Guilin 18 Stuffed Delicacies (Guilin Shi Ba Niang)
Guilin 18 Stuffed Delicacies (Guilin Shi Ba Niang) is a home-style meat dish at difficulty 3/5 (Intermediate), about 468 kcal. Guilin traditional stuffed dishes involve stuffing seasoned pork, shrimp paste,. Ingredients and step-by-step instructions are below, with notes for home cooking.
3 / 5
★★★☆☆
468 kcal
Ingredients
- **Container (Wrapper) — Anything tubular works:**
- Green Peppers, Bitter Melon, Eggplant, River Snails, Tofu, Shiitake Mushrooms, Pumpkin Flowers, Pomelo, Bamboo Shoots, Winter Melon, Taro, Garlic, Tomatoes, Bean Sprouts, Eggs, Scallops, Wild Mushrooms
- Principle: Everything goes into the stuffing
- **Filling (Filling) — Mostly meat-based:**
- Pork Filling (Classic, 3:7 fat-to-lean ratio)
- Shrimp Paste Filling (Fork version)
- Fish Filling
- Mixed Filling (Pork + Shrimp Paste, Pork + Snail Meat, etc.)
Steps
- ### Core Concept
- The term 'stuffed' (or 'Niang' 酿) refers to taking a hollow, tubular food item as a container, filling it with seasoned meat paste, and then pan-frying or braising it until cooked.
- Using two already-recorded recipes as examples:
- **Stuffed Green Peppers:** Remove seeds and hollow out peppers → Stuff with pork filling or shrimp paste → Pan-fry until splotchy/hide-texture color → Simmer in sauce.
- **Stuffed River Snails:** Blanch river snails to extract meat → Finely chop snail meat and stir into pork → Stuff back into the snail shells → Braise with Perilla and Mint.
- Switch to other tubular ingredients and repeat the same process to create a new dish. Bitter melon stuffed with meat, eggplant stuffed with meat, tofu stuffed with meat... it's all the same principle.
- The 'heart' (Filling) can also change:
- **Pork Filling:** The most basic and versatile choice; a 3:7 fat-to-lean ratio offers the best texture.
- **Shrimp Paste Filling:** Fresh, sweet, and bouncy; frequently used in stuffed green peppers.
- **Snail & Pork Mixture:** The soul of the stuffed river snail dish; snail meat and pork mixed 1:1 with added Perilla and Mint.
- **Mixed Filling:** A mix of Pork + Shrimp Paste for a combination of sweetness and savory oiliness.
- one container paired with one filling; change either, and you have a new kind of stuffed dish. Locally, there is a saying 'Everything goes into the stuffing', and that is exactly why.
Notes
Guilin traditional stuffed dishes involve stuffing seasoned pork, shrimp paste, etc. into over a dozen hollow ingredients such as green peppers, bitter melon, river snails, and eggplant. The dishes are pan-fried or braised, each with a unique flavor. They are juicy, tender or bouncy, and represent a rich local home-style flavor. The filling provides high-quality protein, and paired with various vegetables, it is rich in vitamins and dietary fiber, offering a relatively balanced nutritional profile. The production requires patience for step-by-step filling and temperature control, but the logic is simple, allowing even kitchen novices to try. Estimated time to complete everything is about 1.5 hours.
Estimated cooking difficulty: ★★★
Estimated calories: 468 kcal
Group: Guilin 18 Stuffed Delicacies
Calculation:
18 Containers × 4 Fillings = 72 combinations, but actually about 20 common combinations are used.
Core Formula: **Tubular Item + Meat Filling + Fry/Braise = Stuffed Dish**
### Existing Recipes
- [Stuffed Green Peppers](../青椒酿/青椒酿.md) — Stuffed Peppers with Pork / Shrimp Paste (Fork version)
- [Stuffed River Snails](../田螺酿/田螺酿.md) — Snail and Pork 1:1, with Perilla and Mint
### Stuffed Dishes Gallery