Magical mystery treat of the cold North

I dare you to guess what this recipe is for just from the photo on the left. It took me a long time to first figure out what they were, then to nail down where they came from, and then finally to ferret out how they were made.

But here's a hint: Few people would think of oats when they consider the foods of the cold Chinese north, but in the region between northern Hebei and Shanxi and then up north into Inner Mongolia, the flour from oat groats (youmian) is turned into some very interesting things.

Take this bread-like creation, for example. It is visually spectacular, with tiny rolls of the oat dough clustered together in a steamer basket. They look just like a honeycomb or wasp’s nest. But looks aside, these are also quite tasty.

Sweet & nutty cylinders

This area of China has historically been rather poor, and so the humble oat is sometimes called upon to lend substantial cheer to a relatively empty table. 

I was astounded, though, by how utterly delicious and satisfying a simple meal of these rolls are when accompanied by nothing more than some julienned cucumbers and a bowl of chili oil (this recipe is strongly recommended here).  

Honeycomb rolls also are the perfect accompaniment to lamb soup; simply dunk the rolls in the soup as you go or drop one into the soup before scooping it up with some meat and broth. Since there is no gluten in oat groats, they will crumble into mush if left to their own devices in the hot soup, so drop in one at a time.

Preparing oat groats this way is called “thrice cooked” (三熟 sānshóu), as they are first toasted, then blanched, and then finally steamed. The toasting brings out their sweetness, and as you dry-fry them in a wok, they will swell and gently pop, sort of like popcorn. 

Raw oat groats

The directions take longer to read than actually making the rolls, especially once you get the hang of it. I use two 6-inch wide dim sum steamer baskets made out of bamboo; the honeycomb rolls fit perfectly in there and also look gorgeous.

Oat honeycomb rolls

Yóumiàn tuīwōwō 莜麵推窩窩 or Kǎolǎolǎo 栲栳栳

Shanxi, Mongolia
Serves 4 to 6

2 cups organic oat groats (see Tips)

1¾ cups boiling filtered water

1. Place the oat groats in a dry wok and toast them over medium-high heat, stirring them with a wok spatula, until they start to pop and are gently toasted. Pour the toasted groats into a mixing bowl and let them cool down to room temperature.

2. Grind the groats in a blender or food processor until very fine; do this in two or more batches if necessary. Put the groat flour into a heatproof bowl and stir in the boiling water. When a dough has formed, knead it on a smooth surface until it becomes smooth.

Toast the groats

3. Next, form the little rolls. Break off bits of dough to form balls about an inch across. Cover any dough you are not working on with a damp towel or some plastic wrap. Have two small dim sum steamer baskets ready. Working on one piece at a time, roll these balls into cigar shapes and then use a rolling pin to roll them out to an approximately 6 x 2 inch rectangle. Cut the rectangle in half lengthwise (giving you two strips about 6 x 1 inch in size). Roll each strip up into a cylinder and place them cut-side down in the steamer basket. Fit the rolls right next to each other, as they will not expand as they steam. Repeat with the rest of the dough until all of it has been shaped and packed into the steamers (see Tips).

4. Stack and cover the steamer baskets and place them on a saucepan filled with a couple inches of water. Steam the honeycomb rolls for about 15 minutes and serve immediately.

Tips

The four shaping stages

Oat groats are not the same as oatmeal. They are oat berries and can be found in health food stores or online.

The rolls can be fitted fairly tightly in the steamer baskets since there is no leavening and so the rolls will not swell up. However, these rolls will stick to each other as they cool off, so I usually serve one basket at a time and keep the other one covered and slowly steaming. 

If you have any leftover dough, form these into little “fish” that can also be steamed: cut the dough into thin 3-inch strips and then roll them so that the middle is fat and the ends are tapered. Steam these just like the honeycomb rolls.

Putting the tsal in salsa

Momo and buuz are two very, very iconic dishes of (respectively) Tibet and Mongolia. No discussion of China's many cuisines would be complete without including both a mention and a recipe.

That being said, the following recipe is a bit of a change-up on these traditions. This all started when I was reading the food memoirs of the wonderful writer Liu Zhenwei and came across his discussion of shumai in a chapter on Inner Mongolia. 

Mr. Liu noted that the restaurants “Gufengxuan and Maixiangcun in Guisui, Suiyuan [part of present-day Inner Mongolia] are without a doubt number one in the world... the shumai of Guisui in fact have fillings of beef and lamb, with the addition of mushrooms, large scallions, and minced ginger.”

Now, that might already sound pretty good, but there’s nothing particularly innovative there, no ingredients that make the imagination go wild. But read on: “The skins used to wrap the ‘shumai’… are rolled out extremely thin, and after they have been steamed, they appear translucent, reflecting the brown of the filling, with a circle of white folds on top.”

