Caramelized Mandarin Oranges (Ba Si Mi Ju)
A traditional Zhejiang sweet dish featuring honey mandarin oranges coated in batter, fried until golden, and wrapped in spun sugar threads. Sweet with a subtle tang, crispy and refreshing.
Ingredients
Huangyan seedless mandarin oranges (peeled and separated into segments)
3 (about 300 g)
sweet osmanthus jam
1.5 g
granulated sugar (melted for the sugar thread coating)
150 g
fine wheat flour (dusted on the oranges and used in the batter)
60 g
eggs (beaten for the batter)
2
sesame seeds (toasted)
10 g
rendered pork lard (for deep-frying the oranges)
1000 g (actually uses 100 g)
wet starch (for the batter)
25 g
Instructions
1
Prepare the oranges
Peel the mandarin oranges and separate them into individual segments, then dust each segment with fine flour.
2
Make the batter
Beat the eggs, then stir in the fine flour, wet starch, and 25 g of water to form a smooth egg batter.
3
Toast the sesame seeds
Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan over low heat until fragrant, then set aside.
4
Deep-fry the oranges
Dip each floured orange segment into the batter to coat evenly, then lower them into lard heated to about 60% hot (around 132 degrees C / 270 degrees F). Fry until a crisp shell forms, then remove and drain.
5
Coat with sugar threads
Place a wok over low heat, add 10 g of lard and the granulated sugar, and melt the sugar until it thickens and begins to form fine threads. Add the fried orange segments and toss quickly to coat them in the caramelized sugar.
6
Finish and serve
Sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds and sweet osmanthus jam, and serve immediately alongside a small bowl of cool boiled water (used traditionally to dip the fingers when eating pulled-sugar dishes).
