115 Overlapped egg pancakes

Chinese egg pancakes

Yesterday, when I was browsing online, by a chance, I came across an article about Chinese food in the ‘Independent’, which, to be honest, was rather disappointing.

Well, I mean, Chinese cuisine is very difficult to describe in a few words, or even in a short article. There are huge regional and ethnic differences, not to mention that there are different kinds of food that are used for health and  medical purposes; there are also plenty of common/everyday recipes as well as rare ones, traditional ways of cooking and modern ways. Not all the dishes I would like to have myself, and sometimes I even find some of them can be too strange to eat, but to judge Chinese cuisine fairly, I think you have to look at the whole picture.

Hopefully, if I am not lazy and can be persistent enough on this blog, I will gather enough information on Chinese regional, and ethnic dishes, as well as more different kinds of cuisines within China. :))

Talking about modern Chinese dishes, there are lots of changes, or say new ‘inventions’ these days. Most of these ‘new’ dishes, I have never even seen or heard of before, until my friends and family introduced them to me when I went back to China on holidays.

These modern ways of cooking  normally involve using new ingredients ( new vegetables, herbs, or even Western ingredients) into the dishes, or ‘playing around’ with the usual ingredients, by using different combinations to create a new taste or a new way of eating, or just simply bringing the recipes from almost hundreds years ago, and adapt them to modern taste.

Read more »

Culture Note: Spring Day in China and spring flatbread recipe

立春 和 春饼的做法

Spring Day is one of the twenty-four "solar terms" in Chinese tradition. It is called ‘Li Chun’, ‘Li’ （4） in traditional Chinese terms means ‘begin’, ‘Chun’ here refers to Spring. It means from this day onwards, the spring is beginning. It is normally on the 4th February each year. Sorry, this post is supposed to be posted yesterday, but I didn't get the time. :)

Yesterday, I wrote on my FB page saying that ‘spring is coming eventually’. However, a friend replied, ‘well, spring is still so far away’, since over here, it is really cold, and snow covers most parts of England. But in Chinese culture, even it is called ‘Spring day’, (or the beginning of the spring’), it does not really mean that we can have the ‘spring weather’ already. It simply means that we can feel the signs of that spring breeze, and see the spring greenish is starting to come.

In the next 15 days, there will be dramatic change in nature. In ancient China, these 15 days are divided into three parts, each five days as one part. The first five days means that wind is originated from the east now, the frozen ground is gradually defrosting; the second 5 days means that hibernating worms and animals are waking up from their caves; the third 5 days means that the ice in the river is starting melting, fish begin to float up to swim towards the surface. This is why Chinese people celebrate the ‘Spring Day’. Thus, ‘Chun’ / ‘Spring becomes a very ‘happy’ or ‘blessed’ word.

Read more »

105. Chinese bakery recipe: ‘open mouth’ flat bread with fillings

Chinese flatbread

Having a very warm Christmas and new years seems unreal --- here is Valencia! In the morning, when I opened the curtains, the whole window was filled with blue colour, blue from the sky, not even a thread of cloud, and underneath, the buildings and streets are all brighting up in the sun. I always forgot how sunny Valencia could get even in winter, never remember to take my sunglasses with me. Now, I had to half close my eyes when I looked up. :)

‘Three kings’ celebration just happened here --- one of my favorite time in Spain. The celebration parade marched crossing the city, and I was squeezing myself in the crowd, totally forgot about age, manners or anything else, just standing on the side of streets, waiting for the arrival of the three kings, and screaming ‘aquí!! aquí!!!’ Then if we were lucky enough sometimes, we would receive some sweets that the ‘parade’ and the ‘kings’ throw to the crowds, and of course, when the parade ends, we would give all the sweets we had to those kids were still looking for sweets left on the ground.

Read more »

93.Chinese flat bread recipe: layered flat bread northeast style (V)

Tweet

--- Homemade 'Jin Bing"

筋饼

If you have been reading my posts,  you probably already know that I am kind of ‘crazy’ about Chinese flour based food, mainly, Chinese bread, and particularly Chinese flat bread. I find Chinese steamed bread without fillings a little ‘plain’ for me; I have to have it with soup, pickles for other dishes. In contrast, Chinese flat bread normally has more flavors, I could just have it as snack -- non-stop. If I ever put on too much weight, it is often because my intake of flat bread gets out of control.

