Xian Bing - Chinese Pan Fried Meat Pies

For the past few years Xiao Long Bao (aka Taiwanese soup dumplings) have become wildly popular. But another Taiwanese street food that you may not have tried are Xian Bing, also known as Chinese pan-fried meat pies. These meat pies have even more soup packed in the pastry and they only take half the effort to make as soup dumplings. In fact, they are so juicy, it’s almost hard not to make a big mess with the soup shooting out when you bite into the pie. My brother Chih-Wei is the only person I know who can skillfully eat this pie without spilling a single drop of soup onto the plate. If you like soup dumplings, you will love this yummy, juicy meat pie.

You will need:

Ingredients: (Serves 3-4 people)
For the pie:
3 cup all purpose flour
¼ tsp. granulated sugar
pinch of salt
½ cup boiling hot water
½ cup cold water
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

For the filling:
1 lb. ground beef
4 cloves garlic
1 onion
4 scallions
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. granulated sugar
½ tsp. white pepper
4 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. cooking wine
3 Tbsp. sesame oil
6 Tbsp. cold water

3 Tbsp. vegetable oil for frying


Directions:
Mix up flour, sugar and water. Stir in hot water to the flour mixture with a pair of chopsticks or the back of a wooden spoon to give it a mealy consistency. What you are doing here is half-cooking the dough. This is a very common method for making bun and dumpling skins.

 
Now add in the cold water and vegetable oil. Kneed for two minutes until the dough is smooth. Cover it up with plastic wrap and let it rest while you make the filling.

To make the filling, start by mincing the garlic, onion, scallion and ginger. Set it aside.

In a large bowl, mix salt and sugar into the ground beef. Add cold water, one tablespoon at a time, while stirring the beef until the water gets absorbed into the beef. This is what’s going to make the filling turn into soup once it’s cooked.

Mix in the soy sauce, cooking wine, sesame oil and white pepper.

Gently mix in the minced garlic, onion, scallion and ginger. Don’t stir it too much or else the water and oil will start to separate.

Now roll the dough into a log and cut it into 10 to 12 pieces.

Roll the cut-out dough individually into 4-inch-diameter disks with a rolling pin, but leaving the center thicker than the edges. The best way to do this is to spin the dough counter-clockwise while rolling the rolling pin back and forth on the edges of the dough with your other hand.

Take about 2 tablespoons full of the filling and place it in the center of the rolled-out dough.

Gather the edges of the dough to seal the pie. Pinch off any extra dough.

Gently pat the pie down to a disk with the seam side facing down.

Heat up 3 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large non-stick skillet on medium-low heat. Place the pies in the pan, seam side down. Cook for 5 minutes or until the bottom is golden brown. Make sure you check the bottom of the pie to make sure it doesn’t burn.

Turn the pie over and cover the skillet. This will make sure the filling gets cooked. Cook for another 4 to 5 minutes until both sides are golden brown.

You want to let these pies cool for 5 minutes before serving, or else the soup inside will be burning hot when you bite into them. Crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside is the key. As you can see, a lot of soup spills out when you bite into the pie!

Serve these pies with some soy sauce and vinegar and a little hot sauce. Enjoy while it’s warm.

Nasi Briyani

After spending so much time cooking and baking over the holidays, the last thing I wanted to do this past week was to cook or eat another big meal. Therefore this week I’d like to share with you a very simple one-pot rice dish that can cook in under 30 minutes — my Singapore/Malaysian fusion Nasi Biryani. Many of the spices happen to be ingredients we often use in holiday baking, so it’s also a good way to use up some of those leftover spices.

Biryani is a rice dish with a lot of spices, vegetables and often meat. The word “biryani” originates from “birinj,” the Persian word for rice. There are many, many different versions of biryani across the world, from South East Asia to Africa. The version that we’ve been enjoying at our house is the Singapore/Malaysian nasi biryani. It is believed that biryani was introduced to Malaysia by Indian Muslims as well as the Arab diaspora. This is a healthy and very simple dish you can make as a post-holiday meal. Or if you have anymore energy left to cook for a New Year’s Eve party, this is a great last-minute party food to put together. I’ve actually brought this dish to several parties and potlucks during the holidays and it has always been a crowd pleaser.
You will need:

Ingredients: (Serves 4 people)

1 cup basmati rice
1⅓ cup water
½ cup coconut milk
1 onion
1 carrot
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp. minced ginger
½ tsp. turmeric powder
¼ tsp. coriander seeds
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
2 cardamom pods
1½ tsp. coarse salt
¼ tsp. pandan leaf extract
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

For the toppings:
¼ cup raisins
¼ cup toasted cashew nuts
1 small fried shallot

Directions:
Start by soaking the rice in 1⅓ cup of water and let it sit for 15 minutes.

