Ian

What is this beautiful painting in the background you ask? Well, it is a commissioned mural on the well lit living room wall of Ian's modern industrial Seattle home. It is the Chinese zodiac, and it's charming and brings me a lot of calm and soooo extra but soooo Ian... and I never felt more like a private influencer than the week I was doing yoga and pounding cans of La Croix in front of this mural. [Whew, what a run-on sentence.] Ian identifies as "100% Chinese American baby!" I met Ian on the bus on the way to our first day of Chinese class in college - this is maybe my favorite meetcute meetfriend meetchill friendmeet story. So wholesome and random and totally reflective of our friendship.

 

Ian has a huge sweet tooth, which he reiterated four times as he went through his childhood snacks. Memories he shared of binging on sesame balls while studying abroad in Beijing, his first experience of pumpkin cakes in Shanghai, scarfing down 8 egg tarts in one sitting (impressive and gross), and mom's slightly boozy tan yuan during CNY make me wonder how he isn't just a rotund marshmallow human.

So four classic Chinese desserts - tang yuan*, egg tarts, pumpkin cakes, and sesame balls - come together as one for his dumpling. 

The concept bubbling around in my head was not want ended up on the plate while I was visiting him. Imagine: a chewy sticky pumpkin dough.. filled with bright yellow custard.. spiked with just a bit of brandy or rum.. rolled in sesame seeds and deep fried until puffy, golden brown and fragrant.

What I got was: kinda dense, crusty, not-very-pumpkin dough.. filled with canned red bean paste (because convenience).. rolled in sesame seeds and air fried until... thoroughly cooked I guess.

I didn't hate them but I didn't love them. But I did pretend like they were Chinese medicine balls, seeing how many I could grip in my tiny hands:

[Shut up, Ian, I can already hear you laughing at me.]

So this is actually the only heritagedump I've re-made because I couldn't live with myself if my best shot at a sesame ball was made in an air fryer *horrified face emoji*

I knew I felt unsettled as I placed the little sesame balls onto the air fryer rack. It just wasn't right. LISTEN I'm not tryna be healthy if I'm tryna indulge. Some deep fried things are just meant to be deep fried.

Sesame balls need to be deep fried, and science says so. Have you seen those giant Vietnamese sticky rice balls that look like translucent lanterns? This first time I saw this at a market in Vietnam, I was blown away by how big and perfectly round it was. Cue math lady meme as I realized sesame balls are also expanded around a little puddle of red bean paste. I remember biting into their crunchy shell and tearing at the chewy dough to be surprised to find a big pocket of.. air. How did they stuff the sweet filling in a rice balloon? I think... f r y i n g ~~~~

Much like how baked goods rise in a hot oven, dropping dough into a bath of hot oil makes steam and sometimes encourages chemical reactions that produce gas bubbles to expand the dough, which at the same time, is being cooked to trap in all that precious gas. Like donuts! Or sopapillas!

Okay but how the fuck do they make lanterns out of masses of sticky rice dough?

My best guess is ~amylopectin~

Amylopectin, along with amylose, are the long chains of sugars found in starches. They are basically an energy source that can be tapped into and broken down into glucose for plants (or us) to use when needed and they differ primarily in their structure i.e. amylopectin is more branched while amylose is more like a straight chain of glucose units. Depending on the ratio of amylopectin to amylose, the food can be more waxy or starchy. Think Russet vs red potatoes for mashed potatoes. Russets have a higher amylose content that is quick to absorb water and gives a fluffy texture when cooked. Reds hold their shape better when cooked and if you try to mash or blend it up, you'll get a potato... goop. Because of the many and long branches, amylopectin is "stickier" and more viscous. The same principle applies to long grain (more amylose) and short grain (more amylopectin) rice. Short grain rice is also known as sticky rice (or "glutinouse" rice) for it's, yes, sticky tacky stretchy quality when cooked. So connecting the dots here, a dough made with 100% amylopectin should be able to stretch and pull to a lantern sized ball when basted in hot oil. ALSO rice flour absorbs less oil than wheat flour, which probably helps its ability to stretch and balloon. I watched several videos of the technique to make a perfectly spherical sesame lantern and my best gathered advice is as follows:

-make sure sticky rice dough is warmed so that it doesn't explode when coming in contact with the hot oil

-keep oil heat on low to start while you knead and rotate the dough - I assume this allows it to gently cook the outside-most layer while it continues to expand and trap air

-when it starts to puff up, continue rotating and basting so that all newly exposed surfaces get cooked evenly... as it still continues to stretch and expand and trap air

Anyways, I am still clearly no expert as my balls didn't expand that much before they started to look like they were going to burn. But I will say the fried dough was far crispier and chewier and softer and when filled with homemade jasmine lotus paste, it even felt lighter. Andddddd it freezes and reheats (in an air fryer lol) quite well.

Things I'd do differently: maybe try pumpkin puree instead of pumpkin powder in the dough, make boozy custardy filling as originally intended.

Ian's complete list:

sesame balls

egg tarts

pumpkin cakes

tang yuan* (see also here for tang yuan inspired dump)