Dong-Po Pork (東坡肉)

This is quite a famous dish, and a delicacy, because it was an invention and a legacy from a dear beloved writer, poet, and statesman in the 11th Century (the Song Dynasty).  If you ever visit 杭州 , or its not-too-distant neighboring city, Shanghai, it's likely that you might be treated with this dish, with much fanfare :-).  For the longest time, I've been hesitant to try my hands on this dish, because it is considered slightly unhealthy, in modern standard, due to its much celebrated and well cooked pork fat.  That problem is partially eliminated in this recipe.  Now, it's well worth a try!  It tastes as good as, if not better than, the original version, I believe.

1. Get a hunk (~2.5 lbs) of Hind Leg Lean Pork with Skin (帶皮後腿肉).  Blanch all sides in boiling water (in a 10-12" pot) for 2-3 minutes.  Note- We use Lean Pork instead of the commonly used Pork Belly here.  The only fat left in this recipe is under the skin, which can be easily separated out, if desired.
2. Cut off the uneven meat from the non-skin sides, to shape the meat into a well-formed rectangular block.  Let the meat block sit skin-side-down, and further cut the block into roughly 2.5" - 3" cubes.  (Please cut with care, as the skin side might be a bit shifty with the skin and fat.)
3. (Very Low Heat) Use a frying pan under very low heat.  Add 2-3 Tbsp of Vegetable Oil, 2-3 Tbsp of Rock Sugar (冰糖) and 2-3 Tbsp of Brown Sugar (or 5-6 Tbsp of Brown Sugar if you don't have rock sugar).  When the sugar is partially dissolved, place the meat cubes skin-side-down on the pan, cook until the skin absorbs the sugar color (for 4-5 minute).  Shift the cubes from time to time, to make sure the skin is not burnt.  
4. Use a smaller 8"-10" pot next.  Add 2 stalks of green onions (cut into long segments), 4-6 pieces of ginger into the pot.  Add 3 Tbsp of Soy Sauce, 1 Tbsp of Dark Soy Sauce,  3 Tbsp Yellow-Rice-Cooking-Wine (绍興酒), 1/2 tsp of Salt, 1 tsp of sugar, into the pot.  Pour what is left in the frying pan (from Step 3) into the pot as well.  Add a cup of water into the pot.
5. Now, place the meat cubes skin-side-down into the pot.  Fill the empty space on the side of the pot with the meat that was shaved off from Step 2 (to prevent the cubes from being moved around during the cooking process).  Add water to immerse the meat cubes to 70-80% of its height.  
6. Bring the pot to boil and let simmer at very low heat for 1.5 hours.  Use chopsticks to shift the cubes slightly every 30 minutes, to make sure the skin is not stuck to the pot bottom. 
7. Place the meat cubes in a serving plate with skin-side-up, then place the plate into a steamer.  Steam for an hour.  Note- To simplify the procedure, I cooked the cubes in the pot (in Step 6) for 2.5 hours, without steaming.  By then, the pork has turned into pulled-pork.  So, carefully remove the cubes out and line them up in a plate, skin-side-up.  One or two pieces of the skin might have been separated from the meat.  Place the skin back on top of the meat cube (for presentation purpose :-).
8. Pour some of the juice left in the cooking pot from Step 6 over the cubes.  Garnish with your favorite leafy vegetable on the side, and serve.  The finished product (without garnish) is shown below.
   

Scallion Pancake (蔥油餅)

This is something I learned to make from my parents when I was young.  My own kids in turn learned how to make this when they were little.  It's a great family activity! Note- Part 3 (pancake filling) is the key to make the pancakes crispy and layered. 

