Savoury Fried-Flour Drink 油茶

Savoury Fried-Flour Drink (油茶) has a Ruzhou (汝州) version made with flour, sesame seeds, peanuts, oil and water. Ruzhou is a county-level city under Pingdingshan (平顶山), Henan (河南).

How the Ruzhou version is made

Flour, sesame seeds and peanuts are first cooked in a pan. Water is brought to the boil, and the cooked flour is made into a slurry and added to the pot. When the water boils again, the cooked sesame seeds and peanuts go in, together with oil. A short further cooking completes the drink. Each ingredient’s cooking heat and the proportions matter to the finished flavour.

The crisp topping

Once the drink is ladled into a bowl, fried suyou pao (酥油泡) pieces are scattered over it. These prepared toppings are crisp and fragrant when chewed, and are eaten with the richly flavoured flour drink.