First Bake With This Year's CSA Grain Harvest Share

My grandparents (mom's side) migrated to HK decades ago from Southern China so I grew up eating mainly rice. To be honest. I have no idea how the authentic version tastes. I was not familiar with Northern wheat-based staples (noodles, buns etc.) until a few years ago, which was way later than when I developed an addiction for spaghetti and pizza...  That said, I've wanted to try my hands at homemade rou jia mo for months and your comment gave me the incentive to do so ASAP. It was exam period so I waited til this week to make it. 

I took reference from several recipes to mix up a dough with 1% each salt, instant yeast and baking powder. My flour of choice was a special kind of Taiwanese AP flour '粉心粉'. Supposedly, it contains only the center-most part of the endosperm, making it finer and whiter in color (similar to Italian 00 flour I guess?). For some reason, it was very thirsty and I had to up the hydration to 60% so that the dough was kneadable. Still, it was a very stiff dough, comparable to 45% hydration bread flour dough. Most formula settled on 45-50% hydration though. I hand-knead the dough until it was very smooth and let it double. Then, it was fully degassed, shaped and left to rest for 30 minutes or so. It rose by roughly 30% after the rest. I cooked it uncovered for 7-8 minutes over medium-low heat, flipping several times.

This is probably not traditional but I like to wrap the mo in a lignin cloth for several minutes to prevent it from getting hard. Before serving, it was heated on both sides over medium heat. I like to put the lid on for moister mo. My mo was moist in the center and had a crispy crust. However, it also turned out a bit chewy. I personally don't mind that yet if you do, you might try increasing the hydration slightly. Some people like to destroy part of the dough gluten by mixing hot water with half of the flour (燙麵). It is later combined with the leavened dough. Another tip I learnt somewhere is extending the resting time. This makes quite a difference in terms of the final texture. I'll do more experiments and see how it goes. 

Yes, that is Char Siu. And yes, it is totally not authentic. Hopefully by now, we all know that authenticity is my least concern when it comes to food :)