Heralds of Spring: Chinese Chive Pie with Prawn and Egg

There are many poems regarding food in SHI JING: The Classic of Poetry, translated also as The Book of Songs or The book of Odes, or just'The Odes', is the earliest existing collection of Chinese poems and songs. It is comprised of 305 poems and songs, with many dating from the 10th to the 7th century BC,Chinese chive was first documented in "The Odes-July", a very ancient vernacular poem from 11-10 century BC. 

Classic works such as SHI JING helped develop Chinese food culture.Accordingly, a real Chinese gourmand enjoys seasonal food and is happiest savouring Chinese chive right at the beginning of spring. After a long winter, the first cut of Chinese chive tastes sweet and juicy. Although Chinese chive can cut-and-grow back again almost 20 times, the most beautiful and fresh taste is still the first cut.

I remember when I was a child, every spring, my mum would bring the first cut Chinese chive back home. That day for me is the beginning of spring. I still remember her passionate teaching at the kitchen top, 'look, can you see the gentle purple colour at the end of the roots? See, how beautiful the top bit has shaped, just like an arrow. Remember, purple boots and arrow top--they make the most beautiful flavour'. Then, I would grab my little stool and help mum in the kitchen. One of my favourite things was to roll the many divided doughs into  flat sheets and pass them to my mum. Then, it was her turn to magically put all kinds of yummy fillings in the sheet and mould them into the miraculous shapes of dumplings, buns or pies. 

It is getting easier to find this green vegetable in many Asian grocers nowadays. Some veggie markets put it in the herb section. We Chinese call it JIU CAI (try to pronounce JIU as Juice without the 'ce', and the sound of CAI is very similar to the German camera brand Zeiss, pronounce it without the 'ss').

JIU CAI known as Chinese chive, garlic chives ('nira' in Japanese)in the west. It is a vegetable with distinctive fragrance, commonly seen in Chinese kitchens. Either fried with fresh-water snail (shelled), with tender pork meat, or simply chopped into slices and mixed with eggs to make a very distinctive Chinese chive omelet. However, the most common way to enjoy its fragrance is to make fillings for dumplings (boiled, fried, steamed), steamed buns as well as in Chinese pies. The best filling combination is with fresh prawn (peeled),dried prawn,scrambled eggs and ginger.

Despite the endless variety our family's all-time-favourite is Chinese chive, prawn and egg pie. Here is our recipe!

Ingredients

For the dough

• 3 cups of plain flour
• 1 cup of hot water
• 0.5 cup of cold water
• pinch of salt

For the filling

• 2 bunch of Chinese chive (around 400g),slice along way into 4-5mm in length
• 3 eggs, blend together and make scrambled egg, use fork to break bigger pieces into much smaller size (say, like 1/4 of the size of a 5 dollar cent);
• 300g fresh peeled prawn meat. preferably Thai White Prawn 
• a handful of dried prawn (can find in Asian grocers)
• some ginger, chopped into tiny pieces
• 1.5 tbs oyster sauce
• 2 tbs sesame oil
• salt to season 

Method

To make the dough:


1. Add flour in a big mixing bowl, add pinch of salt, add hot water and then cold water to combine;


2.Combine flour and water. The dough should be a consistency in between runny and a firm ball shape- Not too firm!


3.Do not be too concerned about the slightly wet and sticky dough. This consistency will make perfect soft and thin sheets for the pie later.


4.Cover and let dough rest for at least 1 hr.


To make the filling:


1.Make sure you follow the steps sequentially, it will bring the best flavour out of the amazing mix!

2.Add Chinese chive into a big bowl, then immediately add in sesames oil, mix lightly, make sure the chive is coated evenly with sesames oil; add prawn, ginger, dry prawn and lastly the egg. Mix lightly. Then, add oyster sauce and salt, mix again.

To make the pie:

 

1. Leave the dough inside the container, because it is a bit sticky to work with the dough as a whole and it is better to keep the moist inside the container.


2. Divide into small balls, which will be kneaded and then rolled into flat sheet. The thinner the sheet the better(2mm). sometimes it is a bit tricky to roll, because the dough itself is quite soft and sticky, just apply flour to work with the soft dough.

3. The rolled up sheet now is ready to wrap the fillings in. Use a table spoon to add the fillings into the sheet, 2 table spoons of fillings is sufficient.

4. Then, make the pie into a HUGE dumpling shape and later, work on the beautiful patterns around the edge.

5. Voila! the pies are now ready to be fried. Brush some canola oil on top of each pie to prevent drying out. Heat up a heavy-based frying pan (I use a special Chinese electric cooker called DIAN BING CHENG, it makes the frying process quite easy). add some oil, then put the pies in.

6. Medium heat, when the bottom of the pie is light golden, add a bit of water, and cover the lid, when the water is completely absorbed,flip and fry the other side, until golden and crispy.

7. Serve with Chinese Rice vinegar and green wasabi. Yummy~!

Now that you are enjoying the home-made Chinese chive pie, let me tell you some interesting secret of JIU CAI. It is considered VERY good for strenghthening 'manhood'-perhaps this is another reason why it is a Spring time favorite!