Recipes – Page 4 – 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

Pork-stuffed tofu

Firm tofu blocks become little containers for a pork-and-prawn filling.

Let’s cook

Challenging3 hr 30 min

Rou jia mo pork sandwiches

Rou jia mo sandwiches tuck chopped, slowly braised pork inside firm little pan breads.

Let’s cook

Challenging6 hr 15 min

Salt-baked chicken

This oven adaptation of Hakka salt-baked chicken uses a covered pot and a sand-ginger rub. Sand ginger supplies a distinctive aroma that ordinary ginger cannot duplicate.

Let’s cook

Challenging7 hr

Shanghai breakfast rice rolls

Shanghai-style fan tuan wraps crisp youtiao, meat floss and pickled vegetables inside sticky rice. Rolling firmly keeps the different textures together.

Let’s cook

Challenging45 min

Sichuan poached fish with chilli oil

Sichuan water-boiled fish is gently poached in a spicy bean-paste broth, then finished with fragrant chilli oil. The name describes the cooking stage, not a plain flavour.

Let’s cook

Challenging1 hr 5 min

Sichuan wontons in chilli oil

Bought wrappers let you concentrate on shaping these wontons.

Let’s cook

Challenging2 hr 55 min

Snow-skin custard mooncakes

Snow-skin mooncakes wrap a cooked custard in a soft rice-flour skin.

Let’s cook

Challenging1 hr 20 min

Soft mantou steamed buns

Mantou are plain steamed wheat buns with no filling to hide the texture.

Let’s cook

Challenging1 hr 55 min

Spiced beef flatbreads

Thinly stretched dough wraps spiced beef and spring onions into layered flatbreads. Two rests make the dough easier to stretch without tearing.

Let’s cook

Challenging1 hr 30 min

Spring-onion flower rolls

A fold, a press and a twist give these steamed rolls their flower-like layers.

Let’s cook

Challenging1 hr 50 min

Steamed cabbage rolls

Softened cabbage leaves become wrappers for a small meat-and-mushroom filling.

Let’s cook

Challenging1 hr 32 min

Steamed custard buns

These soft buns use a sweet cooked-egg-yolk filling rather than liquid custard.

Let’s cook

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.