This layered flat bread is a homemade version of ‘Jin Bing’,  a famous kind of flat bread  that is eaten in combination with  ‘Tofu Nao’ in northeast China. The difference between homemade ones to the ones sold in the markets is the thickness. This homemade version is thiner and simpler.

Read more »

77.Chinese flat bread with scallion -- Cong You Bing (V)

Tweet

Chinese Flat bread with scallion

葱油饼

I love flour based food, noodles, all kinds of Chinese ‘bread’ and ‘flat bread’, dumplings, baozi… If one day I am getting really really big, it will be because of the flour. :))) But, I cannot cut it off my diet, so I go to jogging more often… Ha…

This Cong You Bing is one of my favorites, but, because of its caloric count, I don’t make it often. In literal translation, it is spring onion and scallion flat bread (bing), in some translations, it is also called ‘Chinese green onion pancakes’ or scallion pancakes. It has distinctive scallion smell and taste, which makes it different to other Chinese ‘bing’ recipes.

Some say this recipe originated in Taiwan, others say it is from northern China. I vaguely remember my grandma used to make something similar, but not the exactly the same. Cong you bing only became popular in North since mid 1990s, it firstly came out as a ‘xiao chi’, like ‘small bite’, I used to go to this ‘small bite’ bars with my best friends, with a few pieces of Cong you bing, and some soup, talked for a whole afternoon.

Only later, it became possible to order Cong yu bing in some restaurants. In England, I had it couple of times in Chinese restaurants when having ‘dimsim’, it turned out to be quite different thing -- still with scallion, but fried, quite oily.

Read more »

74. Corn flour flatbread -- Chinese recipe (V)

Tweet

Chinese corn flour flat bread

苞米面饼

Actually, I am not too sure about the translation into English -- this is another ‘Bing’ recipe with corn flour, or maybe it can be called ‘corn flour bread’ or ‘corn flour pancake’ in English?

Corn flour in Chinese cooking

If you mention this corn flour flatbread in China, many many Chinese people from older generations would tell you many stories -- after all, this is the kind of food that accompanied them during poorer days, and left them with plenty of memories.

I heard these stories from my grandparents and my parents. When food was scarce, having something to fill up one's stomach became the most important thing. Having fine rice and flour was like a luxury dream out of most people's reach, so this corn flour flatbread became their happiness. They said they used to think corn flour was one of the most delicious things, they could even taste the corn's sweetness in it.

However, as life conditions got better and better, it became almost impossible to find corn flour in large cities.

Read more »

Culture note: Typical Mid Autumn Day food --- Moon Cake

Tweet

(Image source:http://www.lecaitt.com.cn/tuangou/detail_82287/)

If there is one single thing you definitely must eat in Mid Autumn Day, that would be Chinese Moon Cake. A mid autumn day celebration without moon cake is not such.

Chinese Moon Cake

Moon cake in Chinese is called “Yue bing” (Yue as moon, bing - I have mentioned a few times before, a round flat ‘bakery’).

Moon cake is a round cake with various fillings. It is called ‘Moon cake’, not only because of its shape, which reminds us of the the full moon (traditionally, people would sit under the moon light, eating the cake and appreciating the beautiful scenery), but also because, according to the legend, a moon cake was first made for Chang’e, a woman who lives in the palace on the moon.

The legend of Moon Cake

There are many different stories of why we eat moon cake. Although there are historical records on how the moon cake firstly appeared, there is also a popular legend explaining its origin.

Read more »

65.Bao zi: A Chinese steamed bread with fillings (part III)

Tweet

Chinese baozi

This morning when I opened window, a fresh but a bit chilly air blowed in, that was autumn air, autumn refreshing wind, suddenly felt like my ‘summer laziness’ gone, and the fresh autumn just gave me a new start. I took a deep breathe. Autumn is beautiful.

Just when I enjoyed coolness and refreshing air of the early autumn, I saw a little yellow flower outside window - the summer flower...

Preparing the pastry sheet:

1. Gently knead the dough of raised flour, then divide it into smaller pieces, around 4cm diameter ball, maybe?

2) Press the dough flat, then roll it into around 0.5cm thick sheet. It is better not to make it too thin, otherwise the pastry will not be raised up again when steamed.

Preparing the baozi's dough

Folding:

1) Place one pastry sheet on your palm, make the hand into a little bowl shape, so that the filling could stay in the centre, and easy for folding it up.

2) Place a tablespoon of filling onto the centre of pastry sheet - keep the hand into ‘bowl’ shape.

