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Bawan (Taiwanese Meatball)

Name: Bawan (Taiwanese Meatball)
Total time: 90 min
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Taiwan
Ingredients: 150g Sweet Potato Starch; 30g Rice flour; 300ml Water; 200g Pork Belly (cubed); 100g Bamboo Shoots (diced); 3 leaves Shiitake Mushrooms; To taste Sweet-Savory Sauce; To taste Garlic Sauce

Snack

⏱ 90 min

👥 Serves 4

Difficulty ⭐⭐

A chewy translucent skin wrapped around pork and bamboo shoots, steamed then fried — a central Taiwanese specialty.

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📖 The Story Behind This Dish

Bawan is a snack from Changhua in central Taiwan: a translucent, chewy dough of sweet potato starch and rice flour is wrapped around a filling of pork, bamboo shoots, and shiitake mushrooms, steamed, and then shallow-fried. It's classically topped with a sweet-savory sauce and garlic sauce, and its crisp outside and wobbly inside are the secret of its popularity.

🌆 Where it's eaten: At a night market in Changhua, bawan fresh from the steamer are drizzled with sweet-savory sauce and eaten steaming hot.

🥕 Ingredients (serves 4)

Sweet Potato Starch 150g
Rice flour 30g
Water 300ml
Pork Belly (cubed) 200g
Bamboo Shoots (diced) 100g
Shiitake Mushrooms 3 leaves
Sweet-Savory Sauce To taste
Garlic Sauce To taste

👩‍🍳 Instructions

Heat the sweet potato starch, rice flour, and water in a pan, stirring, into a thick translucent dough.
Stir-fry and season the pork, bamboo shoots, and shiitake to make the filling.
Spread a thin layer of dough in heatproof bowls, add the filling, and cover with more dough.
Steam about 20 minutes to set.
Unmold, shallow-fry both sides in oil, and top with sweet-savory sauce and garlic sauce.

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