Tibetan salsa!

These shumai have skins therefore that are much more elegant than what we have become accustomed to seeing on momo, buuz, and the shumai of the rest of China. (If you would like to make the traditional momo and buuz that are much heftier and more filling, see the Variations at the end of this recipe.)

And so I went to work trying to re-create these delicate steamed packets of long ago. In the process of fooling around with my food (a practice I heartily endorse), I used hot stock instead of cool or warm water to make the wrappers. 

The results are ethereal.

One more thing: I became excited all over again when I started putting two and two together and came up with eight. The reason? Tibetans make a dipping sauce out of tomatoes, fresh chilies, green onions, garlic, salt, and cilantro. To a dyed-in-the-wool Californian, that was nothing less than a recipe for salsa. 

And the Tibetan name for this salsa? Tsal.

Go figure.

Steamed lamb or beef dumplings

Momo and Buuz

Tibet, Mongolia
Makes 36 dumplings and serves 3 to 4

Filling:

1 pound ground lamb (or beef), preferably at least 20% fat

1 tablespoon finely minced ginger

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

5 green onions, trimmed and finely minced

¼ cup finely chopped celery

¼ cup finely chopped cilantro

3 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil

2 tablespoons unsalted stock

2 teaspoons sea salt

4 large mushrooms, finely chopped

2 teaspoons cornstarch

 

The delicate variation on a theme

Dough:

1½ cups Korean or Chinese noodle (high gluten) flour, plus extra flour as needed

5 tablespoons boiling hot, unsalted chicken stock, strained

Tibetan salsa (tsal):

3 or 4 ripe red tomatoes

1 fresh red chili pepper (as hot as you like), finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

2 green onions, trimmed and finely chopped

¼ teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon fresh peanut or vegetable oil

Small bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped

1. Start this recipe at least 4 hours before you want to serve it to give the filling time to chill. Mix together the filling ingredients and stir them rapidly in one direction until they are light and fluffy. Cover the container and refrigerate.

2. While the filling is getting cold, make the dough by placing the flour in a medium work bowl; use chopsticks to mix in the boiling chicken stock. As soon as it forms clumps, empty the dough out onto a smooth surface and knead it until it is smooth and bouncy, only adding flour if it is truly necessary, although the dough should not stick to your hands or the board. Cover the dough and let it rest for at least 20 minutes.

3. Next, make the salsa by chopping the tomatoes into ½-inch dice. Place these in a small work bowl. Add the chili pepper, garlic, green onions, salt, and oil. Toss the salsa, cover, and refrigerate until serving time, and then stir in the chopped cilantro; taste and adjust the seasoning.

4. Roll the dough out into a rope 36 inches long and cut the dough into 36 even pieces. Toss these lightly with flour and then roll each piece out into a circle about 3 inches wide. Divide the filling into 36 pieces and add one piece to the center of the circle. Gather the edges up in a frill so that the dough is puckered and pressed together over the top of the filling in a curved seam. Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling until done.

5. Grease 2 steamer baskets and place them over boiling water for around 5 minutes to warm them up. Arrange as many shumai in the baskets as fit comfortably without touching, stack and cover the baskets, and steam them for around 15 minutes. (Do this in two batches, if necessary.) Serve immediately with dark vinegar for dipping.

Variations:

Triangular momos

Momo. To make momo, double the amount of flour and add enough warm filtered water to form a soft dough. Knead and let it rest, and then cut the dough into 36 pieces. Roll each piece out into a circle about 3 inches wide, and then form a triangular packet by bringing the edges at 0°, 120°, and 240° together in the center and then sealing the seams (see the photo to the right). Steam as directed above and serve with the sauce.

Buuz. To make buuz, double the amount of flour and add enough warm filtered water to form a soft dough. Knead and let it rest, and then cut the dough into 36 pieces. Roll each piece out into a circle about 3 inches wide, and then make an oval packet by pinching the top seam together in a braid pattern. Steam as directed above and serve without a sauce.

Fried cookie twists courtesy of Mongolia

If you wanted proof positive that Mongolia’s cuisine has direct links with India and the Middle East, check out this recipe. 

Fried cookies seem to be beloved in many parts of the world, but these lightly sweetened cookies called boortsog are often served with honey and cheese, which puts them firmly in the Silk Road camp.

Of course, you don’t need to enjoy these alongside honey and some fresh farmer’s cheese, but it certainly doesn't hurt. Neither does a nice cup of hot black tea or, even better, some Butter Tea.

I have sprinkled these with some powdered sugar, which definitely is not traditional, but this highlights the beautiful twists in the cookies so well that I never can resist.

