Recipes – Towards China

Make a kitchen project of it

Challenging

Stretch, pleat and wrap. Allow the resting time, and enjoy learning a new skill.

Challenging2 hr 5 min

Baked lamb bao buns

These lamb buns bake rather than steam.

Let’s cook

Challenging39 hr 30 min

Cantonese-style baked mooncakes

A thin golden pastry wraps lotus-seed paste and salted egg yolk in these baked mooncakes.

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Challenging2 hr 5 min

Char siu steamed pork buns

Sweet barbecue-pork filling sits inside a soft steamed bun.

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Challenging2 hr 5 min

Cheung fun rice-noodle rolls

A thin rice-flour batter steams into sheets that you roll while warm.

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Challenging2 hr 40 min

Chicken potstickers with a crisp skirt

A thin flour-and-starch liquid cooks into a lace-like skirt beneath these chicken dumplings.

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Challenging13 hr 15 min

Crisp Chinese spring rolls

These filled spring rolls use the source’s air-fryer option.

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Challenging2 hr 5 min

Cumin lamb with hand-torn noodles

Small pieces torn from rested dough become chewy noodles for cumin lamb.

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Challenging13 hr 25 min

Eight-treasure sticky rice

Dried fruit and nuts make a pattern underneath this steamed sticky-rice pudding.

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Challenging55 min

Flaky spring-onion pancakes

Roll, coil and flatten your way to crisp layers. These savoury pancakes are a dough project, not a batter.

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Challenging2 hr 55 min

Fluffy pork and carrot baozi

Soft steamed buns with a juicy filling. A little kneading, a little pleating and a very satisfying first batch.

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Challenging2 hr 38 min

Fluffy spring-onion flatbread

Yeast gives this pan-cooked flatbread a soft centre, while a rolled layer carries spring onion through it.

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Challenging2 hr 50 min

Gua bao pork belly buns

Folded steamed buns make pockets for tender pork belly, pickles and crushed peanuts.

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Every swap explains what changes. Some specialist ingredients are worth finding: plain flour cannot do the job of glutinous rice, and chilli sauce cannot recreate fermented bean paste.