3) Use another hand to firstly ‘close’ a small part of the edge, and hold that part to gradually ‘close’ the edges, around 1.3cm a time, eventually close the centre, and make a ‘little twist’.

Steaming

1) Before placing the Baozi into the steamer, dip the bottom into a little oil plate, so Baozi will not get sticked on the steamer sheet.

Steaming the baozi

2) Turn on the full fire, after water boiling, (the steam comes out), allow it to be steamed for further - around 6 mins, then it is done. (But if you are making meat filling, it needs couple minutes longer though).

3) Baozi need to be removed from the steamer immediately after they are.

Serving:

Baozi can be served just by themselves with dip. They can also be served with Chinese soup or congee. Some salad is also good on the table. :)

Baozi can be frozen, and re-warmed up. The best way of warming up is to use steamer again, so you can get that softness and freshness re-installed. Otherwise using Microwave is the simplest way, but they cannot be left in the microwave too long, probably around 1 or 2 minutes. Too long can cause the Baozi too dry or even hard.


Ok, it is now done with Baozi. It sounds a bit complicated, but … not really, and it is all worth it when you put it into mouth. :)))))

65.Bao zi -- ‘A Chinese steamed bread with fillings’ II

Tweet

Chinese baozi in steamer

The sun broke through in the afternoon, it was so bright, I suddenly felt that I had to go out - being in the sun, after all I have been missing it for a few days. So I found myself a little excuse - need to buy my mum a birthday gift.

Wow, the whole city centre of Oxford was … too crowded. My friend did warn me there is a ‘funfair’ going on. 

I think I must have frowned all the way as I was trying to squeeze through, but suddenly, without realizing, I stopped, smiled, could not move my feet - I was in front of a ‘merry-go-rounds’ -- the little kids were riding on the ‘horses’, flying with their dreams.

I couldn't figure out what exact magic there, but I have always liked to get on one of those 'horses'. Unfortunately when I was little, it was normally a long queue, and not enough ‘horses’ for every kid, rather ‘not so cool’ boats or something, and I was too slow to grab one before the other kids. But always - I always had that wish that I would ride those ‘horses’.

Until one day, I was already in my early 20s, I took my cousin’s daughter to the ‘funfair’, it was so empty, the ‘horses’ were going round and round without any kids on their ‘back’. The person who was selling the tickets told us that we could pay a ticket and ride for one hour. I immediately asked, ‘could I get on as well? Please!’ He kindly let me. -- Then my dream eventually came true. 


I guess the ticket vendor thought nobody could stay one hour there, after all, rounds after rounds, we would get off at exact spot where we got on, people would get tired quickly. But he was wrong - I ride one a pretty ‘horse’ for an hour, just round and round. it did not take me to anywhere further, but it took me to a dream that it could only happen in childhood, and there I can just dream whatever I want, without any reality crashes ...
----------------------

Continued from yesterday, how to make Baozi. :)

The pastry:

For the pastry, you will need to use raised flour, normally plain flour with raising agent, but some times, for making it more ‘healthier’, I would mix half amount of whole meal flour in, or corn flour. However, this kind of mix cannot be expected raising up as much as plain flour alone.

As for the amount, I normally use 4 full cups of flour to make around average sized 15 Baozi, and I would say 3-5 Baozi per person, so here you go, the numbers. :) I do make a bit more each time, it can be frozen and re-heated up.

The filling:

As I mentioned yesterday, most of the dumplings’ fillings are good for Baozi, but because of different pastry and different way of cooking (one is boiling and the other is steaming), even the same filling, it can turn out slight different taste. But in the recipe, I made vegetarian one - mix Chinese leaves, Mu’er (black fungus), Chinese mushrooms, and Fensi.

It is very easy to make.

Ingredients:

For 4 cups of flour, I used: one Chinese leaves, It is better to use only the outer layers with big stem part; one handful dried Mu’er, (or one bowl of well soaked Mu’er); one big handful dried Chinese mushrooms (Xiang gu); one small bunch of Fensi.

Salt, oil, (as I mentioned, ‘cooked oil’ is definitely good for this filling mix), sesame oil, light soy sauce, ground Sichuan peppercorn, five spices powder (or 13 spices powder) -- although I mentioned that the ‘spiced water’ can be used instead of five spices powder, but in this case, I wouldn’t recommend, simply because apart from Fensi, the rest of the ingredients are not good at absorbing liquid, and too much liquid could cause problems for sealing ‘Baozi’, MSG or Vegetable/mushroom/chicken essence (optional).

