recreating a food memory

Chive Pockets 韭菜盒子

A must-do when we visit London is to eat at Sanbao Chinese Kitchen in Hammersmith. We discovered it when we were wandering around the quaint neighbourhood years ago, and have since made it a regular stop when we visit our London family.

My favourite thing to eat there are their chive pockets. When I discovered a wonderful bao dough in Brendan Pang’s This Is A Book About Dumplings, I decided it was time to recreate this memory.

Micah at MarkusUndMicah – thinking of you because we share so many exciting food inspirations.

Chive Pockets

Makes 12-14 pockets

Bao Dough Ingredients:

• Cake flour 320g (I mixed 260g plain flour with 60g potato flour/starch)
• 1 tsp yeast
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 150ml milk (and a little more if the dough is too dry)
• 15ml vegetable oil
• pinch salt

Filling Ingredients: 

• 6 eggs
• about 100g koo chye 
• 2 cloves garlic
• vegetable oil for frying

Making the Dough:

1. Mix all the ingredients together. Knead until smooth & elastic.
2. Let the dough rest in a bowl for about 20min.
3. Flour your work  surface well. Divide into 12-14 balls (depending on the size of the pockets desired)
4. Roll out each ball into a circle until about 1mm thick.
5. Keep covered with a damp towel.

Cooking the Filling:

1. Mince the garlic.
2. Finely chop the koo chye.
3. Beat the eggs together.
4. Fry the garlic & koo chye for a few minutes, until the koo chye is soft.
5. Remove from heat.
6. In another pan, scramble the eggs. Turn off the fire and mix in the cooked koo chye.
7. Leave to cool.

Putting it together:

1. Use “curry puff” method to fill the pockets (see video below).
2. Cover with a damp cloth to prevent the pastries from drying out.
3. Pan fry both sides of each pocket in vegetable oil.
4. Drain on paper towels.
5. Enjoy with your favourite chilli sauce.

This post is my contribution to What’s on Your Plate hosted by Donna at RetirementReflections and Deb at TheWidowBadass