Among traditional celebration pastries, the shallot and sesame meat pastry is the most classic of the old flavours. Modern versions come with all sorts in them — walnuts and other nuts and raisins, salted egg yolk, even cheese. What we made here is a scaled-down version, about the shape and size of a mung bean cake. That size suits the way people eat now, and I think it is delicious. Do try it, and let us find that old flavour again together.
Makes: 23
For the pastry:
Cake flour 400 g, strong flour 100 g, icing sugar 100 g, salt 3 g, water 200, pork lard 190 g
For the filling:
Pork shoulder 500 g, caster sugar 240 g, white sesame 120 g, candied winter melon 400 g, Anchor butter 125 g
Milk powder 60 g, wheatgerm powder 100 g, Cheng Chi fried shallots 120 g
To make the pastry:
1. Sift the flours and rub in the lard lightly.
2. Stir the icing sugar, salt and water together until dissolved, then add to the flour in stages, mixing as you go.
3. Mix only until the surface of the dough is smooth.
4. Rest the dough for 20 minutes, then divide into 35 g pieces.
To make the filling:
1. Dice the pork. Freezing it briefly first makes it easier to cut.
shallot-sesame-meat-pastry-03.jpg
2. Mix the diced pork with the caster sugar by hand until evenly coated, then leave in the fridge to cure.
3. Toast the white sesame in a frying pan until golden. Once completely cool, blitz briefly in a blender with the fried shallots.
4. Dice the candied winter melon.
5. Mix the winter melon, milk powder, wheatgerm powder, blitzed sesame and fried shallots, and the butter, then fold in the cured pork. Divide into 70 g pieces and roll into balls. Freezing them briefly makes wrapping easier.
Wrapping and shaping:
1. The ratio of pastry to filling is 1:2 — here, 35 g to 70 g.
2. Flatten the pastry a little and wrap it around the filling. Seal the base well, or the sugar will leak out and burn during baking.
3. Flatten gently, shape into a round, dip the outside in raw white sesame, place on the tray and tidy up the shape.
Baking:
I used a convection oven preheated to 170°C for 35–40 minutes.
The result:
This is one cut open shortly after baking. The pastry is crisp, the filling is sweet in the way these things should be, and the shallot aroma runs right through it. The filling is our own recipe, but in quality, texture and aroma it is a very good shallot and sesame meat pastry indeed.