Traditional Chinese meat pie(馅饼) with beef, large scallion and onion.
Traditional Chinese meat pie provides a crispy wrapper and savory filling. There are in fact many types of meat pie popular across the country. The fillings differ from one house to another. You can use pork, lamb, beef etc. This is a popular beef and onion version.
Cook’s Note
About the filling: flavors of the filling decide whether the pancake is delicious or not. I highly recommend adding Sichuan peppercorn powder, which is widely considered as the best spice for beef in China in the filling to enhance the aroma. In order to make the filling juicy, usually water, stock or other liquid content is added. I use egg this time to increase the viscosity of the beef filling.
About the dough : the dough contents a larger amount of water, compared with other regular dumpling wrapper dough, so you will find it is very easy to knead and wrap because of the softness. There is just a little bit kneading needed in the process.
Steps
To make the filling. Add beef, ginger, scallion, salt, sugar sichuan peppercorn powder and white pepper powder. Blend 10 seconds. Add egg, light soy sauce, sesame oil, shaoxing wine and oyster sauce. Blend for another 10 seconds. Stir the filling by hand for minutes until sticky.
Spread large scallion white on top and then drizzle around 2 tablespoons of hot oil. Mix in chopped white onion. Mix well, cover and set in fridge. For beginners, I recommend set the filling until slightly hardened if you have enough time.
Add salt in all purpose flour and then add hot water firstly. Gently stir the hot water in. And stir in cold water too. Roughly knead to form a dough. No need to be smooth. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes.
Re-knead the dough, it should be smooth very quickly. Cut into 30g portions (doubled size from dumpling wrappers ) and then roll out to wrapper. Seal it completely. Avoid the edges meeting the filling, otherwise the sealing work is hard to complete.
Place the pancakes in a pan with oil, slightly press the center so the bottom can contact with the pan in better ways.
Heat until the side becomes crispy. Then turn over and fry the other side. Once the two side becomes well browned, slow down the fire and over with lid and let the pancake heat for another 2 minutes. This can further cook the inside part and make sure the inner part is well cooked too. Then remove the lid and heat both side for another 30 seconds separately until the surface turn crispy again.
Transfer to oil paper to remove extra oil and enjoy!! Meat pies are always a little bit salty, so make sure you match it with some light and healthy vegetable soup.
Ingredients
Filling
- 300 g beef , with 15% to 20% fat
- 2 large scallion , finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp. Sichuan peppercorn powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 green onions
- 1 thumb ginger , sliced
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- Pinch of fresh ground pepper
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp. sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp. sugar
- 1 tbsp. Shaoxing cooking wine
- 1/2 middle size white onion
For the dough
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (300 g)
- 1/2 cup hot water over 90℃ (120ml)
- 60 ml room temperature water , plus 10ml more for adjusting
- 1 tbsp. vegetable cooking oil
- pinch of salt
Instructions
Beef filling
- Add beef, ginger, scallion, salt, sugar, Sichuan peppercorn powder and white pepper powder. Blend 10 seconds. Add egg, light soy sauce, sesame oil, Shaoxing wine and oyster sauce. Blend for another 10 seconds. Stir the filling by hand for minutes until sticky.
- Spread large scallion white on top and then drizzle around 2 tablespoons of hot oil. Mix in chopped white onion. Mix well, cover and set in fridge. For beginners, I recommend set the filling until slightly hardened. The filling is for 2 batches, 20 pancakes. However the dough is for 10 pancakes each time. If you want to use all of the filling once, double the dough.
Dough
- Add salt in all purpose flour and then add hot water firstly. Gently stir the hot water in. And stir in cold water too. Roughly knead to form a dough. No need to be smooth. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes.
- Re-knead the dough, it should be smooth very quickly. Cut into 50g portions (10 pancakes from this batch) and then roll out to wrapper. Seal it completely. Avoid the edges meeting the filling, otherwise the sealing work is hard to complete.
Frying
- Place the pancakes in a pan with oil, slightly press the center so the bottom can contact with the pan in better ways.
- Heat until the side becomes crispy. Then turn over and fry the other side. Once the two side becomes well browned, slow down the fire and over with lid and let the pancake heat for another 3-5 minutes. This can further cook the inside part and make sure the inner part is well cooked too. Then remove the lid and heat both side for another 30 seconds separately until the surface turn crispy again.
- Transfer to oil paper to remove extra oil and enjoy!! Meat pies are always a little bit salty, so make sure you match it with some light and healthy vegetable soup.
Notes
Nutrition
Hi there, could you make these and keep in fridge then fry them the next day? Or do you recommend cooking them on the same day you make and reheat them?
Can these be frozen, then defrostered and reheated?
Or does reheating effect the dough?
Kim,
You can freeze the pie just after assembling. Then cook them before eating. But remember to use slow and medium fire to make sure the inside is well cooked too.
I was wondering what your technique for sealing is. I’m a visual person and am trying to visualize it but I can’t see doing it without touching the meat, any tips? I’ve done a lot of wontons and pot stickers, I know how to do those. Does that help me?
Thanks in advance.
Hello!
Thank you for your recipe!
Qhen finishing the beef filling, it says to add scallion and then drizzle 2 tablespoons of hot oil- should the oil be sesame oil or vegetable oil?
Thank you!
Common vegetable cooking oil.
Thank you so much! We tried them out and they came out great!
Thanks so much for your lovely feedback, Emma!
Hello, will these be numbing like i had in chengdu?? They look the same and i like these to give the numbing affect
Only if you add Sichuan peppercorn powder.
Thanks very much for this recipe, I made this and they turned out great. Seasoning was perfect. I didn’t have sichuan pepper so I added chili bean sauce instead and it turned out well. Definitely a keeper
Thank you, Caroline for your lovely feedback. Nice to read the success news.
Hi Elaine,
I have made this recipe a few times and love it. I have issues when I make the dough, however. It is very elastic and will not roll flat without bouncing back. The result is a thicker more bouncy wrapper. Do you have any ideas for what Im doing wrong? Thanks!
This is a favorite recipe for my family. My daughter and I make it together and enjoy it a lot. Delicious! Thanks.
Hi! I want to make these, but can you please explain what “large scallion” is versus “green onion”? Thank you
Yes, that is green onion
This was delicious. The skin had the right texture. Thx!
Thank you Alice.