Lotus Root Sandwiches 莲藕猪肉饼 and Pineapple Rice 菠萝饭

Yup, we're going to visit a new province today! Yunnan 云南 is located in the southern part of China. The weather there is rather tropical and soooo...there are a lot of tropical fruits and vegetables :). In the Yunnan province, Buddhism is also practiced heavily. So the people's food there is usually kept to the minimal and they don't consume meat at all. So after our instructor told us about this culture, I really wondered what we were going to make today. 

And it turned out that we are going to make TWO dishes today! Get excited! :D

The first dish we are going to make is...drumroll please.....LOTUS ROOT SANDWICHES!! Yeah I know, sounds kinda' weird right? But trust me, they're actually pretty good! (Or maybe we're just super incredible fantastic magnificent chefs ;).) If you don't know what a lotus root is, it's basically a "root" that is found in muddy puddles in swampy areas. So how did we make a dish out of this interesting looking vegetable? Well, I'm about to show you!

Ingredients you will be needing is: sliced lotus roots, soy sauce, pork, sugar, eggs, ginger, corn flour, cooking wine, scallions, and salt.

First step is to mince the pork. It should be easier if you brought ground pork. Dice the scallions and ginger and put it in the same bowl as the minced pork. Now, according to your taste and liking, add in sugar, cooking wine, soy sauce, and mix everything together. 

Now in a separate bowl, mix in eggs, corn flour, and water; mix until the texture is consistent. Obtain some lotus roots, wash and peel the skin. What you would want to do now is to cut the lotus slices about a centimeter in width. 

As the name suggests, we are going to make a sandwich! As simple as that. Tkae a slice of lotus root and, like spreading peanut butter onto a piece of bread, spread the mined pork mixture onto the lotus root. Take another slice of lotus root an put it on top of the meat. Yay, you have your very own lotus root sandwich! But it's not done quite yet. Remember you prepared an egg mixture? Yes, submerge the entire sandwich into the egg mixture. Once you take it out, deep fry it in a wok heated with oil. When you see a golden, crispy, layer formed that means the sandwich is ready to be served! :) You can also try to lay a piece of napkin on the plate so it can soak the leftover oil. You can either go ahead and eat it as the way it is, or you can dip it in soy sauce, hoisan sauce, chili sauce, etc. Have fun eating! :)

So nowwwwwwwww, the PINEAPPLE dish! I'm sure most, if not all, of ya'll are quite interested in what is this Pineapple rice. Yup, well just like it sounds, it's pineapple...with rice! Or I guess it's more like rice in a pineapple bowl. Anyways, let's get started! Here listed are the ingredients that you would need for this dish:

• 1 cup sticky (glutinous) rice
• 1 fresh, ripe pineapple
• 3 pieces rock sugar or 1/3 cup of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup dried longans
• 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts or coarsely chopped almonds
• Honey or agave nectar (optional)
• 1/2 cup flaked or shredded coconut

There are a couple of different ways to create this dish, but I'm going to tell you the recipe that we used in class. Because it can get a little wordy...I'm going to make this as succinct as possible! (You're welcome :).) 

1. Cook the rice!
2. Rinse the pineapple, cut off the head and cut the rest in half; carve out the pineapple meat and cut it into bite-szied block pieces for later use. 
3. By this time, your rice should be done. Mix the rice with honey, rock sugar, salt, longans, nuts, coconut water, and pineapple meat of course! (We're going to call this the "stuffing," you will see why in just a second. Literally.)
4. Place the stuffing in the pineapple bowl (or shell, however you want to call it). 
5. If you have a bamboo steamer, then place the whole thing in it and let it cook for 30-45 minutes. If you don't have a bamboo steamer, steam it in whatever way works for you! If you don't have any kind of steamer, I'm sure the oven would work just as fine :). 
6. Once the time is up! Grab a pair of gloves and it gobble up! You've just made your very own Chinese pineapple rice! 

Out of the two, I would say the lotus root sandwich is my favourite. (Well, besides the fact that I'm slightly allergic to pineapples.)When it comes to a meal, I gernally aggravate towards more savory and salty dishes than sweeter ons. And I also really liked how the lotus root sandwiches turned out. The lotus root was kinda' crunchy, probably because it wwasn't entirely cooked. But it added a different texture, which I thought wasn't bad. But if I were to make this dish again, I would let the sandwich deep fry a little longer until it's a golden brown colour. Then for the dipping sauce, I would use fish sauce, soy sauce, water, and some sesame seeds.

We've never made this dish at home before. I've talked about how my mother is a health freak. So usually we don't make anything that is deep fried. In our family, we like to use lotus roots to make soup. Lotus roots are known to hydrate the body. So a lot of Chinese families like to make lotus root soup (with pork and other herbs) after a BBQ, during the winter seasons, in which the body needs extra hydration (to keep it's balanced state; oh goodness I can go on with this forever. But I know you don't want to hear it haha.) With that being said, I wouldn't be surprised if my mom made me lotus root soup when I go back home this weekend. I'll try to post a picture if she did make it!

Well that is all for today folks, thanks for reading! Tomorrow, like last Friday, we are going to go on a field trip! Yayyy! :) We are going to have Peking duck. Yes, the one and only! So stay tuned and come back tomorrow for more! Have a lovely day! :)

Evann