1. Place 4 cups of all purpose flour in a large mixing bowl. Stir in 1.5 cups of hot water (~200-deg-F, hissing but not boiling yet) gradually with a pair of chopsticks, then stir in 0.5 cup of room temperature water, and 0.4 cup of vegetable oil. Knead the dough in the mixing bowl till its surface is smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic and let it sit for 30 minutes.  Note- We used the KitchenAid Mixer with a dough hook at its lowest speed to knead the dough till it surface is smooth, for 6-7 minutes (stopped every couple of minutes to scrape the dough off of the hook, and started kneading again).  Note- This is exactly the same as the dough used in Beef Xian Bing.  The dough left from making Beef Xian Bing can be used to make Scallion Pancake.  Forgo the 0.4 cup of oil, when making a dough from scratch.
2. Place the dough on a flour-dusted kneading board, cut the dough in half. Work on one half of the dough first, by cutting it into 6 roughly even parts (doses). Each dose needs to be rolled into a round-shaped skin that is 6-8" in diameter (see leftmost picture below). Note- If we roll the rolling pin along the edge of the skin with one hand in an up-and-down motion, while turning the dose in counter-clockwise motion with the other hand handling the dose with the thumb on top and the other 4 fingers underneath, we can roll the dose into a round in 15-20 seconds. It takes some practice, but quite doable.
3. Pancake Filling: Place ~120g of finely chopped green onion in a small mixing bowl, add 3/4 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of white pepper, 1/2 tsp of five-spices, 1/2 cup of general purpose flour, stir and mix evenly. Now heat 1/2 cup of vegetable oil in a pan till hot (but below smoke point, remove pan when smoke shows!). Slowly pour the hot oil into the mixing bowl. Stir and mix evenly. Now we have the pancake filling. 
4. Spoon 1/12 of the pancake filling on the rolled skin and spread as evenly as possible (with finger, see middle picture below). Roll it up, while pressing both ends tightly and pulling both ends out as we roll (similar to the techniques used in Step 3 of the Sesame-Paste Biscuit, to create a longer roll).   Twist and spiral up the long roll as shown in the rightmost picture.  
   
5. Press the spiral from  top down with your hand, and continue to press with the fingertips of both hands, to flatten the spiral and to form a 6" pancake (~1/4" thick).  Note- Use a rolling pin instead of both hands could work as well, but a rolling pin could easily squeeze the oil out of the now puffy soon-to-be-a-pancake spiral. 
6. (Low-to-Medium Heat) In a 10-12" frying pan, heat 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil, Place two pancakes side-by-side in the pan (cover the lid).  Cook until the surface is golden, slightly brown (~3 minutes).  Flip and cook till the other side is golden-brown. The finished product is shown below. Note- Preserve the uncooked pancakes for longer period (weeks), by laying each one flat on baking pan over parchment paper and a layer of sprinkled flour powder, placing the pan in freezer until the pancakes are solidly frozen, and collecting them into freezer bags by separating each one with parchment paper. 
   
    

Beef Xian Bing (牛肉餡餅)

This is quite a delicacy!  Not a whole lot of Noodle-House-type restaurants can make it well, even if they have it on the menu.  We found it hard to translate the name Xian Bing into English, because it has no proper counterpart in the Western world.  It's somewhat comparable to meat pie or calzone, only different, in size, filling, skin, and cooking method.  It can be described as wrapping a blob of ground beef inside soft flour skin, reminding us of Xiao Lung Bao (小籠包), only different.  As a result, we use transliteration for the name.  This is our favorite flour-based food, simply because the taste is quite pleasing and satisfying, the flour skin soft, the filling juicy.... the epitome of fine Chinese food :-).  BTW, it is often served with the Hot and Sour Soup (酸辣湯) we posted earlier.

I. The ground beef filling

1. Place about 1.5 lbs of 80-85% lean ground beef in a large mixing bowl.  Note- Costco's 88% lean ground beef in large packs works well. But the package might be too big.  Alternatively, mix regular ground beef (70% lean), with freshly-grounded beef flank (炒牛肉), in equal parts.
2. Add 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce, 2 Tbsp Sesame Oil, 1 Tbsp Cooking Wine and 1 tsp salt.  Use a pair of chopsticks to stir in clockwise circular motion (one direction only), while gradually adding in 3/4 cup of chicken broth (or water). Continue to stir in the same clockwise direction till the liquid is thoroughly absorbed into the ground beef, with no trace of water in the ground beef.  Note- It's hard to do "season to taste" with raw meat.  The seasoning here is on the light side, which can be compensated by the dipping sauce when Xian Bing is served (see Part IV, Step 3).  Or, add 1 Tbsp of soy sauce and 1/2 tsp of salt.  
3. Chop 1.5 medium-sized onions and 1.5 bunches (6-8 stalks) of green onion (scallion), and add into the mixing bowl.  Add 1/2 tsp white pepper (or black pepper) and mix thoroughly. 
4. Cover the mixing bowl and let chill in the fridge for an hour or two. 