Slice onion and carrot into thin strips.

In a deep pot, cook the onions and carrots along with 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil on medium low heat until the carrots are soft and onions are translucent. This will take about three to four minutes. Once the onions and carrots are cooked, turn the heat up to high and toss in the cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom pods, coriander seeds and star anise, along with the remaining 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil. Cook for one minute or until you can smell the fragrance from all of the spices. If you don’t have whole spices, you can substitute each with ⅛ tsp. ground spice.

Stir in the coconut milk and the soaked rice, along with all of the soaking water and turmeric powder. Cook until it comes to a simmer. Stir in the pandan leaf extract and cover the pot. Turn the heat down to low and let it cook for 10 to 15 minutes. If you can find fresh pandan leaves, you can just tie two leaves into a knot and place it in the pot instead. For those who are not familiar with pandan leaf, it is a tropical plant that is used widely in Southeast Asian cooking. It’s got a very unique, almost creamy and sweet flavor. You can find the extract in Southeast Asian grocery stores or online. However, if you want to skip this step, that’s fine too. I have made this dish without the pandan in the past and it still tastes very delicious with all the spices and coconut milk. But the pandan leaf is what will give it the unique Malaysian taste.

While you are waiting for the rice to be cooked, you can prep the toppings. Lightly toast the cashew nuts in the toaster oven or on the stovetop until it’s brown. To fry the shallots, slice them into thin rings. Fry the shallot on medium high heat with 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil until it’s brown and crispy (about 1-2 minutes).

Once the rice is cooked, toss in the raisins and fluff the rice very gently. Cover the rice up again and let it sit for 5 minutes to allow the raisins to infuse with the rice. After that, sprinkle the fried shallots and cashew nuts on top of the rice and serve.

If you wish to make a big quantity for a party, you can quadruple the recipe, but I would recommend to only double the spices.

Nasi Biryani is great on its own as a meal, or you can serve it with some chicken satay or lamb kebad and enjoy!

Check out a similar dish, “Xinjiang Lamb Rice,”
http://thewayriceshouldbe.blogspot.com/2015/11/xinjiang-lamb-rice.html

Three Cup Chicken

Three-Cup Chicken is a common dish served at Taiwanese beer houses, which usually open late and don’t close until dawn. Because most Taiwanese people don’t like to drink without having something to eat, beer houses are popular gathering places where you can get cheap and delicious xiah jio tsai, which are stir-fried dishes that go well with beer. But Three-Cup Chicken isn’t just a popular dish at the beer house. It’s also a common home-cooked staple. This week I’d like to share with you my own recipe for the yummy, spicy, gingery chicken dish.

You will Need:

Ingredients:

Serves 4 people

2½ lbs. chicken thighs
2-inch chunks ginger (about 2 Tbsp.), sliced
8 cloves garlic, sliced
4 hot peppers, sliced
2 scallions, cut in half
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1⁄3 cup cooking wine
2 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. soy sauce
4 Tbsp. sesame oil
2½ tsp. raw sugar
big handful of fresh Thai basil

Directions:

Roughly cut up all the chicken thighs. In a large cast iron skillet bring 1/2 Tbsp up to high heat. Sear the chicken thighs for two minutes until it's coated in golden brown and set it aside. Cast iron skillet is obviously not a traditional Chinese kitchen ware but it's a great tool that I've adapted from Maine cooking.  

Now in a separate large wok or a nonstick skillet on medium high heat, toss in the remaining ½ Tbsp. vegetable oil, scallions, hot peppers, garlic and ginger. Cook for 30 seconds to one minute until you can smell the spicy aroma in the air. De-glaze the pan with the cooking wine and place the chicken thighs in the wok along with the sesame oil, soy sauce and raw sugar. Three-Cup Chicken got its name because traditionally it calls for the same quantity of cooking wine, sesame oil and soy sauce. But I’ve found that sometimes the sesame oil can be overpowering, and it can also end up a little too salty.

