Sichuan spicy beef pancakes (军屯锅盔)

Making Guokui: A Delicious Chinese Pastry

To start making guokui, also known as crispy mala beef pancake, we need to prepare our ingredients and dough. First, let's make the dough. We will mix together 200 grams of all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of sugar in a bowl. Then, add in 1/2 cup of warm water and 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, and stir until everything is well combined.

Next, we need to knead the dough for about 10 minutes, until it becomes smooth and elastic. After that, divide the dough into six equal pieces. Now, roll out each piece of dough into a thin sheet, about 3-4 mm thick. Make sure the dough is even in thickness so that our guokui will have an uniform crispy texture.

Now, let's move on to wrapping the guokui. Take one log, sesame side facing up, and press it with your palm to flatten evenly. Then, start rolling it at an angle, gently tuck the remaining strip over one end of the log, keep on twisting the log so that it naturally seals up, then twist and pinch the ending bit to seal, and press it onto the log to finish. For the other opening end, take the log, gently press it into a bowl of untoasted sesame seeds.

After we finish wrapping all six guokuis, we can start the final steps. So, take one log, sesame side facing up, pressing it with your palm to flatten evenly, and start rolling. Roll a couple times on one direction, then twist 90 degrees and roll out on another direction. Keep on rolling at different directions till you got something that’s about 15cm wide.

If you want the edge to be thinner and crispier, use one side of the rolling pin and gently press alongside the edge to flatten it out a bit more. You can roll and fry them all out and fry them all at once if you have a massive pan like they do on the street. But for us two guokui at a time works the best for our pan, so I’m gonna roll out two and fry them at first and leave the rest in the fridge until I’m ready for the next batch.

Or if you just want to have a couple and save the rest for next time, you can check out the pinned notes and see how to freeze them. And now we can start to fry. Heat on high first, till the pan gets to about 130C or when you hand can feel obvious heat, carefully put the guokui in sesame side facing down.

Swirl it around for even heating, let it toast for about 1 minute to form a crust first, then carefully flip and do the same with the other side, also for about a minute. And then, pour in some oil that’s enough to submerge half way of the guokui, turn the heat to medium low, and we’ll start the actual frying process.

Swirl it from time to time and flip it every minute or so to make sure that it fries evenly. Now just be patient, let it fry up slowly so that the beef and inside of the dough can be cooked through. When your guokui reaches this nice golden color, you can take it out, put it vertically in a tray line with some paper towel to let some oil drip out.

Or you can put your tray of guokui in a 170C oven for a couple more minutes to help further expel the oil. However, I tested both baked and not baked and didn’t seem to make that much of a difference, so this is totally up to you. Anyway, now your crispy mala beef guokui’s ready, you can devour it as a whole pancake right now, or eat it alongside with some spicy intestine noodle soup, just like they do in Sichuan.

So right, that’s how you make guokui, it’s a very tasty pancake that’s packed with a ton of flavor. Don’t panic if it breaks a little bit on you, that’s just it being puffy, crispy, and flaky. It’s one of those easier Chinese pastries with a very high deliciousness level. So right, remember to check out the recipe in description box and the pinned notes if you’re trying to make this.

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