Jiu Cai He Zi (egg and chive pockets)

Another favorite of mine. This dish has sentimental value to me... it's one that I've always loved growing up and just never got tired of. It's also REALLY REALLY simple and tastes great, despite the few ingredients required to make it. You will need:

- flour

- chives (preferably Chinese chives)

- eggs

Amounts are shown in the pictures. We had enough for about 12 pockets, which was more than enough for 4 people (though we did eat other things too).

First thing you want to do is make the dough. Pretty easy... just mix 3 parts flour with 1 part water and knead it. Here's a picture of my dad holding the finished dough:

Next, beat the eggs. We used 3 eggs but only because we didn't have enough left... I personally would've used 5 eggs because I like the egg to chive ratio to be a little higher.

Chop the chives up... use whatever amount you want. Add soy sauce and sesame oil to the chives and stir it up. We did a four to one ratio soy sauce to sesame oil... use however much of each that you want. It's all dependent on what you like.

Next cook the eggs... the way we did it was to cook it in a pancake-like fashion, then flip it over, and break it up.

Once the egg is cooked, mix it with the chives. Forgot to take a picture of this but you can probably imagine what it looks like.

It's time for the fun part... wrapping the pockets! Break off a ball of dough like somewhere between the size of a golf ball and a tennis ball (closer to the golf ball), put some flour on it so it doesn't stick to whatever you're gonna roll it on, and get to work on it with the rolling pin. you want it to be pretty thin and circular shaped.

Proper rolling technique: hold the dough with one hand, roll hard with the other hand and stretch the dough out as much as possible with each motion, and rotate it after each time you roll it.

Next, put a bit of the egg/chive mixture into the pocket. Then wet your finger and wet the edges of the flattened circle of dough. You may find it helpful to have a bowl of water near where you'll be cooking. Decide which way you want to fold it, and then pinch the edges together to make the pockets.

Voila! Cooking is hella fun! Just ask Tony... lol.

Make as many as you can until you run out of either dough or chive/egg mixture. You'll want to cook these three or four at a time. Well, it actually depends on how big your pan is. Put oil into it, put the heat on medium-high, and put the pockets on the pan until they're slightly golden brown on both sides. The second picture below is definitely burnt... go more for the level of brown in the final picture. ENJOY! These things are SOOO GOOOOOD.