Bak kwa (take 2)

I attempted to make BW couple of years ago but it just didn't taste right. Tried this time but with 1kg of minced pork. Not quite there but it will do.

Adapted from:
http://www.malaysianchinesekitchen.com/bak-kwa-chinese-pork-jerky/ (ingredients)
http://mykitchen101en.com/homemade-bak-kwa-chinese-pork-jerky/ (method)

Ingredients
1 kg of minced pork (makes about 32 big 'regular' bak kwa rectangles, which I further cut into 4)
⅔ cup sugar + 1 tbsp
2 tbsp cooking wine
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp light soya sauce
½ tsp five spice powder

Method
1) Mix the ingredients. Using your hand or a stiff cooking implement (e.g. wooden spatula), mix well in 1 direction until it comes together and is slightly gluey and paler in colour.

2) Leave to marinade in the fridge for at least 4 hrs or overnight.
3) Take out a baking sheet or sheet pan (mine was 17" by 12".) Line with foil followed by parchment.
4) Place the meat and using a offset spatula, distribute it. Cover the top with cling film and using a rolling pin, press as flat as possible, at least 3mm thin or thinner if you can. My sheet pan was not large enough so I might need to transfer say 200g to another third sheet.

5) Bake at 120 deg C for 15 minutes. It would have shrunk and oozed oil. Slice up and flip over. Increase the temp to 220 deg C and bake on one side for 8 minutes before flipping and repeating.

6) Prior to serving, grill it for best effect.

Recipe feedback
Compared to the previous recipe, this one tastes ok but there's a strong piggy smell. It really helps to microwave 30s on each side before serving which makes it seem more like the caramelised taste of bak kwa and it has to be consumed hot. Texture however seems wrong, as the minced meat texture is quite obvious (lumpy) but it does make the bak kwa more tender. On balance, I think next time I'll use this recipe but the old method of baking at 150 deg C for 1 hour which dries it out better instead of having 2 sets of temperatures.

Hot water dumpling dough

I have been making bao dough and also dumpling dough but never thought twice about using cold versus boiling or hot water, until I read omnivorescookbook. https://omnivorescookbook.com/steamed-dumplings/

She's given a very compelling reason about the temperature of water and the effect on the different types of dough, so I thought I'd give it a try. And it really does work! My dough as so stretchy and easy to work with. I could roll it super transparent thin at the edges and it crimped beautifully and still didn't break!

Ingredients (for about 700g of meat with 300g of veg filling - I used only 2.5 cups which allows for about 500g meat + 200g veg filling.)
3 cups of flour
1 cup boiling water
¼ cup room temp water
1 tsbp of oil

Method
1) Create a well in the flour. Using chopsticks, stir to incorporate the flour from the sides of the well as your pour the boiling water into the centre of the well. Gather as much dough as possible.
2) Pour in the oil and continue to mix (she didn't do this but I find that oil really helps the elasticity and workability of the dough)
2) Pour the room temp water slowly along the sides of the bowl until the dough comes together in a shaggy mess. You may not need to use all the water or you might need more. The aim is to get all the dry bits of flour moistened and the dough should leave the bowl clean.
3) Invert onto a work surface lightly dusted with flour and give it a good kneading for 10 to 15 minutes until smooth. Form a ball.

Steamed

4) Oil the bowl and place the dough inside to rest. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth or cling film and leave to rest for 30 to 60 mins while you dice the vegs and combine with the marinated meat filling.

Pan fried with crispy bottoms

5) Roll out with thinner edges and for 4" discs, use about 1.5 tbsp filling; 3" discs need about slightly under 1 tbsp of filling. Crimp.
6) Follow the recipe as you would when making steamed or gyoza dumplings.

The leftover dough was rolled into spring onion pancake which uses the same hot water dough

Leftover dough becomes spring onion pancake

Oven 'fried' har cheong gai

Try 2
Decided to try a different recipe.
Recipe adapted from here: https://spicenpans.com/prawn-paste-wings/
- Key thing about this method is the use of corn flour and baking powder in the marinade.
- Coated in flour and left there to rest for 15 minutes.
- Air fry on a wire rack 15 minutes at 160 deg C to cook then flip and air fry further 5 minutes at 200 deg C.