Fried butter cookies
Boortsog

Mongolia
Makes enough for at least 20 people

Lightly crunchy, not too sweet

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

¾ cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup cool filtered water

About 4½ cups regular Korean or Chinese flour

Fresh peanut or vegetable oil for frying

Powdered sugar, optional

1. In a medium work bowl, mix the sugar, salt, and water with the melted butter. Stir in 4 cups of flour to form a soft dough. Sprinkle ½ cup flour on a smooth surface and knead the dough until smooth, adding more flour as needed to keep it from sticking. Cover the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes.

2. Divide the dough into 4 pieces and work on one piece at a time; cover whatever dough you are not immediately working on. Roll a piece of dough out to around ¼ inch in thickness.  Use a pizza or ravioli cutter, or even a knife, to cut the dough into strips about 1 inch wide. Then, trim the ends of the strips and cut these into pieces that are more or less 3 inches long.

Slit open, twist once, then once again

3. To shape the cookies, use a small knife to cut a slit down the middle of the strip of dough, stopping about ½ inch from either end. Gently insert one end of the dough through the slit 2 times, which will make the long edges twist (see photo on the right). Repeat with the rest of the dough until all have been shaped.

4. Pour enough fresh oil into a wok or saucepan to give you a depth of at least 3 inches. Heat the oil over medium-high until a chopstick inserted in the oil is covered with bubbles (275°F). While the oil is heating up, cover a baking sheet with a couple of paper towels, have some chopsticks ready to pick the cookies out of the hot oil, a large platter for the finished cookies. If you want to sprinkle powdered sugar on the hot cookies, have a small sieve, a spoon, and the powdered sugar ready.

Fried to a golden brown

5. Carefully add only a few cookies at a time to the hot oil, and then do not stir them around for at least 20 seconds so that they keep their shape. Then, use your chopsticks to gently move them in the oil to keep them from sticking. As soon as they are a medium brown, use your chopsticks to pluck them out of the oil, and then place them on the paper towels to drain. Place them on the plate and sprinkle with powdered sugar, if you want. Repeat with the rest of the cookies until all have been fried, adjusting the heat as necessary to keep them from burning.

6. Cool the cookies to room temperature and store in an airtight container.

The butter tea of Tibet & Mongolia

This is very much like the tea that is enjoyed in Tibet’s high altitudes and on Mongolia’s frigid steppes. (Sorry, couldn't find any yak or horse milk at Whole Foods.) 

Fat is both a necessity and a pleasure in both Tibet and Mongolia because of the cold, which is one of the reasons why butter is floated on the top of the local milk tea.

To take the place of some of that butter, I use whole cream instead of milk, and this way the fat does not separate. I then add just a little touch of butter's extra salty goodness since I live in sunny California and know that I really do not need another helping of fat in my diet. However, nothing beats the taste of premium butter, so I use one of my favorite brands to lend the tea that requisite zing. 

If you would prefer to have more of a “barny” taste here, try using whole goat milk and a good helping of goat butter. 

I tend to put more tea leaves in the brew—around 6 tablespoons—because I enjoy a really bitter edge. However, the amount of tea, water, butter, and cream you use is, of course, a matter of tasting and adjusting the amounts until you hit that sweet spot. And speaking of sweet, you can sneak in a bit of sugar to your cup if you have a sweet tooth; it’s not kosher, but if no one is looking…

Tea with boortsog (next recipe)

In Tibet, this tea is usually foamed up with a churn, much like the Mexican molinillo that is used to make hot chocolate, while in Mongolia the milk is foamed by repeatedly lifting up ladlefuls high over the pan and pouring it back in. This is pretty much the same concept as India’s “pulled tea” (teh tarik), where it is poured back and forth between two containers.

I've found that I can go high tech with a blender, though, and have a hot cup of butter tea with no muss, no fuss.

The butter tea of Tibet & Mongolia
Boeja and Suutei tsai

Tibet, Mongolia
Makes about 6 cups 

¼ cup (or so) Chinese fermented compressed tea (pŭ’ěr 普洱 or tuóchá 沱茶), broken up into smallish pieces
6 cups freshly-boiled filtered water, plus extra as needed
1 tablespoon to ¼ cup best quality salted butter

A pinch of sea salt

1 cup heavy organic cream

1. Place the tea in a saucepan, cover it with boiling water, and let it soak for about 3 minutes to loosen up the tea leaves; strain out and discard the water. Cover the tea leaves with 5 cups boiling water, bring the tea to boil, and then lower the heat to a simmer. After about 10 minutes, strain the tea into a blender.

2. Cut the butter into small pieces and add it to the tea along with the salt and cream. Blend the tea, starting on low and gradually increasing the speed to high in order to make the tea foam. Serve the tea in small bowls, preferably wooden. 

