Crispy Sesame Roll
A sweet, crispy snack from the Manchu Han Imperial Feast, made by deep-frying egg-batter rolls and coating them in powdered sesame sugar.
Ingredients
Eggs (cracked into a small bowl)
3
Raw sesame seeds (toasted until fragrant, then ground)
50 g
Sugar (mixed with the ground sesame)
50 g
Dried corn starch (75 g for the egg batter, 25 g to dust the plate)
100 g
All-purpose flour
50 g
Peanut oil (about 30 g used, heated to medium-hot for frying)
500 g
Instructions
1
Make the egg batter skin
Crack the eggs into a small bowl, add the flour, 75 g of the corn starch, and 200 g water, and whisk into a thin, smooth egg batter. Sprinkle the remaining 25 g corn starch evenly over a large round plate. Set a pot of water (about 50 g) over heat and bring to a boil, then pour in the egg batter and cook, stirring, until the mixture is set. Turn the cooked batter out onto the corn-starch-dusted round plate, pat it flat with a knife into a sheet about 2 fen thick, and cut it into 1-inch diamond-shaped pieces.
2
Fry the pieces
Heat a wok of peanut oil over medium-high until about 70 percent hot (around 170°C/340°F). Add the cooked egg-batter pieces and fry until golden and crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain off the excess oil, and arrange the pieces on a small round plate to make the 'pot-fried' base.
3
Coat with sesame sugar
Heat a dry wok until hot, add the sesame seeds, and toast until fragrant and just cooked. Tip them onto a cutting board and grind into a fine powder. Transfer to a small bowl, stir in the sugar until well combined, and sprinkle the sesame-sugar mixture generously over the fried pieces. Serve immediately.
