Youmian Kaolaolao

the steamed oat honeycomb of the Shanxi highlands: nutty naked-oat dough rolled thin against the palm into little tubes, stood on end in a steamer, and eaten with a hot mutton or tomato sauce

Origin: Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, Northern China

From the journey of Oat.

In the cold, dry loess highlands of Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, where wheat and rice struggle and the naked oat thrives, youmian, the flour of the hulless oat Avena nuda, is the daily bread grain, and the local cooks have built upon it a tradition of steamed oat dishes of remarkable ingenuity. The most famous is kaolaolao (also written kaolao): a stiff dough of scalded oat flour is pinched into small pieces, each of which is smeared and rolled thin against a smooth stone or the palm of the hand into a little open-ended tube, and the tubes are stood upright, packed close together, in a bamboo or metal steamer, where they form a pattern like the cells of a honeycomb, which is what the name evokes. The oat flour is what makes the dish, and it must be handled quite differently from wheat. Naked oat flour has no gluten and will not form a stretchy dough, so it is scalded with boiling water, which gelatinises its starch and gives it just enough cohesion to be shaped whilst hot; worked cold, it simply crumbles. The finished tubes are firm, chewy, and deeply nutty, with the characteristic toasted flavour of oats, and they are served not on their own but drenched in a hot, savoury sauce, most traditionally a rich mutton sauce or, in the humbler everyday version, a sauce of tomato, potato, and pickled vegetable. Eaten across the Shanxi and Mongolian uplands with the devotion the West gives its daily bread, youmian kaolaolao is one of the great and little-known oat dishes of the world.

Ingredients

Oat Dough

300 g naked oat flour (youmian; or fine wholegrain oat flour)
300 ml boiling water
0.5 tsp fine salt

Sauce

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cm fresh ginger, chopped
300 g lamb or mutton, finely diced (or omit for a vegetable sauce)
3 tomatoes, chopped
1 potato, finely diced
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
300 ml hot water or stock
1 tbsp black vinegar, to finish

Method

Make the sauce first so it can simmer while you shape the oats. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onion, garlic, and ginger until soft. Add the lamb, if using, and brown it well, then add the tomatoes and potato and cook until the tomatoes collapse.
Add the soy sauce, chilli flakes, and hot water or stock, bring to a simmer, and cook gently for 20 to 30 minutes until thick and rich. Finish with the black vinegar and keep warm.
Make the dough: put the oat flour and salt in a heatproof bowl and pour over the boiling water, stirring hard with chopsticks or a spoon as you go, until it comes together into a stiff, shaggy mass. As soon as it is cool enough to handle, knead it briefly into a smooth, firm dough.
Pinch off a small piece of dough the size of a hazelnut. On a smooth, lightly oiled work surface, press and smear it with the heel of your palm into a thin oval, then roll it up into a small open-ended tube. Stand each finished tube on its end in a lightly oiled steamer basket, packing them close together in rows.
Steam the tubes over vigorously boiling water for 10 to 12 minutes, until firm, glossy, and cooked through.
Divide the steamed oat tubes between warm bowls and ladle the hot sauce generously over the top. Serve at once.

Notes

Naked oat flour (youmian) is sold in Chinese groceries and online; a fine wholegrain oat flour, or oats ground fine in a blender, is a workable substitute, though the flavour is milder. The scalding technique is the key to the whole dish and applies to all youmian preparations. Besides kaolaolao, the same dough is shaped into youmian wowo (little steamed cones) and pushed into 'cat's ears'; all are served with the same sauces. A rich mutton sauce is the most prized topping in Inner Mongolia, whilst the tomato-and-potato sauce given here is the common Shanxi household version. The dish is filling and warming, a true food of the cold highlands.

The Gastrographer

Name: Youmian Kaolaolao
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Northern China
Ingredients: 300 g naked oat flour (youmian; or fine wholegrain oat flour); 300 ml boiling water; 0.5 tsp fine salt; 2 tbsp vegetable oil; 1 onion, finely chopped; 3 cloves garlic, chopped; 2 cm fresh ginger, chopped; 300 g lamb or mutton, finely diced (or omit for a vegetable sauce); 3 tomatoes, chopped; 1 potato, finely diced; 2 tbsp light soy sauce; 1 tsp dried chilli flakes; 300 ml hot water or stock; 1 tbsp black vinegar, to finish

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control