Savory Sesame Balls - 鹹煎堆 - Haam Jin Deui

In dim sum restaurants in America, whenever you see 煎堆 jin deui on there, it’s always translated as sesame balls. The funny thing about this is that while most of the Chinese diaspora that lives in America that work in dim sum restaurants are Cantonese speaking from the Guangdong region, the name in Cantonese doesn’t specify sesame or ball/sphere at all. In Cantonese, it literally means fried stack or fried pile. According to my mom, northern Chinese or Taiwanese folks call them 芝麻球 or 麻糰 which are different ways of literally saying sesame balls. So why are they called a fried stack/pile in the Guangdong region?

In Guangdong, this dish is heavily associated with the New Year. You should be familiar with a lot of the symbolism of wishing for prosperity and good health. As for the prosperity part of this, many things are stacked in piles representing plentifulness. And the people who make this, tend to stack these up in large piles for the same meaning.

When I asked my mom more about this, she told me of these two Cantonese sayings about jin deui:

煎堆碌碌, 金銀满屋

Meaning with jin deui rolling and rolling (you roll them during frying), gold and cash will fill your home. Rolling and wheels have a positive symbolism for a wheel that keeps rolling and rolling, but that continual motion is good in contrast to stagnation.

年晚煎堆，人有我有

This other one means, that New Year’s Eve 煎堆 jin deui, you have one and I have one. According to my mom, Guangdong folks usually make 煎堆 jin deui on New Year’s Day where as northern Chinese folks usually make it on New Year’s Eve along with their family get together of making 餃子 gaau ji or dumplings (getting together to make dumplings isn’t a Guangdong tradition). But so many people make 煎堆 jin deui right along New Year’s that everybody has one to enjoy.

On the English part of the internet, it seems like only the sweet version exists. Despite how food culture in America has been growing so quickly in the past decade, and how popular food from Asia is becoming, cuisines still get caricatured and flattened very quickly. It’s pretty hard to find any mention in English that this dish has a savory version to it. Since I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, the savory version had long been my preferred kind of 煎堆 jin deui.

My mom makes it only once a year for the new year, but this time around she made it twice to teach me when I’m visiting home. Her recipe uses the same batter for both savory and sweet ones. But her tip is that it takes a lot of attention and patience to make these well. These are fried in lower temperature oil and there’s some shaping that takes place inside the wok. Fresh ones are really nice, but they are a lot of work to make and you end up with a lot of excess frying oil, so it’s up to you if you want to try and make this.

BATTER RECIPE:

16 oz bag of glutinous rice flour
About 7/8 cup of sugar (one cup with 2 tbsps of sugar removed)
1 1/2 cup of water

In a small pot, add sugar and 1/2 cup of water to it. Bring this to a boil to melt the sugar.

In a large bowl, place the glutinous rice flour in it and when the syrup is ready, add some to it and use a rice paddle to mix the mixture together as it’s hot. Slowly add the remaining 1 cup of water and knead with your hands as this gets cool enough to handle. Do not knead this too much, otherwise it will be too chewy and tough. The dough is ready just when the dough comes together with no flour lumps in it.

This is a firmer dough to retain its shape during frying. If the dough is too soft, it will fall apart during frying.

Set aside.

FILLING RECIPE:

Pork back fat (optional, diced about 1/4 inch pieces)
Shiitake mushrooms, minced (optional)
Water chestnuts, minced (optional)
Pork (shoulder cut and diced about 1/4 inch pieces)
菜脯 choy pou - dried radish, minced
蝦米 ha mai - dried shrimp, minced
Scallions, sliced thinly
Corn starch
Salt
Sugar
Chicken bouillon
White pepper

If using pork back fat, dice into about 1/4 inch pieces and set aside.

If using shiitake mushrooms, soak overnight if you are using dried ones. Rinse and remove the stems. Mince and set aside.

If using water chestnuts, peel skin, mince and set aside.

Slice pork shoulder into 1/4 inch pieces and set aside.

Rinse and mince 蝦米 dried shrimp to your preferred size. Add to a mixing bowl with diced pork shoulder.

Season pork shoulder (with shrimp) with corn starch, salt, sugar, chicken bouillon, and white pepper for stir frying. Mix to combine and set aside.

Mince dried radish and soak in water for about 15 minutes to wash out some of its salt. It’s very salty from the curing and drying process of making it. When it is at the desired saltiness, drain and set aside.

Rinse scallions. Slice thinly and set aside.

In a wok, heat over medium high heat until the wok is hot and add some oil to it. If you are using pork back fat, render over medium-low heat.

Add the pork mixture to stir fry first until mostly cooked. Remove from the wok. Stir fry 菜脯 choy pou, shiitake mushrooms, and water chestnuts to remove some of the water content from them and to cook them. Add the meat mixture back in and stir fry until mixture is cooked. Taste and adjust the seasoning, it should not be too salty. At the last few seconds, add the sliced scallions to cook quickly.

*When I recorded this recipe, my mom doesn’t measure things out often and I had to ask her for the batter measurements. She didn’t slow down at this stir fry step to measure anything, but she said it’s a basic stir fry. It can be made with other ingredients as well, but at minimum, my mom usually made with pork, 菜脯 choy pou - dried radish, and scallions. She’d of course make another batch with 蝦米 ha mai - dried shrimp for others since I’m allergic to crustaceans.

You can stir fry this, let it cool, and freeze the filling in advance.

ASSEMBLY:

With the prepared dough, separate into about 20 pieces and roll into balls between your palms.

With your thumbs, press and rotate the ball of dough like a steering wheel until it is a disk about 1/4 inch thick. Place some filling inside of it and pinch the dough together to seal it. Compress it with your hands to squeeze out any excess air inside of it. It will expand as it fries and could break open if you leave too much air in it before cooking. If there are any thin sides of the dough, you can push dough over from thicker parts or pinch some off the thicker parts and patch it on the thin parts. It is important that there are no holes in the dough so it doesn’t deflate when they fry. *Refer to video for this technique

In a large plate, add sesame seeds and roll the prepared 煎堆 jin deui in the seeds. Set them aside. It is best to try and stick as much sesame seeds on as possible during this step as the seeds will help create a buffer between the bottom of the wok to prevent sticking.

Heat a wok with oil for deep frying over medium heat. When the oil is somewhat hot, place the jin deui in it and it should start bubbling a little. Do not heat the oil to a high temperature as it will cook the dough too fast and prevent forming. *Refer to video for this technique

As it fries, gently and continuously rotate them with chopsticks taking care not to pierce them.

About a minute or two into frying, before the dough starts to get golden and crispy, use a ladle to gently press the jin deui. If you do this too early when the dough is too raw, it will stick to the bottom of the wok and break apart. If you try to do this when the dough gets too golden and crispy, it will break apart. Gently pressing and rotating them will help them expand. *Refer to video for this technique

Continue to rotate them until they are fried to your preferred crispiness by looking at how light or deep the color is on the surface. My mom prefers them not to be very crispy as pictured.

Share and enjoy with your family and friends.

*Three oval shaped ones were made for me since they don’t have shrimp in it.