1) Soak Mu’er and Chinese mushroom in warm water for 1 hour or until it is soft, and Fensi for around 20 mins in warm water.

2) Chop Chinese leaves (the better to use the outer part with big stem), mu’er, Chiense mushroom, and Fensi into small pieces (mince).

3) Mix all chopped ingredients together, then add 1 teaspoon of salt, 3 tablespoon of oil, 1 1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil, 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce, 2/3 teaspoon of ground Sichuan peppercorn, 1 flat teaspoon of five spices powder (or 13 spices powder, 1/2 teaspoons of MSG or Vegetable/mushroom/chicken essence (optional).

Preparing the baozi's fillings

4) Mix everything well, probably it is better to leave the mix for a little while, for example 15 minutes, so the excess juice from the Chinese leaves would come out, then try to get ride of any excess liquid - this might effect the taste that have already been mixed, so I normally would taste a little bit, see if there is anything needs to be added in.

(To be continued) :) 

65.Bao zi: A Chinese steamed bread with fillings (part I)

Tweet

Chinese baozi

Time is so fast, the weekend has just past, and also we are already in September. Where is the time gone? Probably I should give up the hope that summer might come around again, instead, hope for a lovely autumn.

But now, it is the best time in Northeast China in terms of food - the ‘summer food’ is still there, and ‘early autumn’ food is just starting. So, this time of the year one can find all different kinds of fruits and vegetables. In traditional Chinese ‘health’ theory, this is the best time for people to have as many nutrients as possible.

Anyway, in conclusion, eat! Must eat at the best time of the year. Oh, no… If we are really going to eat too much, soon I will have to come up with some ‘diet’ recipes out. Ha…

-----------
As I mentioned in the ‘Chinese birthday meal’ post, Bao zi are a must in a traditional Chinese birthday meal. How to describe ‘Bao zi’ - because the pastry is very similar to steamed bread, the only difference is that Bao zi has fillings, so let’s say it is steamed bread with fillings?

You cannot find more traditional food than Bao Zi in northeast China. It is definitely a regional cultural symbol. ‘Bao’ in Chinese means ‘wrap it up’, Zi is just an ‘assistant’ word here.

Bao Zi is very much a ‘northern’ food, as in the south flour-based foods are not so common in home cooking. Besides, Bao Zi are much bigger than normal Cantonese Dimsim. Well, it is probably because unlike Dimsim, you would have all different kinds of ‘dimsim’ for one meal, while Bao zi are normally served as main ‘staple’ food, instead of rice.


Baozi can be accompanied by salad (Liang cai), or soup, or congee. Actually, in my university years, we often went to a small family run restaurant for breakfast, and we always order 2 or 3 Bao Zi (because Baozi are normally really big and filling) and a big bowl of lamb soup.

Making Baozi at home is simple, but it does require -- experience, I would say? For example, the pastry sheet needs to be raised up properly; the filling can not contain too much ‘liquid’, otherwise it will be very difficult to ‘wrap the baozi up’ and ‘seal’, and affect the softness of raised flour. But saying that, it is good to have a little bit ‘fat’ if you are making meat filling, because it is steamed instead of boiling unlike dumplings, it is good to ‘hold’ fat in the wrapping after steaming - have a bite, the ‘juice’ comes out. --- enh… tasty.

As I said, the pastry is the same as Chinese steamed bread - raised flour. However, the fillings can vary. Most of the dumplings’ fillings can be used for Baozi. The most popular filling for Bao Zi is beef mince (or pork mince) with spring onion or celery (or Jiucai /garlic chives), and for the vegetarian options are Jiucai with eggs, or Chinese leaves with other combinations.

In this first recipe of Baozi, I made a vegan filling - Chinese leaves, Mu’er (black fungus), Chinese mushroom, and Fensi (cellophane noodles). Lately, I found Chinese leaves with mushroom or Mu’er (black fungus) is very good combination. The juice of Chinese leaves gives flavor to the ‘dryness’ of mushroom. And Fensi (cellophane noodles) here is not only good for the taste, but also very good for absorbing the excess ‘liquid’ in the filling mix, so you won’t find too difficult to ‘seal’ the top of Baozi. The only thing for this vegan recipe is I like to put a bit more oil in the filling, because for ‘steaming’, it just needs that ‘smoothness’ and ‘fat’ in the filling and for the inter part of the pastry sheet.

