Sachima

Strands of egg dough fried crisp and then bound in a sugar syrup, where the syrup temperature decides whether it sets or sags.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter).

Ingredients

For the strands

• 300 g plain flour
• 4 eggs
• 6 g baking powder
• flour for dusting
• 1.5 litres flavourless oil, for frying

For the syrup

• 200 g caster sugar
• 150 g maltose or golden syrup
• 80 ml water
• 20 g butter

To finish

• 50 g raisins
• 30 g desiccated coconut
• 40 g white sesame seeds, toasted

Method

1. THE SYRUP GOES TO 118C AND THAT NUMBER IS THE RECIPE. Under it and the block never sets, so it sags into a sticky slab that cannot be cut. Over it and the syrup goes to hard crack, the strands shatter instead of yielding, and it welds to the tin. Use a thermometer; the window is a few degrees wide and no amount of experience reads it by eye.
2. AND EVERYTHING MUST BE READY BEFORE THE SYRUP IS. Once it comes off the heat you have about forty seconds of working time before it starts to set, and there is no reheating it with the strands already in.
3. Eggs beaten, flour and baking powder added, and brought together to a firm dough. Kneaded 8 minutes until smooth. No water at all -- the eggs are the only liquid.
4. Rested, covered, 30 minutes.
5. Rolled out as thin as you can, dusted well, folded over itself in loose layers and cut across into 3 mm strands. Shaken apart in plenty of flour; strands that stick together fry into lumps.
6. SHAKE THE LOOSE FLOUR OFF IN A SIEVE before frying. Flour carried into the oil burns and turns the whole batch bitter.
7. Oil to 170C. Fried in small handfuls, 60 to 90 seconds, until pale gold and puffed. They crisp as they cool, so pale is right and brown is too far.
8. Drained well on paper and left to cool completely.
9. A 20 cm tin lined with paper and oiled, and the raisins, coconut and sesame measured out beside it.
10. Sugar, maltose and water in a heavy pan over a medium heat, stirred only until the sugar dissolves and then NOT STIRRED AGAIN. Brought to 118C.
11. Butter in, swirled, heat off. Fried strands and the fruit tipped in at once and folded through fast with an oiled spatula until everything is coated.
12. Into the tin, pressed down FIRMLY and evenly with a sheet of paper and the flat of your hands -- loosely pressed, it crumbles when cut.
13. Left 2 hours to set, then turned out and cut into squares with a heavy knife. Keeps a week in a tin and goes soft in the fridge.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes