hello hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we’re adding to our series on Bay Area restaurant hacks with an attempt at jian dui, or fried mochi and sesame seed rice balls, inspired by Gourmet Delight in Oakland, CA. Sadly, like many of the restaurants here in Oakland Chinatown, Gourmet Delite did not survive the COVID-19 pandemic, but I still thought I’d take the opportunity to pay homage to a dim sum restaurant that I’ve been eating at for the better part of 20 years.
For those not familiar, a jian dui is a dough ball made from glutinous rice flour that’s coated in sesame seed, and filled with a sweet paste. It can be filled with many things, but most commonly you’ll find these filled with either sweet red bean paste, or sweet lotus paste (today we’ll be going with the latter of the two, cause I have some leftover from the mooncake recipe that we did a few months back). Hope you try it!
Yields 8
INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup boiling water
1 cup glutinous rice flour
1/2 cup lotus paste (or red bean paste)
1/4 cup sesame seeds
12 oz fryer oil
PREP
COMBINE the brown sugar and boiling water until dissolved, set aside
GRADUALLY COMBINE the sugar mixture with 1 cup of glutinous rice until a smooth and tacky dough forms
DIVIDE the dough into eight equal pieces (about 1.3 oz each), and flatten to about 1 inch in diameter
ROLL 1-1.5 tbsp of lotus paste into a ball between the palms of your hand, then place in the center of the flattened dough, and form the dough around the lotus paste ball
ROLL the dough ball between the palms of your hand one more time until a smooth ball forms, and repeat with remaining dough
SOAK sesame seeds in water, then spread onto a cutting board and roll the dough balls in the seeds until thoroughly covered
ON THE STOVE
HEAT 12 oz of fryer oil to 250F and fry the jian dui for 10 minutes, rotating frequently
REMOVE and rest for 5 minutes, then raise the fryer temperature to 350F, and fry for an additional 5 minutes, rotating frequently
COOL on a dryer rack for 10 minutes before eating