Kao Bao Zi (Uyghur Baked Mutton Samsa)
Pie, not meaty! Kiln Roasted Lamb and Onion Gravy Bomb
Description
An absolute must-have at bazaars and stalls in Xinjiang. Completely different from fluffy Japanese steamed 'Meat Buns (Baozi)'. A wheat dough wrapper is folded squarely around mutton and onions, slapped onto the blazing walls of a 'Tandoor oven', and baked until shatteringly crisp.
Restaurants serving Kao Bao Zi (Uyghur Baked Mutton Samsa)
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On this site you can check dictionary details and, later, places to buy or eat related items.
The Recipe section below is a general reference, not a recipe from the listed shops.
Recipe
Ingredients
- Mutton(lean and fat)
- Onion
- Wheat flour
- Cumin powder
- Black pepper
- Salt
Instructions
- [Authentic Recipe]
- (Filling) NEVER use a meat grinder. Hand-chop fresh 'lean mutton and lamb tail fat' into tiny cubes with a cleaver.
- Finely dice an equal amount of 'onions' and mix with the lamb (onion sweetness completely erases mutton funk).
- Season extremely simply with salt, black pepper, massive 'Cumin powder (Ziran)', and a splash of water.
- (Dough) Knead flour, salt, and water into an unleavened 'dead dough' (Si Mian).
- Roll thin and square, pile the filling, and fold the corners like an envelope into a square parcel.
- [Baking Technique]: Brush with salt water and slap it directly onto the blazing inner walls of a massive Uyghur dome clay oven (Tandoor).
- Bake for minutes over extreme charcoal heat until the surface is golden, crispy, and slightly charred. Scrape off with a special spatula.
Learn more Spice, substitutes, tips
Key spices
Intense cumin aroma and pure mutton meat juices、羊肉の純粋な肉汁
Substitutes at Japanese supermarkets
(Bake shatteringly crisp in a home oven at 250°C/480°F)
Pairing
Hot Black Tea / Xinjiang Milk Tea
Trivia
[Trivia] Called 'Samsa' in Uyghur, considered the origin of the Indian Samosa. An ultimate meat-juice pie beloved as portable rations by nomads in the oasis cities of the Silk Road.
Eating tips & etiquette
[Unique Eating] Hold the piping hot pastry from the oven in paper and bite. The outer dough is 'crispy' like a cracker. Inside, a 'scalding hot mutton juice soup'—sweetened perfectly by the melting onions—violently bursts into your mouth.
Allergen
None