Mianwo (Fried Rice and Soybean Batter Rings)

Name: Mianwo (Fried Rice and Soybean Batter Rings)
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 200 g white rice (medium or long grain); 50 g dried soybeans; 300 ml water, for grinding; 5 g salt; 1 tsp ginger, finely chopped; 3 spring onions, sliced; 3 tbsp white sesame seeds; 1.5 L neutral oil; 1 mianwo mould (wo shao)

Wuhan's breakfast fritter: a thin batter of soaked, ground rice and soybeans poured into a ladle-shaped iron mould with a raised centre and lowered straight into the oil. The mould holds the shape, so the batter never has to hold a ring by itself, and the raised centre means it lies thick at the outer edge and thin round the hole — one fry, one fritter, a soft outside and a crisp inside.

Ingredients

4servings

Batter
white rice (medium or long grain)200 g
dried soybeans50 g
water, for grinding · added a little at a time300 ml
salt5 g
ginger, finely chopped1 tsp
spring onions, sliced3
To fry
white sesame seeds3 tbsp
neutral oil · deep enough to submerge the mould1.5 L
mianwo mould (wo shao) · or a small flat ladle; see Variations1

Steps

Rinse the rice and soybeans separately and soak each in cold water overnight (8 hours or more). In hot weather, soak them in the fridge.
Drain and blend them together, adding the water a little at a time, for 3-4 minutes, very fine. You want a thin batter that runs off a spoon — thinner than pancake batter. Stir in the salt, ginger and spring onion.
⏲ 4 min
Heat the oil to 180°C and sit the empty mould in it for 1 minute to get hot. Batter poured into a cold mould sticks.
⏲ 1 min
Lift the mould out, shake off the oil and scatter a pinch of sesame over the base, then fill it with batter. With the back of a spoon push the batter off the raised centre towards the rim, so it lies thin round the hole, and scatter more sesame on top.
⏲ 30 sec
Lower the mould into the oil. After 40-60 seconds the surface sets and the fritter lets go of the mould and floats. If it does not, ease the edge up with a chopstick.
⏲ 1 min
Fry 2-3 minutes more, turning. The ring round the hole goes deep brown first while the outer edge stops at gold — that difference in colour is the sign it is done.
⏲ 2 min 30 sec
Stand them on a rack to drain and serve hot. As they cool the outside softens and the crisp inside does not last long either.

Tips & Variations

Variations

Sweet potato mianwo: diced sweet potato stirred into the batter and fried in the same mould — sweet rather than savoury.
Without the mould: pour the batter into a small flat ladle and push a chopstick through the middle for the hole. The shape comes out right, but with no raised centre the batter lies at one even depth, so there is no crisp inner ring. The substitute shows that the raised centre is half the food.
The Wuhan breakfast: mianwo is bought from morning stalls, with sesame-paste noodles or soy milk.

Tips

The mould does the batter's job. Sel roti also fries a ring of rice batter, but it pours straight into the oil and draws the circle by hand, so the batter has to hold the shape itself. Every rule on that page is therefore about consistency: "Too thin and it spreads across the oil instead of holding a ring". Mianwo's shape is held by an iron mould, so the batter can be thin. The thinner it is, the further it runs into the corners of the mould, and the lighter the fried inside.
Sel roti's waiting time is handed to the mould as well. Sel roti asks for twenty to thirty seconds of waiting and gives the reason: "Turned before the shape sets, the ring falls apart." Here the batter spends that time inside the mould. Once the surface sets it lets go and floats up, and that is the signal that it can be turned. The batter, not the cook, says when.
The raised centre splits the thickness in two. The base of the mould is not flat but domed in the middle, so the same pour lies deep at the outer edge and shallow round the hole. In the oil the thin part loses its water first and crisps; the thick part keeps steam inside and stays soft. Two results from one fry come from the shape, not from the temperature (deep frying).
Which is why pushing the batter off the centre matters. Left as poured, the batter sits thickly over the dome as well. One pass with a spoon thins the ring round the hole, and that ring is where the brown appears first.
A hot mould and deep oil. Batter poured into a cold mould sticks to the iron and will not release, and the oil has to be deep enough to take the mould under.
Raw soaked grain and bean, so grind it fine. Grinding soaked raw pulses into a batter is the method of bindae-tteok too. Any grit left in the batter is still there after frying and sits in the mouth like sand. Unlike dosa it is not fermented, so it can go into the oil as soon as it is ground.