Tuocha and pu'er

Tips

Compressed tea can be found in Chinese tea shops and grocery stores. Pu'er (also sometimes written pu erh or pu ni) is usually fermented black tea, although sometimes you can find it in its green form, which is milder and equally delicious. Pu'er comes in flat discs, hard-edged bricks, and also crumbled up. Tuocha tends to be bowl-shaped. 

Both of these teas are aged, and the older they are, the more expensive they become.

I usually get the disc form which is easier to crack apart than the bricks, but I find the loose-leaf compressed teas lacking in flavor, so I never get those. I like to crumble up the tea myself and store it in a tin, which makes it more convenient to use. Keep this tea, as all teas, in a dry. airtight container.

Khan burgers

Mongolian cuisine is well-known for being about meat – lamb or mutton, to be more exact – and little else. And this makes a lot of sense when you are talking about cooking and eating on endless grassland surrounded by little more than a bunch of sheep. I mean, you eat what’s available.

But in the cities like the capital of Inner Mongolia – Hohhot – vegetables and seasonings are in readier supply, and so the foods there are much more refined and flavorful, as in this delicious dish. The traditional recipe for hushuur calls for a mere scattering of cilantro, but I've come to adore this with huge handfuls of both cilantro and parsley, as they fade into the background with their aromas, while lightening the meat and making it more supple and moist.

This recipe takes the idea of a hamburger and transforms it into something incredible. Instead of a thin patty that tastes of nothing but meh-quality meat, these are more like juicy meatballs lightened with big handfuls of cilantro and parsley, pan-fried until the exteriors are crispy and well browned, and then seasoned with a savory, slightly spicy sauce. It’s nothing short of a revelation.

Mix with your hand!

Soy sauce and other seasonings are added to the ground lamb, too, which then leak out into the pan as the meat fries, and then even more flavors are tossed in to the gutsy sauce. I like to pour off most of the oil once the burgers have been browned, leaving the heavier juices still roaming around the bottom of the pan. The final addition of the stock can be used to deglaze the caramelized bits.

Hushuur is perfect over noodles or rice, but perhaps best when accompanied by a simple grilled bread that both soaks up the sauce and offers a quiet counterpart to all of the fireworks in this dish.

As with all Chinese ground meat dishes, this lamb benefits from being chopped up again, which makes the meat fluffier and helps it absorb the liquids better. Use a cleaver or heavy chef’s knife to whack away at the lamb until it has softened up, and then swirl it around in a work bowl, using the fingers of one hand as your personal spoon and spatula. Once you get used to mixing meats this way, it will be difficult to go back to clumsy utensils.

Mongolian fried lamb burgers with cilantro 
Hushuur

Mongolia
Serves 4 to 6

Lamb:

Pan-fry the burgers

1 pound ground lamb (see Tips)

2 green onions, trimmed and finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

2 tablespoons regular soy sauce

¼ cup rice wine or unsalted stock

2 teaspoons sugar

1 cup chopped cilantro

1 cup chopped parsley

Oil for frying

Sauce:

½ cup unsalted stock

1 teaspoon smoked paprika or mild ground chilies

Sea salt to taste

Garnish:

Chopped cilantro

1. Place the lamb on a chopping board and chop it again with a cleaver or heavy chef’s knife until it is light and fluffy. Use your blade to scrape all of the meat up and into a medium work bowl. Toss in the green onions, garlic, soy sauce, rice wine or stock, and sugar, and stir the meat around in one direction until the liquids have been incorporated. Pick up clumps of the meat and throw them back into the bowl to make the meat even more tensile. Once it looks fluffy again, stir the cilantro and parsley into the meat, again stirring in only one direction. (The lamb can be prepared ahead of time up to this point and refrigerated for no more than an hour; if it needs to sit longer than that, hold off on adding the onions, garlic, cilantro, and parsley until you are ready to cook the lamb.)

Smoked paprika becoming smoky

2. Divide the lamb into a dozen even pieces and roll them into balls. Flatten each one into a fat little burger. Place a large skillet over medium-high heat until it is nice and hot, and then film the bottom with a couple tablespoons of oil. As soon as the oil starts to shimmer, arrange the burgers in the skillet so that they do not touch each other. Fry them on one side until they are browned and then turn them over and brown the other side. Pour off most of the oil.

3. Add the remaining stock and paprika to the skillet, turn the heat up to high, and quickly reduce the stock to a syrupy sauce, turning the burgers over in the sauce. Serve the hushuur hot with an extra sprinkling of cilantro as garnish.

Tips

Use boneless lamb, if you prefer, and chop it finely yourself. Be sure to remove any tendons (silver skin) and large pieces of fat.

Adjust the seasonings and greens as you like. Use all parsley instead of cilantro, if you wish, or lots of green onions.