll ‘standing’ on the board, use both hands to hold each end of the ‘roll’, and twist as many rounds as you can (one hand should firmly hold the end ‘stand’ on the board, so the bottom is not moved).

6) Use your palm to press the top of ‘twisted’ roll down the bottom.

7) Sprinkle toasted sesames on top of the ‘dough’, enough to cover the top surface, and press them well into it.

Adding toasted sesame 

Baking:

Place well prepared shao bing into pre-heated oven. Unfortunately, I cannot tell exactly how many minutes you need to bake them -- yes, careless me. I would say around 15- 18 minutes, but when the top surface turns a little bit brownish --- they are done!

At home, we normally have them for breakfast with steamed eggs --  it is one of the authentic Chinese breakfast! :))