April 30, 2007

Thousands of tiny fragrant seeds

I love Sesame seeds. I use them in stir frys, in noodles, in oil and powdered form and in this instance; in a dessert~In Malaysia, It's referred to as "Kuih Bijan" in Malay and "ji mah Jou" in Cantonese. Growing up, we always had these luscious crisp balls of fragrant seeds bursting with yummy filling at 'dim sum' restaurants for brunch. It was mom and grandpa's favourite dessert; and we'd always have at least 2 servings of these delicious little devils! Now that I've learnt how to make it from scratch, I can't wait to get home and make them a homemade batch!
It's seriously not as complicated as we all assume 'dim sum' to be. It's just a matter of getting good with your fingers and being gentle with the rolling. Most places serve these with other delicious fillings such as lotus paste and ground peanuts; but the thought of red bean paste still gets my taste buds craving like there's no tomorrow. *MmMm* I salute the genius who once-upon-a-time decided it will be a brilliant idea to make delicious paste from mushed red beans and syrup. They now come vacuum packed in convenient little plastic packages; ready to be shaped, molded and even eaten with ice cream! Try your local Asian supermarket; you might need to ask for some assistance if you're unfamiliar, as most of the labels are written in Korean or Japanese.
Here's what I was up to this afternoon.

1/2 cup red bean paste (shape paste into 1-2 cm balls and place on a greaseproof paper; pop it in the freezer to harden while you make the dough)
1 cup glutinous rice flour
3/4 and a little more water

a pinch of salt
1/2 cup raw sesame seeds (not roasted)- they should be white
4 cups peanut oil


Mix flour, salt and water to create a wet but workable dough. Make 3-4 cm dough balls from this mixtures and leave to rest for 15 minutes. Press down with lightly floured thumbs to create a tiny disc bi enough to wrap around your red bean filling. Wrap the white dough thoroughly around the red bean and re-roll to create a ball. Coat the ball with sesame seeds and repeat with other portions. Heat oil in a deep wok on high heat, when oil is sizzling, reduce heat to medium and drop in the sesame coated balls in batches of 3-4. Make sure they are thoroughly covered with hot oil. Move them around gently to allow them to cook evenly. They should float to the surface and be golden and slightly puffed when ready. Scoop out and drain on paper towels. Repeat with second batch.
They are best eaten piping hot!

I made at least 2 batches of 10...and none of the batches sat on the kitchen table top for over 10 minutes! *sigh* If it wasn't deep fried, I'd make it more often.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey ^^ ur r great girl really.. so sweet of u ^.~ i like cake u make

Anonymous said...

Oh wow, my my.... looks good!

merakli said...

I like this blog! Everything looks delicious :)

marias23 said...

O. M. G. That looks so good! I even like those puffy sesame rice balls without any filling! If I wasn't so deathly terrified of hot oil, I would try making it myself too!

Brilynn said...

I love these but have never made them myself, yours look sooo good!

Anonymous said...

I'm not an avid fan of sesame seeds but I never hesitate to order this dessert in Chinese restaurants. Their buchi is usually filled with mung beans but your red bean paste looks better. I've always wanted to know how to cook them.

Anonymous said...

any idea how to make the big ones with no fillings ^_^

Anonymous said...

Hey...nice blog u have here...love some of the receipe that u have.I'm a food craze myself and I have been trying different receipe as well.

Here is one receipe for u that u might like it...:p

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Galaktoboureko/Detail.aspx

Its a traditional greek dessert. Supremely nice and easy to make.100% working receipe. A good idea to decrease the amount of custard for optimum texture.

Add me on msn messenger if you dun mind having another fren with a same interest.(cheachinfatt@hotmail.com)

Cheers,
chinfatt

jerald pince said...

wah!a cookin blog!man,its interesting.and whered u get all these recipes?urself?books?

geez.im linkin this blog to mine!

Su-Yin -Décorateur said...

:) thanks guys...

snow: hmm...I have no idea...but im guessing the same thing just without wrapping the flling? just rolling them into balls? Haha..that was a long shot...i'll try to find out for you :)

chinfatt: hmm..thanks lots for the link; might try it soon~ you can add me on msn on: huensuyin@hotmail.com

jerald: aww..thanks :) I usually get them from magazines, articles i read online...*shrug* sometimes just from playing with leftovers in the fridge~ would love to hear more from you. Cool blog :)