Am I talking too much? I‘d better stop here, continues tomorrow then. :)

Have a good fresh week!

61. How to make Chinese steamed bread

Chinese steamed bred (man tou)

蒸馒头

Chinese Steamed Bread

I don’t really know how the name ‘Chinese bread’ was first used when referring to the dish I am introducing today, as it is not really ‘bread’ bread.

However, when my friends and I try to explain what Man Tou  is, we always end up saying "it is like … Chinese bread". Ok, let’s just call it Chinese steamed bread then! :)

If you are familiar with Cantonese Dim Sim, there is something similar to Chinese bread called "Bon". In the North East of China, Chinese steamed bread (without any fillings) is called ‘Man Tou’, but any other similar kind of steamed bread with fillings is called ‘Bao’ (Mandarin word for Bon).

In Northern China, Mantou/Chinese steamed bread is a very common "staple food" that often replaces rice on the dining table. Mantou is thought to be a bit ‘dry’, so it is usually accompanied with soup or congee.


In China, one of the most well-known mantou and soup dishes is ‘yang rou pao mo’ from Xi’an. It is served with mantou teared into small parts and soaked in lamb soup. -- A dish you cannot miss if you ever visit Xi’an, - oh, but in order to appreciate it, you have to like the ‘original’ flavor of lamb. :)

Mantou is not difficult to make -- raise the flour, shape it into 'half a ball', then steam. Nowadays, Mantou is normally made with white plain flour, which gives a very soft texture. As I mentioned before, many dishes from the times were China was ‘poor’ have been brought back to the dining table, and become very popular and highly recommended for their ‘healthy properties’.

So, for example, making Mantou with wholemeal flour or corn flour is becoming more and more popular. The flour, however, does not raise and become very soft after steamed as with plain flour.

Apart from using different flour to obtain different flavor, putting different fillings into Mantou is also very popular, however, of course, doing this changes the ‘concept’ of Mantou. In my ‘Chinese birthday food’ post, the two typical northeast birthday food “Doubao” and “Baozi” are derived from Mantou. If I start talking about different kinds of fillings, you have to bear with me for a long long time. :)

The recipe: Chinese Man Tou

Anyway, today, the weekend, I will only explain the original Chinese Mantou recipe, and it will be our breakfast for the next two days. :)

Ingredients:

Plain flour, yeast (or other raising agent if you are familiar with)

Making the dough:

1) Making raising flour. I normally use (same as always) 4 cups of flour, 1 and 1/4 cup of water, around 5g fast yeast.


2) After raising the flour, dust the board with dry flour, and place the dough on it. Knead well.

3) Divide the dough into small portions, don’t worry if they look small, need to keep in mind that after steaming, it will raising up again. So don't make the portion too big.

Shaping the mantou

4) Shaping the Man tou. There are two ways of making the small doughs into half ball shape. One is to use both hand ‘rub’ it into the shape from the small portion dough directly, (above pic) but it is a little bit difficult to shape the top ‘round’shape; the second method, which is my parents use, to press the small dough flat, then take the edges and press them into the centre (more like filling inside with its own edges), then ‘throw’ it hard onto the board, and ‘rub’ the side make it into the final shape.

Steaming:

1) Before putting the man tou into the steamer, it is better to ‘dip’ it in oil - this is only for avoiding it getting sticky on the steamer sheet.

2) Place them one by one into steamer, (leave enough water in the bottom of the steamer), keep in mind leave enough space for Mantou raising big later. (You can see from my picture, I did not expect that they raise up so big, so they are a bit 'squeezed".)

3) Cover the lid of steamer, and leave it for further 15 minutes for letting the dough raising again, before turning on the fire.

4) Then turn on the full fire. AFTER the water BOILING, for further 7 or 8 minutes, it is done. Turn off the fire, take them out. DON’T leave them inside the steamer after it is done.

Steaming Chinese mantou

Serving:

Have them with rice, millet or mung bean congee, or different soups along with other dishes, if you like. We also like to have it with steamed eggs for breakfast.

Home-made steamed Chinese bread

Storing and warming up:

Mantou can be kept in room temperature if the weather is not too hot, but don't leave them for too long though. Or leave them the fridge, or freeze them after cooling down. When eating them, they can be eaten as room temperature, or for the best result, is to re-steam them. If you cannot be bothered to use the steamer again, you can also leave them in the microwave, but ONLY 1 minute, if not warm enough, try 20 seconds more per time --- if it is too long, it will be very very hard. And microwave warmed mantou needs to be eaten quickly, otherwise it will get hard once it gets cold.