Seeing some of my observations from Try 1, I decided to coat with tapioca starch. This recipe is also different to the DWG recipe which I tried here which used baking power and soda in the coating rather than the chicken marinade. I must say that it made no difference to the crunch factor whether it's used in the coating or in the marinade as the main differentiator was the tapioca flour.

Still pastey looking because of the dry flour but very tasty!

Ingredients (for 1.2 kg chicken wings, jointed)
2 tbsp prawn paste
0.5 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp cooking wine
2.5 tsp sugar
1 tbsp sesame seed oil
2.5 tbsp corn flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup tapioca starch

Method
1) Marinade with all the ingredients except the tapioca starch. Marinate for minute 20 minutes but best overnight.
2) Meanwhile, prepare the cookie sheet by lining with alum foil. Generously coat with oil.
3) Coat lightly with tapioca starch and place bone side up on the lined cookie sheet.
4) Leave to rest for 15 minutes. Spritz with oil.
5) Bake at 160 deg C for 15 minutes. Turn over to skin side and spritz chicken with oil. Turn up to 200 deg C and bake for a further 5 minutes.
6) Dislodge from alum foil and serve immediately.

Recipe feedback
- The original recipe was for 1 kg but I used 1.2kg of chicken and it was still a bit on the salty side! I wouldn't reduce anything though because the proportions are just right.
- This recipe has everything: rice wine, oyster sauce, sugar, and sesame seed oil and it tastes the best amongst all the recipes.
- 1 future try might be corn instead of tapioca flour with the baking powder and baking soda inside.

Try 1
I have tried tweaking this recipe and the oven baked chicken technique several times in the past: panko version which worked but course isn't traditional enough, and the original recipe which was modified from air frying technique. In terms of taste, neither recipe tasted authentic enough for my liking. I didn't know if it was the oyster sauce or the cooking wine or the proportions of either which were wrong.

After experimenting several different techniques and recipes and doing a side-by-side test, I think this recipe works the best. The key elements are:
1) Use egg wash to coat. I used to omit this step as I didn't bother blotting the chicken so I thought it would be wet enough but it turns out that the egg's protein is needed to set the starch and 'glue' it onto the chicken.
2) Must coat with tapioca starch and nothing else. Flour is too dense and produces a dense uncooked batter.
3) The wire rack doesn't help. It helps with even baking and airflow but because the oil drains away, it doesn't 'fry' in its own oil. It become air dried rather than 'fried'.
4) Cooking in a metal cookie sheet or flat pan and not a deeper dish or pyrex.
5) Lining with aluminium foil and lots of oil rather than non-stick baking paper. This affects the heat transfer and causes the heat to reflect back onto the chicken to fry it. I didn't even have to turn the chicken halfway!
6) Spritzing the surface of the chicken with oil.
7) 2 different oven temperatures: one for searing and one for cooking.

Ingredients
1.2 kg chicken wings, jointed
1 tbsp level prawn paste
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp sesame seed oil
dash of pepper
3 eggs
1 cup tapioca starch

Method
1) Marinate the chicken for at least and hour or even overnight.
2) Prepare a sheet pan by lining with aluminium oil. Spray generously with oil. If you can, send this into the oven as it is preheating.
3) Beat the eggs and dump the chicken (drain away as much marinade as possible) into the egg. Coat well.
4) In a ziplock bag, empty half the tapioca starch. Working with 2 to 3 chicken pieces at a time, shake the bag and dredge them to ensure even coating. Place on the oven tray (if the oil was heated, be very careful as it might splatter!). Repeat with the leftover starch until you run out of chicken pieces.
5) Carefully spray the surface of the chicken with oil. Try to ensure that all the areas are coated or you end up with baked flour that is white! Edible but not pretty.
6) Bake at 220 deg C for 10 minutes to cook, crisp and set the batter. Turn down to 180 deg C to cook for a further 15 to 20 minutes until done. You can turn the tray (not the chicken pieces) if you want to ensure more even browning but I didn't bother.
7) Serve immediately. At least dislodge the chicken while the fat is still hot otherwise the batter will stick to the foil and you end up bald chicken and sad bits of crispy batter and skin on the foil that are wasted.