II. The dough and the flour skin

1. Place 4 cups of all purpose flour in another large mixing bowl.  Stir in 1.25 cups of hot water (~200-deg-F, hissing but not boiling yet) gradually with a pair of chopsticks, then stir in 0.25 cup of room temperature water, and 0.25 cup of vegetable oil gradually.  While adding water and oil gradually, stir the flour mix with a pair of chopsticks until the flour is mostly bunched together (this is when we stop adding more water and oil).  Knead the dough in the mixing bowl till its surface is smooth.  Wrap the dough in plastic and let it sit for 30 minutes.  Note- We used the KitchenAid Mixer with a dough hook at its lowest speed to knead the dough till it surface is smooth, for 6-7 minutes (stopped every couple of minutes to scrape the dough off of the hook, and started kneading again).
2. Place the dough on a flour-dusted kneading board, cut the dough in half.  Work on one half of the dough first, by cutting it into 10 roughly even parts (doses).  Each dose needs to be rolled into a round-shaped skin that is 5-6" in diameter.  Note- If we roll the rolling pin along the edge of the skin with one hand in an up-and-down motion, while turning the dose in counter-clockwise motion with the other hand handling the  dose with the thumb on top and the other 4 fingers underneath, we can roll the dose into a round in 15-20 seconds.  It takes some practice, but quite doable.

III. Wrapping the filling inside the skin

1. Place a large blob of filling in the center of the flour skin (large enough to cover at least 60-75% of the surface).  A good xian bing should have thin skin and a lot of meat filling.  Since there is large amount of water in the filling, once cooked, it will shrink.  So, you should try to put as much filling as you can.
2. Use one hand to cradle the filling-covered-skin, and use the thumb and forefinger of the other hand to pull the skin up from the edge and pinch the edge tightly together one small portion of the circumference a time.  Continue to pull the skin up and pinch the edge together, to form a good 15-20 wrinkles into the center.  At the end, tightly pinch and squeeze all the wrinkles together and twist in counter-clockwise motion (to seal the fillings into a water-proof pocket).  Place the wrapped Xian Bing wrinkle-side-down on a flour-dusted non-stick baking pan. See picture below for 10 pieces of Xian Bing, made out of half of the dough.  Note- This part is similar to the making of Xiao Lung Bao (小籠包).  It takes some practice to make the pocket tightly sealed without leaking fluid while cooking.  The finished Xian Bing can be frozen and kept for weeks. 
   

IV. Cooking the Xian Bing

1. (Medium Heat) Heat 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil in a 10-12" frying pan.  Place 4-6 Xian Bing in the pan with the wrinkles facing down.  Cook till the surface is golden, but not brown (2 -3 minutes).  Flip the Xian Bing and cook till the surface is golden (but not brown).  Flip the Xian Bing back to wrinkle-side-down position.  This step hardens the surface of the Xian Bing. so it could withstand the water-based frying (水煎) in the next step.  When you flip the Xian Bings, use a thin spatula and be careful not to poke the skin on the side.
2. (Low-to-Medium Heat) Prepare half a cup of water in a measuring cup. Add about 1/4 cup (i.e., 4 Tbsp) of the water into the pan and shake the pan slightly to get the water underneath the Xian Bing.  Cover the pan and let cook till the water evaporates (for ~3 minutes).  Repeat the process again, and the surface of the Xian Bing should be golden brown.  Flip it and cook the other side for ~3 minutes 
3. Serve the Xian Bing with a dipping sauce, a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, minced garlic, vinegar, and the optional hot red pepper sauce (辣豆瓣). The finished product is shown below.