The story behind Jianbing

I enjoy looking at how food is being prepared.  Have you heard of Jianbing?  It is a popular street food for breakfast in China.  The first time I saw this pancake being made was at the wet market in Balakong (Batu 11, Cheras).  The vendor was a lady from China.  

It also has a very interesting story on how it was first made by soldiers fighting a war in Shandong Province 2,000 years ago.  Check out how it is made by a street vendor in China:

It is a very cheap breakfast meal, which is why in the Shandong Province, jianbing (aka the Chinese crepe) vendors are on almost every street corner.  So, if you plan on starting your own Jianbing store in Shandong Province, what can you do to beat the competition and draw customers to you?  From a free course I took, sponsored by eHomemakers; "Science of Product Innovation", one of the ways, is to make your product different from others.  

Check out the Jianbing created by these innovative vendors.

What will you wrap in Jianbing to localise the flavour?  That will make it different too.

I read from Woks of Life that instead of making the batter, I can use store bought frozen pancake.  The one that I can think of is this Paratha with Onion from Kawan that I often buy.  

Oil is not require to fry this Paratha but I will add a little oil to the pan since I usually cook it with an egg and cheese added.  Here are the steps:

-cook one side on a non stick frying pan till it is golden brown.
-turn it over and spread egg over it (you can scramble the egg if you want to). 
-turn it over again to cook the egg side.
-(optional) cut a slice of cheddar cheese in half and place in the middle of Paratha.
-once the egg is cooked enough, fold the sides up to cover the cheese.
-the heat will melt cheese.
-remove from pan to serve.

If I want to make it Jianbing style, I can add chopped scallions and cilantro and spiced it up with chillie sauce of my choice.  The one used at Woks of Life is spicy bean sauce.

I read from Reddit that the traditional Tianjin-style Jianbing’s made with pure mungbean.   These are the ingredients you need if you want to make their version:

Ingredients for the batter:

180g All purpose flour
60g Millet flour
or Fine Cornmeal
1 tsp Five spice powder
1 tsp Salt
420g Water

The toppings and sauce required for Jianbing are:

8 Eggs (2 per Jianbing)
Guobie (crispy fried dough)
or deep fry dumpling skins
Handful Cilantro or Green Onion
2 Tbsp Tianmianjiang Sweet Bean Paste with 2 Tbsp Sugar added 

Optional toppings for Jianbing:

3 Tbsp Chili Sauce
Lettuce
Meat (“王中王火腿肠” from the brand Shuanghui (双汇), spam, American hotdog)
Black Sesame Seeds  

Watch their video and you will also learn about the utensils you need to make it properly.

I think if I make, it I will use the batter recipe that I have shared earlier for making Onion Paratha:

Shortcut for cooking curry ayam

I was looking for curry paste to buy at a supermarket and I came across a Malay lady who was also at the same aisle.  So I asked her which curry paste she would suggest that I buy if I want to make chicken curry.  She suggested that I buy Mak Nyonya Instant Chicken Curry Sauce and that is the only sauce I have been buying since.

If you follow the cooking instruction from Mak Nonya, this is how the paste is used:

-Sauté Instant Chicken Curry Sauce together with 1kg of chicken until aromatic.
-Add in 200gm potatoes and 300ml water, bring to boil.
-Add in 200ml coconut milk and simmer over medium heat until chicken are tender.

It is as shown in this video.

This is my shortcut way to cook it with my airfryer.  

I usually use drumsticks to cook the dish.  Once I have cut them up, I will store them covered in a round metal container.  When it is time to cook, I just take the container out from the freezer, remove the cover and airfry it.  The chicken will not be tender enough after I have airfried it.  After airfrying, do not pour the meat into the wok to saute with the curry paste.  Pick each piece up to add as there will be scums in the container.  After airfrying the potatoes, they will be slightly brown but not soft enough  Simmering them with the coconut milk will do the job. 

Whenever coconut milk is required, I usually use the one from Kara.  But now that I buy my groceries online, I tend to choose whatever is on offer, as long as I am comfortable with the brand of the product.

While I fry my curry paste with garlic oil to make it more aromatic, the cook in this video added shallots and curry leaves before adding the curry paste to fry.  Other than potatoes, she also add carrots, brinjals, onions and long beans.  Instead of cooking the chicken curry in a wok or pot, she used a pressure cooker.  She shared that it will take 15 minutes to cook it in a pressure cooker and 20 minutes in a pot or until potatoes are soft. Check it out.

You can also read how I used to cook curry dishes in an earlier posting at the following link:

Shortcuts for cooking a curry dishes

Shortcuts for cooking a curry dish

The easiest way to make a coconut curry dish is to buy ready made chilli paste for curry. That will eliminate the process of pounding chillies with the many other ingredients that will make the curry flavourful. However, check the packaging to see that it has cooking instruction for making the curry dish. I used to get my homemade chillie paste from my aunt.

Whenever I am not sure about how to use a ready made sauce or paste at the sundry shop I usually go to, I will check with the store owner. If the store owner cannot help me, I can check out the brand online. When I shopped online at TESCO before it became Lotus, I noticed that they usually include the cooking instruction for the paste I am interested in, which they had extracted from the packaging itself. 

Once you are able to find the chillie paste you like, all you need to add to it is the curry powder for meat or fish, based on what you are cooking, and santan (coconut milk). This is the curry powder I use for cooking fish curry.  It is from my cousin's factory in Melaka.

You can also add to your curry dish any of the following ingredients:

-potato (our family’s favourite choice)

-lady’s finger

-long beans

-cabbage

-tomato

For the santan, I prefer to buy the packet version.  It can keep longer so that I can cook my curry dish anytime I want to as long as I have curry powder and chillie paste in the fridge.

Recently, I discovered an even easier way to make curry. These are the ingredients noted on the packaging:

As you can see from the list, coconut milk is already included in the paste. This is how you can use the curry paste to cook chicken curry.

This is how the Brahim’s chicken curry sauce should look like after it is cooked but I prefer it with more sauce. So, I usually add extra water or santan to the pot. If it is not salty enough, instead of salt, I add soya sauce.

However, I prefer to eat their MRE (meal ready to eat) version which is even easier to prepare. I just put the packet into a pot of boiling water and wait for 3 minutes. I am drawn to this brand because I found out that their rice and dishes are served to airlines passengers too.

I usually serve it in a glass bowl so that if there are any leftovers, I can keep it covered in the fridge. As my glass bowl is microwave safe, the following day, I can just pop it in the microwave oven to heat up for about 2 to 3 minutes. 

As I am not an adventurous eater aka fussy, whenever my family travel overseas for a holiday I usually bring along a mini cooker, instant noodles and some of Brahim’s MREs. I also bring along metal containers to store the food heated up to eat. They are great for days when we do not feel like eating the local food over there or when we have hunger pangs because of the time difference.

MREs with curry or chilli sauce were the best dishes we travelled overseas with as we could also eat it with bread which we could easily pinched from the buffet spread of the hotels we stayed at. 

If you cannot buy ready made curry paste, this is how you can make your own.

Once your curry paste is ready, you can start cooking your curry dish. I prefer to use chicken and potato in the dish. *Note that you only need 2 stalks of lemongrass cut in half. The white portion for making the curry paste while the green portion is for cooking the curry. However, if you are able to buy the curry paste, you can omit adding it to cook this curry dish.

I found this recipe from The Burning Kitchen. Check it out. The mother and daughter team, Bee Leng and Melissa, provides lots of photos and tips which you will find useful.