Roujiamo
Often called China's oldest sandwich: spiced pork chopped to rubble and packed into a crisp-edged flatbread. Traditionally the pork braises for hours, so here it is thinly sliced and simmered hard instead, which gets you most of the way there before your tea goes cold.
- Total time
- 19 min
- Serves
- 2
- Effort
- Medium
What you need
Written for 2 — nudge the counter and the numbers follow.
0 of 10 in the basket.
How you make it
Mix the flour with the warm water and a pinch of salt, knead 3 minutes into a smooth dough, and let it rest under a bowl.
Put the pork, water, soy sauce, star anise, cinnamon and sugar in a small pan, bring to a hard simmer and cook uncovered for 12 minutes, turning now and then, until the pork is tender, fully cooked through and the liquid has reduced to a few glossy spoonfuls.
While it simmers, divide the dough into four, roll each piece into a 12cm disc, and cook them in a dry frying pan over medium heat for 3 minutes a side until puffed with dark toasted spots.
Lift the pork out, discard the whole spices, and chop it on a board with the chilli and coriander until it is coarse rubble, adding a spoonful of the reduced cooking liquid to keep it juicy.
Split each bread most of the way through and stuff it full, pressing down so the juices soak into the crumb.
Read all that and thought “absolutely not”?
Completely fair. Roujiamo is sitting in the Chinese kitchen right now, it costs nothing, and it will never arrive.
Order it insteadMore from the Chinese kitchen
Wok breath you can taste from the doorway.