Bawan Recipe

Bawan Recipe
This recipe is adapted from Homestyle Cooking of Taiwan by members of NATWA

Makes 22 pieces
Preparation Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:
Outer Covering
 8 T long grain rice flour (see picture at right - the red bag!)
12 T sweet potato flour
5 2/3 cups water
1 lb sweet potato flour

Filling
2 T vegetable oil
2 bunches of scallions, chopped

11 dried black mushrooms
1 lb pork tenderloin, sliced (or ground pork)
1 can (8 oz) bamboo shoots (sliced)
1 lb shrimp (about 22)
3 T soy sauce
1 T sugar
1 T salt
1 tsp pepper

Sauce (sweet rice paste)
1 cup long grain rice flour
3 cups waster
1/2 cup sugar

Garnishes
Cilantro, chopped
Soy sauce
optional: sweet chili sauce

Precooking preparations:
1.  If you purchased fresh shrimp, devein the shrimp, remove heads and tails.  I bought one pound of raw frozen shrimp, so I just defrosted it and removed the tails.

2.  Soak dried mushrooms in hot water until soft (about 10 minutes), and cut each one in half

Making the Covering
1.  In a large pot, combine the long grain rice flour, 12 T of sweet potato flour, and water.
2.  Cook at high heat, stirring CONTINUALLY!
3. After it has come to a boil, remove from heat and let cool.
4.  Add 1 lb of sweet potato flour and mix thoroughly.  Set aside.

Making the filling
1.  Heat wok at high heat and add the vegetable oil.
2.  Stir fry the scallions and the mushrooms briefly for about a minute.
3.  Add the remaining ingredients and stir fry until the meat appears done (shrimp turns pink, pork is opaque)
4.  Add flavoring agents (soy sauce, sugar, salt, and pepper).  Mix thoroughly

Making the Bawan
You have 22 pieces of shrimp, 22 mushroom halves.  This is no accident.  You will fill each dough piece with one piece of shrimp, one mushroom, and a little bit of bamboo and pork. Warning, this stuff is really sticky!  It sort of has the consistency of gooey paste.  I find it's a bit easier to work with if you hold the bawan on top of a cabbage leaf (see pictures above).  It's easier to handle the gooey paste if you wet your fingers constantly.  I ended up putting a plate full of water nearby just so I could constantly wet my fingers.

1.  Put a circular dollop of dough onto a leaf.  Using wet fingers, push in the middle a bit for the filling.
2.  Add the filling (1 shrimp, 1/2 mushroom, etc)
3.  Put another smaller dollop of dough on top
4.  Using wet fingers, try to pinch the edges together to form a ball
5.  Set aside

Cooking the Bawans
Steam bawans in a 2-tiered steamer.  Ideally, you would have a multi-layer Chinese bamboo steamer.  However, if you don't, a normal steamer works fine too.  I just lined the steamer with cabbage leaves and placed the bawans on top.
Steam for about 10 minutes.

Making the Sweet Rice Paste Sauce

1.  combine long grain rice flour, water, and sugar in a small sauce pan.  Bring to a boil (remember to stir!) and then remove from heat. 

Garnishing the Bawans
 For each bawan, add a bit of soy sauce (about 1 tsp), cover with some sweet white paste sauce, and garnish with cilantro.  If you have access to sweet chile sauce, you can use that as well.

Enjoy!