Recipe: Fried sesame balls (aka jian dui, 煎堆) + instruction video

After the "How to make Chinese chives beef dumplings video", I made another video on how to make Chinese fried sesame balls (aka Jian dui, 煎堆).





After filming the first video, my mom got so excited that she suddenly has the ambitions to become a famous YouTube star. She is coming up with new ideas and recipes on her own and keeps telling me to edit faster, so that we can film another episode. My relationship with my mom wasn't that good when I was younger, but she has done all she can to make up for it. I also got to the age that I can understand the situation from another person's point of view and not just from my own perspective (Did I become less selfish and self-centered? Wisdom really does come with age). I can't really say that I am so noble that I can just forgive everyone who has hurt me in one way or another, but life is too short to be forever angry. I can't tell how many years I still get to spend time with my parents and working together on filming cooking videos has had a mother-daughter bonding effect. I can really recommend making these Chinese fried sesame balls together with your (elderly) parents or children. Although putting them in hot oil is too dangerous, rolling them with their hands and covering the balls with sesame seeds are easy tasks that you can leave to anyone.

Ingredients needed for making Chinese fried sesame balls 

- 200 ml water
- Two slices of brown sugar
- Two cherry sized pieces of rock sugar
- 400 g glutinous rice flour
- a bag of sesame seeds 
- filling (I used red beans from a can and small slices of Dutch Gouda cheese - "jong belegen" kind)

Some extra information


With the dough, I was able to make 21 Chinese fried sesame balls. It is better to cut all the balls of dough in about the same size, as it keeps the frying time the same for all the balls (to avoid undercooked or burned ones). My mom was able to cut the balls in the same size with her experienced eye, but you can also roll the ball of dough in one long strand and cut the strand in 21 pieces beforehand.

Half the can of red bean filling was still left and you can keep that in a container in the freezer for another use or next batch of fried sesame balls.

Heat the oil to 180 °C and slowly, slide the sesame balls into the oil. After it starts to float in the oil, you can lower the heat a bit and let it turn golden brown. 






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