Andrea, Author at Asian Dumpling Tips

Japanese Braised Pork Belly Buns Recipe

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Steamed Chinese buns stuffed with slices of savory-sweet pork belly is all the rage these days, thanks to David Chang and his staff at Momofuku in New York City. They didn’t invent this snack, as Chang would admit, but just made it ultra hip. The Chinese came up with this rich ditty that utilizes humble steamed rolls made from Chinese yeast-leavened dough (famian) and braised pork belly, a very inexpensive cut. The combination is elegant tasting, especially if you pair champagne with it. A nice appetizer or snack for the holidays.

Bao dough is basically Chinese bao dough and it can be filled and steamed into a bun or left unfilled and steamed into a bread or roll, depending on its shape. I grew up going to weddings and like where little steamed buns were served alongside roast duck, char siu pork and roast pork. We treated them just like western rolls, splitting them open and stuffing them with whatever rich meats were around. Once I figured out how to make my perfect steamed Chinese buns, there was no stopping me. After tasting the pork belly buns at Momofuku Ssam bar a couple years ago, I started braising pork belly for stuffing into little steamed rolls.

Chinese Steamed Rolls Recipe

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Chinese yeast dough is extremely versatile and easy to prepare. In fact, I usually let the food processor do the work so that the dough comes together in minutes. With the dough, I make filled buns to create steamed or pan-fried bao. Or I form the dough into little rolls that can be served alongside rich meats, such as Cantonese roasted pork, roasted duck, deep-fried duck or braised pork belly. You may have seen these types of rolls at Asian weddings, celebrations and the frozen food aisle at Chinese markets. They’re also the ones at places like Momofuku Ssam Bar and Noodle Bar in New York City. No Ancient Chinese secret here. Just an easy yeast dough made from grocery store ingredients. As a bonus, you can freeze the steamed rolls for up to 3 months. Just thaw and resteam to refresh and reheat.

Makes 16 large, 24 medium, or 32 small rolls

1 1/4 pounds Basic Yeast Dough (see Asian Dumplings, page 92, or “The Trick to Making Bao” in the Los Angeles Times)

1. Cut the dough into 16, 24, or 32 pieces for large, medium, and small rolls, respectively. Then roll out the dough pieces to form circles that are a scant 1/4 inch thick. There’s no need to make a belly here.

2. Brush a little canola oil on one half of the dough circle to prevent it from sticking and make it easier to pry open later. Fold the circle over into a semi-circle and then put on a parchment paper square.

3. Place in a bamboo steamer or on a baking sheet, let rise for 20 to 30 minutes, and then steam over boiling water for 6 to 8 minutes, until puffy and dry looking. When done, the rolls will resemble pairs of thick lips. Serve the rolls with the sliced meat or pre-assemble the little sandwiches for your guests. Moisten the roll with some of the cooking juices, if available.

Vegetarian Daikon Rice Cakes a la Slanted Door Recipe (Luo Bo Gao)

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To test drive Wai Chu’s recipe for Chinese daikon radish cakes, I bought a lot of daikon radish. You never know how much you’ll need and I didn’t want to keep running back to the store. Wai’s luóbo gāo (lok bok gow in Cantonese, 蘿蔔糕) from The Dumpling cookbook worked out like a charm on the first run-through so I had several pounds of leftover radish, some of which were used for Vietnamese daikon and radish pickles (do chua) that I’ll be stuffing into banh mi sandwiches.

Watching Charles Phan compete against Cat Cora on Iron Chef America’s battle almond got me thinking about Slanted Door’s vegetarian version of the daikon radish cakes. I recalled Phan proudly telling me in an interview how he infused a lot of umami into the cakes so that people wouldn’t miss the traditional dried shrimp and Chinese sausage. The Vietnamese cooks at Slanted Door who are in charge of the radish cakes said that it’s a perennial favorite; they should know as they’ve worked with Phan for many years. In tribute to Phan and his hardworking staff, I decided to take Wai’s recipe and make it vegetarian.

With all of that in mind, I used dried shiitake mushroom, soaking them and using the soaking liquid to infuse the mushroom and daikon with savory depth. I also sautéed the mushroom with scallion to further punch up the flavor, and added chopped cilantro. Beyond that, I just treated the mixture like the daikon radish cake recipe from The Dumpling. Voila – vegetarian daikon radish cakes that were full of flavor. Fried up, the cakes were just delightfully flavorful. In side by side taste tests with my husband Rory and our house guests Robyn Eckhardt and Dave Hagerman (EatingAsia blog) it was hard to choose which we liked more – the traditional version or the vegetarian one. Here’s the recipe for you to try and decide for yourself:

(For information on rice flour and wheat starch see the post on Asian dumpling ingredients. The glossary in Asian Dumplings, pages 8 to 17, has more details.)

RECIPE

Vegetarian Daikon Rice Cakes
Luobo Gao

Serves 6 to 8 as a snack or side dish

Dumpling
9 ounces (2 cups) regular rice flour, preferably a Thai brand, such as Erawan
1 ounce (scant ¼ cup) wheat starch
1 teaspoon and 1/4 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
1 pound daikon radish
4 large dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated in 1 1/4 cups of water, stemmed and finely chopped
1 tablespoon canola or peanut oil
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon light (regular) soy sauce
2 scallions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (stems and leaves)

Canola oil, for panfrying
Light (regular) soy sauce
Chile Garlic Sauce, homemade or storebought

1. Combine the rice flour, wheat starch, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper in a large bowl and set aside near the stove.

