Einstein said “Imagination is More Important Than Knowledge” For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

I have been thinking of making this flower rolls for eons. Last year my friend came to my house and noticed my spring onions growing wild! Too many of them. She recommended I made spring onion oils. I am not a big fan cause I do not like the ‘brownish’ looking spring onions after. I’ve never needed to buy spring onions ever for years. They just grow all through winter in my garden which is a South facing little micro climate area in Hertfordshire. I am really lucky!

I lost the use of my bamboo steamer a few years back as I kept it in the shed and it went mouldy. It’s very difficult to buy one of bamboo the size I wanted until recently. I bite the bullet and got a new one few months back as they are expensive! Hubby was ‘you’ve not use your bamboo steamer yet’ few few times already and I pretended to ignored him I know he is hinting for my special ginger parcels.

Today I have made spring onions (scallions) and lap cheong flower rolls. This idea been in my head a long time but I just needed to find out how to make the green of the spring onion remains fresh looking even after baking!

My boy on the other hand do not like to eat spring onions and won’t touch lap cheong (Chinese sausage) and he requested for ham and cheese. so I made some ham and cheese for him too!

While I was cutting the ham I remembered I have some pineapple I was saving for rojak but hey ho I will use it for him to make him a happy boy. So the Hawaiian Flowered roll is born!

My mind was in over drive thinking of all the combinations possible both sweet and savoury now that I have decided I want to use this combination of flours and liquid ratio. It gives me a soft roll and I much prefer steamed rolls to baked really. I find steamed boa/rolls much softer and less dry than bread. Easier on the palate

I tweaked my char siew bao recipe a bit and viola this flower dough roll is born. For the steps to making this dough please refer to https://www.julieolive.co.uk/2020/07/28/easy-char-siu-baozi/ to see how to make the dough.

Use the my fours to liquid ratio as a guide and experiment. I have done a few suggestion here and hope you enjoy it.

Having more liquid makes for a softer boa/roll but the shape would not look as good but eats better.

Having less liquid gives you a better looking bao/roll but do not taste as soft just ecstatically pleasing to the eye.

TIP – To keep your spring onions and chives green even after baking you first soak them in 2 litres of cold water + 1 tsp of baking powder for 30 minutes before slicing for use. In this way your spring onions will still look just plucked from garden even after baking. Refer to my pic

TIP – To eat the next day all you have have to do is microwave it 30 seconds.

Here is another post hubby was able to recover from the net, from my old block. It’s ‘Chuk bi peah’ I have made both sweet ones and savoury ones.

This ‘peah’ literally means ‘biscuit’ in Hokkien dialect. This is only sold in Kuching in the old days as far as I know. Only those who grew up in Kuching will know this kueh and some have not even eaten them before.

A few times when I phoned my mother she was on and on about this chuk bi peah. She kept telling me how much she misses this kuih. and she’s in her 70ies.

So I wanted to learn this kuih and make it for her one day. Thanks to some of my classmates, their patience with me and guidance, taking pics for me so I am able to make this in UK. Thank you Ron, Cindy and Mary. Hubby extended his ‘Thanks’ too. He said next time in Kuching beers on him!

He preferred the haebee one because of my sambal even though he ate 4 of the tausah cause I fried and served them first! 

I will defo make this again. Love the crunchiness – Happy me.

First published – 1st August 2018