Crispy Chinese Cruellers ( You Tiau )

If you ever eat Dim sum, you must have seen this delicious food. The better the restaurant, the lighter is their texture so that you can eat tons of them before you feel full! Yum!

There are many ways to it You Tiau. You can eat it straight off course, but it also fun if you dip it into sweet soy bean milk and even salty soybean milk ( Do Jiang ).

You can also filled You Tiau with dry shredded pork ( Abon ) then wrapped the You Tiau with rice sheet. Eat it with soy sauce, sesame paste, and chili paste.

The variation on how to eat You Tiau is just endless...

Couple days ago in search for my son's Chinese costume in Surabaya's China town I saw this store that sell You Tiau. I like it that they show you how they shaped, stretch, and fried them right in front of your eyes.



On how to make it at home, here is the recipe ...

Pic: You Tiao and the salty soybean milk

Crispy Chinese Crullers ( You Tiau )

6 cups ( 1 1/3 lbs ) high protein flour
2 cups water

(A)
2 tsp. ammonium bicarbonate or 1 Tbs. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. alum ( food grade )
1 1/2 tsp. salt

Oil

1. Place ingredients of (A) in a mixing bowl; add water and stir until the ingredients have dissolved. Add flour and mix well; let stand for 15-20 minutes. Continue to take some dough around edges and drop it into the center of the bowl 3 or 4 times until the dough is elastic and smooth. Turn the dough over and lightly coat the surface with oil so that the dough will stay moist. Let it stand for 1 hr. Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a sheet of plastic wrap; wrap the dough and form it into a rectangular shape. Let is stand for 4 hours. If a large batch is made, cut the dough into several 1 1/3 lbs pieces then wrap each pieces in a sheet of plastic wrap.
2. Unwrap the dough. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough and stretch it into a long strip. Roll the dough into a rectangular shape. 3" wide and 1/2" thick. Crosswise cut the rectangular shape dough into strips 1/3" wide. Put 2 strips on top of each other; use a thin rod ( skewer ) or the back of a cleaver to press lengthwise in middle of the strips; this will attach them securely to each other. Follow the same step for the other strips. Heat the oil for deep-frying; pick up a strip from the ends and gently stretch it to make it longer. Carefully drop it into the hot oil and turn it over continuously with chopsticks until the crueller expands and turns golden brown; remove.

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To eat You Tiau with salty soybean milk, here is how ...

Place the crispy You Tiau, dried shrimp, Szechuan pickled mustard green, green onions, coriander, pork sung ( dried pork shredded/ Abon ), vinegar, chili oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, and salt in a medium size bowl. Pour the boil soybean milk into the bowl and serve.



Pic: Szechuan pickled mustard green


The You Tiau may be placed in split " Flaky Sesame Flat Breads " or Shao Bing. This way is my husband favorite way to eat You Tiau.