2. Peel the daikon and grate it through the small holes of your grater onto a nonterry kitchen towel. Or, use the smallest shredder blade on your food processor and transfer to a nonterry kitchen towel. Bring together the ends of the cloth and twist to squeeze out as much of the liquid as possible into the measuring cup. Transfer the daikon to a medium pot.

3. Remove the mushrooms from their soaking liquid. Measure out 3/4 cup of the liquid and add it to the daikon juices. Add enough water to the daikon juice and mushroom soaking liquid to make 3½ cups. Add this liquid to the daikon in the pot. Set aside.

4. Trim away the mushroom stems and then finely chopped the caps. You should have about 3/4 cup. Set aside.

5. Heat up the 1 tablespoon of oil in a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add the mushroom, stirring, for about 45 seconds until aromatic. Sprinkle in the 1/4 teaspoons salt, sugar, and soy sauce. Cook, for about 2 minutes, until there is little liquid remaining and the mushroom is sizzling a bit. Add the scallion and cilantro, cook for about 30 seconds more to develop the flavor, then remove from the heat. Set aside.

6. Bring the pot of daikon to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to simmer. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Add the mushroom mixture and let simmer for another 5 minutes. Remove from the heat. Whisk in rice flour in 4 batches, doing your best to incorporate the flour to avoid large lumps. In the final addition of flour, switch to a wooden spoon as the batter will stiff and thick (you can stick a spoon into the pot).

7. Oil a high sided, 9-inch wide round cake pan. Add the dumpling batter, spreading it out to fill the pan. Smooth out the top with a spatula, dipping it into water, as needed.

8. Steam over boiling water for 40 to 60 minutes, replenishing the water as necessary. The radish cake is done with a toothpick inserted comes out relatively clean. Cool on a rack completely before using.

9. To unmold the daikon radish cake, run a knife around the edge and then cut a small piece. Wedge a dinner knife of spatula into the cake and then lift it up from the pan. The first piece and cut is the hardest. Beyond that, it’s easy and the cake should lift off the pan without a hitch.

10. You can eat the radish cake as is, but I love to panfry pieces of it. Cut the cake anyway you want, into thick slices like 1/2-inch thick dominos, 1-inch cubes, whatever. (You can refrigerate the cake, up to a week, slicing and frying right before eating.)

11. To panfry, coat a large skillet with oil and heat over medium-high heat. Add the radish cake slices, with one their large flat sides down. Let them fry, undisturbed, for about 4 minutes, until crisp and golden brown. They’ll stick at first but will eventually release. Turn them over to brown the other sides. Serve hot with a soy sauce and chile garlic sauce.

Chinese Daikon Radish Cakes Recipe (Luo Bo Gao)

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Thanks to Wai Chu’s recipe in The Dumpling cookbook, I’ve now gotten my fix of daikon radish cakes. If you’re unfamiliar with luóbo gāo (lok bok gow in Cantonese, 蘿蔔糕) they’re a mainstay on Cantonese dim sum menus. Recall the crisp seared pieces of slightly soft whitish cakes that look like a deck of playing cards but don’t taste like them whatsoever. That’s what these are. The ones at dim sum rarely are cooked as crisp as I like them. The crispier they’re fried, the better the contrast between the exterior and interior.

Whenever I make daikon radish cakes at home, I’m guaranteed of a nice supply of the cake to fry up whenever I please. The cake, which is first steamed and then fried, keeps in the fridge for about a week. Once you’ve made daikon radish cakes yourself, you’ll also look at the ones at dim sum houses with new eyes! I can eat luóbo gāo (“lu-oh bu-oh gow”) all year long, but Wai and his co-author Connie Lovatt slotted it in October in The Dumpling cookbook, which I reviewed last week. I don’t know if that’s why I was jonesing for the cakes but now I have them! They’re also a favorite during Chinese New Year time so I’ll be making the again come February when Lunar New Year falls on Valentine’s Day.

Book Review: The Dumpling – A Seasonal Guide

Books

When I was in New York last week, I had the great pleasure to meet and work with Wai Hon Chu, the co-author of The Dumpling (William Morrow, 2009). I’d heard about Wai’s book last year and was eager to find out what his international coverage of dumplings would be like. I’m always looking for good resources to add to my library and culinary understanding. Turns out that Wai often teaches classes and assists at the Bowery Whole Foods Culinary Center in New York – where I taught last Saturday, October 31. So in between prepping and conducting the class, we geeked out on dumplings, discussing technique, ingredients and the writing process.

Wai and his writing partner, Connie Lovatt, worked many years on this collection that spans the globe to capture the world of dumplings. It was a difficult task as they had to come up with cohesive definition of dumpling. For my Asian Dumplings cookbook, I spent a fair time researching and defining Asia and Asian dumplings, but how do you unify Alsatian matzo balls and Nigerian moyin moyin with Japanese mochi, Korean mandu, and Tibetan momos? Wai flipped his book over and pointed to the back of the jacket to this definition:

DIY Asian Wooden Dowel Rolling Pin

Cooking Equipment, Cooking Tips & Tricks

If you’re going to embark on making Asian dumplings, one of the most important tools to have is a skinny light rolling pin. Don’t think you can use a regular Western pastry rolling pin to roll out dumpling wrappers for Japanese gyoza, Shanghai soup dumplings, Tibetan momos and Indian samosas. It’s really cumbersome to use a large rolling pin to individually form thin 3 inch round wrappers. Take a look at the video for how to roll out Asian dumpling wrappers to see the skinny rolling pin in action. The Asian rolling pins are nothing but a 12-inch length of wooden dowel. They’re sold at many Chinese house ware and restaurant supply shops for about $3 each. But you don’t need to venture to one of those shops to get one. Make the rolling pin yourself.