Cook it until all the liquid has been cooked down, which will take you about 10 to 12 minutes. After the chicken is cooked, remove from the heat and throw in a big handful of fresh basil. Cover it up and allow the basil to infuse in the chicken for 1 minute. If you can’t find Thai basil, regular basil will do as well.

 Serve it with a bowl of rice or a glass of beer and enjoy this delicious chicken dish!

Taiwanese Beef Noodles

Nothing beats a hot bowl of spicy noodles when the weather turns cool. And I have never met anyone who doesn’t enjoy Taiwanese beef noodles, which happens to be my home country’s national dish. The smell of the spicy broth always reminds me of a Taipei night market on a cold winter night. It is believed that beef noodles were brought to Taiwan by Chinese Nationalist Party soldiers from Mainland China when Chiang Kai Shek and his Kuomintang army fled to Taiwan after Wold War II. There is actually a street in Taipei called the “beef noodle street” where you can find all kinds of noodle shops originally founded by retired KMT solders. Each one seems to claim to be the original one. This week I would like to share with you my own recipe for the famous Taiwanese beef noodles.

You will need:

Ingredients:

1 lb. beef shank
5 scallions
1 inch chunk ginger (about 1½ Tbsp.)
5 cloves garlic
1 onion
1 tomato
2 dried hot peppers
2 ~ 3 carrots
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 Tbsp. cooking wine
5 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 beef bouillon cube
1 tsp. chili paste
1½ tsp. granulated sugar
½ cinnamon stick
5 cloves
¼ tsp. fennel seeds
2 star anise
½ tsp. Szechuan peppercorn
1 bay leaf
a pinch five spice
salt and pepper
3½ cups water
3 ~ 4 servings noodle or pasta
handful of bok choy or cabbage (optional)

Directions:
Cut the beef shank into large cubes and season it lightly with salt and pepper. Bring 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil up to high heat in a heavy pot. Sear the beef shank cubes until they have a brown coating (about 1 minute), then take them out of the pot.

Cut 4 scallions into strips and slice the ginger and garlic cloves. In the same pot on high heat, toss in a scallion, ginger, garlic and the dried hot peppers along with the remaining 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil and 1 Tbsp. soy sauce. Cook for one minute, then de-glaze the pot with 2 Tbsp. cooking wine along with the cinnamon stick, cloves, star anise, bay leaf, fennel seeds, Szechuan peppercorn and a pinch of Chinese five spice. If you don’t have all of the spices, you can also just substitute them with an extra 1/3 tsp. Chinese five spice.

Now stir in the carrots, onion, tomato and the remaining scallions, which are all cut in to big chunks. Place the beef back into the pot and add in the remaining 4 Tbsp. soy sauce, 3½ cups water and chili paste. Bring it up to a steady simmer and turn the heat down to low. Cover it up and let slowly cook for 1.5 hour.

Blanch a handful of greens of your choice and cook the noodles right before the broth is ready to serve. In the past, I’ve also substituted the Chinese noodles with pasta noodles, which tastes just as good. Or you can also check out http://thewayriceshouldbe.blogspot.com/2015/12/homemade-noodles.html for my homemade noodle recipe.

Serve the soup and beef over the noodles and enjoy it while it’s warm!

Sponsored by The Free Press

Homemade Noodles

Noodles is one of the staples in our diet. In fact, there is a saying in Chinese, "Grain in the South, Wheat in the North." In Southern China rice is commonly consumed, while in the north, noodles and buns are the common dishes. Here's a very easy homemade noodle recipe which you can use for soup dishes or stir fries.

You will need:
Serves 5 people

3 C AP flour
1 C cold water
1Tbsp vegetable oil
pinch of salt

Directions:

Mix all of the ingredients together, kneed for 3 minutes until dough is smooth. Cover it up and let it rest for 30 minutes.

After the dough has rested, roll it out as thin as you can. Dust the surface well with flour the do a tri-fold. Cut the noodle with a sharp knife vertically. If you have a pasta machine, roll it out to the 3rd setting and cut it with the fettuccine cutter.

Loosen the noodles and dust it well with flour.

In a large pot on high heat, boil 6 cups water. Cook the noodles for 30 seconds and immediately shock it in ice cold water.

Pour hot broth over the noodles and it's ready to serve.

Get the full recipe for Taiwanese Beef Noodle http://thewayriceshouldbe.blogspot.com/2015/12/taiwanese-beef-noodle.html