Lockdown Day 51: Dim Sum Time! Learning a new technique making daikon radish pastries 萝卜丝饼

I woke up this morning to my friend messaging me, telling me that she was suddenly able to place an order on McDonald’s (her first time in two months!), and asking if I wanted one of their set meals. See, the minimum order quantity in Shanghai now is three set meals per order, and there is only one set meal available to order! Fittingly, it is called the jiayou set menu 加油餐, jiayou basically meaning “you got this!” It’s composed of a Spicy Crispy Chicken sandwich, 5 piece McNuggets, 2 piece fried chicken wings, a medium coke, and a taro pie. That’s a lot of food! Each set costs 55 RMB (US$8.30), with a delivery fee of 9 CNY (US$1.30) for the three sets. So, not a bad value, but I turned down the offer. I had a full day of cooking ahead!

I was going to prepare dim sum for lunch, centering around daikon radish pastries luo bo si bing 萝卜丝饼, but the recipes I looked up both called for 2-3 hour dough resting times! So I changed my plans: I’d get started on the dough, but have buffulo wings for lunch, and then dim sum for dinner. I first had the last remaining bit of roasted sweet potato, for energy!

I followed this YouTube video for the dough and wrapping technique, because it looked so interesting. I’d never tried anything like this before.

First, I combined 500g all purpose flour, with 375g of water, and a sprinkling of salt.

Then I kneaded the dough on an oiled cutting board. The chef in the video instructed viewers to only knead in one direction. So when it gets long, fold up the ends, still longitudinally, and then keep rolling.

At the end, the dough was smooth-ish, and then this needs to sit for 10 minutes to rest. I think the video said the dough “awakens” during this time (but my understanding might be off).

After the resting/waking up time, I then rolled the ball out into a log, to cut into pieces. Now it’s looking very nice and smooth! I got 11 pieces out of my log, but I think I should have made 12 pieces, because some pieces were quite large.

Then the chef says to roll out the pieces into long tubes (flat ends, no pointy ends, advised the chef)…

…and then drop them into oil! Now the dough logs sit for 2-3 hours. Apparently the dough absorbs some of the oil during this time, and anyway the dough is completely covered in oil. This oil is what enables the lamination process.

So what did I do during my “break?”

Last night, I soaked my last chickpeas in the Xiaomi, and this morning I set them off cooking.

After a bit of trial and error, I think 20 minutes under pressure is the right amount of time for the Xiaomi, for soaked chickpeas.

Then I went about cutting up the whole chicken which we were given a couple weeks ago.

This is my fourth whole chicken during lockdown, and third with the head and feet still on. I think I’m getting faster and better at this with each try! The head was easier to manage this time, but I still struggle (and still am creeped out) with cutting off the feet.

I defrosted the chicken wings from the two previous small birds (i.e. the ones from the government, not the Tyson one from my friend), and roasted them.

And made into buffalo wings. I had lunch outside because it was a nice day. I accompanied lunch with the Coke Light which my friend had given me (she said she only drank Coke, not Coke Light).

Though these wings were from small birds, having 12 separate pieces, plus the skin from today’s chicken breasts, made for a filling meal. I just love buffalo wings.

As a side, I simply cut up one of the “fruit cucumbers” 水果黄瓜 and dressed it with olive oil and salt. My Spanish roommate and I often had such a meal: buffalo wings and a side of cucumber prepared just like this.

After lunch, my attention turned towards making the filling of the daikon radish pastries l

uo bo si bing 萝卜丝饼. I really wanted to use my green daikon radish that came in the delivery a few weeks ago. I’d never cooked with a green daikon before!

Here it is peeled.

I was disappointed the green part was only the outer edge. It was still white underneath!

All julienned up. On the right, you can see how deep (or shallow) the green edge is.

I followed the dough’s YouTube recipe with salting the daikon and squeezing out excess water after 10 minutes, added in cut Chinese sausage, and then as far as seasonings go, I followed the recipe of YouTuber Xiao Gaojie 小高姐 and added in 5-spice powder, white pepper, scallion over which I poured hot oil to bring out the flavor, oyster sauce, and a bit more salt.

Then it came time to fill the pastries.

First, I pushed the logs a bit flatter.

Then I used the rolling pin to roll out in one direction mainly.

Then I used my hand to stretch the dough out in the perpendicular direction, pulling it over the edge of the cutting board to help it stay in place. The chef said that only oil-soaked and rested dough can be rolled out and stretched so thin. I might guess that the resting part has to do with the gluten relaxing, but I’m not sure about the role of oil. But I can believe him, seeing how thin I was able to get the dough!

Then, I put some of the daikon filling on the big end of the dough…

…folded it over three times…

…and then by folding it up at a 45 degree angle, then down in a 90 degree angle, then up and down in a triangular way, the mixture got surrounded in a laminated dough. I used the end of the dough to make sure the whole thing was closed up.

And then of course there’s a break in programming to do the afternoon antigen test.

After I wrapped my 11 luo bo si bing, I fried them up, and also prepared the other items in my dim sum set. (The dipping sauce below is just Chinkiang vinegar and Tabasco)

I pan-fried a Chinese chive and egg pastry jiu cai he zi 韭菜盒子, which I’d kept in the freezer since last year. I’m surprised how it was in such good shape.

I steamed one of the glutinous rice shaomai from last week’s delivery. This was really good - not too heavy, and I loved the crunch from the marinated diced bamboo.

And then the star of the show, the luo bo si bing. These were not only pretty - notice the spiral pattern on top of the left one, and the bright green color of the filling - but also tasty. They didn’t have the bitterness that daikon sometimes has, and the spices were very warming. I loved that the daikon stayed crunchy. Also notice the lamination, especially on one side of the cut open one. The only drawback was that the dough was a bit too firm. I wonder if I cook it for less time or add a bit of water, like cooking potstickers, would help.

The scallions, by the way, came from the present my colleague gave me last weekend. They’ve done a really nice job growing in the past week. As have my carrot tops and celery base…

…and daikon top. Even the onion has tiny sprouts coming up, after many days of looking as if I should toss it.

This afternoon I also made chicken stock from the bones, and I also poached the chicken breasts in the liquid for more flavor.

With taking care of the chicken done, it was a good chance to get outside to take the trash out, and take a quick walk. I saw a lot of other people had the same idea - see the lady in the middle taking a stroll in her PJs.

After all of this work in the kitchen, my legs were so tired. I can’t imagine how exhausted chefs in a kitchen must be, being on their feet for even longer! I put my feet up and watched an episode of The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix.

I had a late snack of watermelon…

…and a midnight snack of seaweed peanuts.

And of course, my midnight antigen test. Entryway leader came around a bit earlier, well past 9pm though, with the special brand of antigen test to be used when antigen tests will be checked during PCR tests the following day. Sigh. Still with the PCR tests.