That's all -- too much already, sorry, have good Sunday!! It says that the weather will be good!

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

50. Chinese noodle recipe: soy bean paste mixed noodles / zha jiang mian

Tweet

Chinese soy bean paste mixed noodles

炸酱面

Please forgive me if I have been mentioning hot summer too much, Spanish summer is so irresistible to me. It is not only because I always like hot, sunny summer weather, but also this hot air in the day and nice gentle summer evenings all remind me the summers I had when I was at home in China.

Having been eating in the restaurants many days, what I really crave is ... Chinese cold noodles , :) like the ones I used to have at home, my mum made them... have tried to ask in many Chinese restaurants here if they serve them -- no, they don’t, but not much to complain about, because this is a quite typical Northern Chinese dish (I think), and a very home-made dish.

Soy bean paste Chinese noodles

This is definitely one of my favorite summer dishes -- a Chinese noodle dish , don’t even mention my auntie used to call me the noodle queen. :))

It is actually a very simple dish -- soybean paste mixed noodles. Although you can use packed soybean paste directly, the paste normally needs to be re-made. For example, you can stir fry it with different ingredients depending on your taste, then mix it with boiled and then rinsed cool noodles. So it is called zha jia mian , as in fried paste noodles .

This time I made home made noodles , similar to the Da lu Mian dish I made before. :)) Otherwise, you can use those ready-to-boil noodles sold in the shops as well.

Another thing to do is to make the soybean paste sauce. As I mentioned in a previous post, there are a few different types of soybean paste. The one commonly used for this dish is called Da jiang -- just the plain soybean paste, no actual soy beans or chillis in the paste, it is very salty, but has a very strong soybean taste.

The reason for re-making the soybean paste is to make its taste richer. Soybean paste can sometimes be re-boiled with seasonings for hours, or it can be stir-fried with vegetables, eggs or meat mince. And similarly to Da lu mian, you can also make some shredded cucumbers or carrots to go with the noodles.

In this recipe, I used eggs, green peppers and dried shrimps (which can be replaced with fresh shrimps). If the re-made soybean paste is salty enough, it can be kept well in the fridge for quite a few days.

Ingredients

• If you make the noodles at home, you will need flour, eggs, and salt
• For the soybean paste you will need
  oil, egg, green pepper (optional), soybean paste, dried shrimps (optional), spring onion, soy sauce, cooking wine, sugar and sesame oil .

Preparing the noodles

You can either use one egg or prepare the noodles without eggs, in which case you just need flour, water and a bit salt. In my previous post, I described in detail how to make the noodles by hand .

If you don't want to make the noodles yourself, you can also buy ready-to-boil noodles. However, keep in mind that the wider and thicker the noodles are, the better for this dish.)

Once you have made (or bought and unpacked) the noodles, simply boil them and then rinse them in in cold water.

Boiling the noodles

Preparing the Soybean Paste

1）Chop around 1 whole spring onion and 1 green pepper to small pieces.

2） Beat 2 eggs in a bowl.

Cooking Soybean Mixed Noodles

1） In a heated wok, pour in around 3 tablespoons of oil, when the oil is hot, put in chopped spring onions, and add 1 tablespoon cooking wine.

2）When you can smell the spring onion, add in whisked eggs and keep on stirring, the eggs are then becoming small pieces.

3）When the eggs are forming up, put the chopped green peppers and a handful dried shrimps, stir everything well.

4）Then add the soybean paste in (I added the whole package, the leftovers can be used for later anyway. You can add less though), then add 2 tablespoon light soy sauce, 1/2 tablespoon of white sugar, stir everything well, if it is too dry, add a bit water.

Mixing everything well

5）When everything is well mixed, turn off the fire, add in around 2 tablespoons of sesame oil before remove everything to a bowl.

Serving the noodles

In a big bowl, put rinsed noodles first, then add 1 or 2 tablespoons of ‘re-made’ soybean paste on the noodles. If you like, you can also add some shredded cucumber or carrots in, or chilli oil. Mix everything well in the bowl before eat.

Chinese zha jiang mian

It is good and fresh for a hot summer dinner. If you use ‘ready-to-boil’ noodles, it is just a quick fix dish. It can be eaten on its own, or with some small salad (liang cai dish) or stir fried.