<old man voice>When I was a young lad, we didn't have pidan pastries at dim sum, but now these new fangled things have become quite trendy.</old man voice>

I first introduced pidan in a more traditional use with congee, but today we're going to make a "new fangled" (as old me says) fusion-ish delight. I say "fusion-ish" because Chinese do have layered pastries often made with lard, but I'm going to use a store bought puff pastry, which in Polish is called "ciasto francuskie", or "French baked good". You could make your own puff pastry but really...I mean really...who does that? Grow your own wheat too? I tease. If you do, mad respect!

Ingredients

• 2 pidan
• pickled ginger -- The pink kind that comes with sushi. Chinese have a similar pickled ginger too. It's usually cut thicker and has a stronger flavour -- both spicier and more sour. I think this dish works better with the Japanese style, but use whichever you prefer.
• puff pastry
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp honey
• sesame seeds

Method

• Beat the egg with the honey. This will be our egg wash.

• Peel the pidan and cut them into quarters lengthwise.
• Dust the cutting board with a bit of flour so the puff pastry doesn't stick.
• Roll out the puff pastry and place a few slices of pidan coupled with some pickled ginger, spaced apart enough to cut them into separate pastries later. You'll want to squeeze the liquid out of the ginger first so they aren't so wet.
• Brush some egg wash where the joints will be -- between the egg slices and in front where the puff pastry will fold over.

• Fold the puff pastry from the edge over all the pidan slices and curl the edge down onto the egg washed part.
• Cut this "roll" off from the rest of the puff pastry sheet.

• Cut in between each slice of pidan.
• With the side of your knife, press down the side "wings" of each pastry to make a nice seal.
• Brush the top of each pastry with more egg wash and sprinkle with some sesame seeds.
• Place the pastries on a baking sheet with parchment and bake them at 200 °C for about 15 minutes or until the tops are browned.

I have a confession to make. My partner used the last egg to make pancakes (nothing says "love" like bickering over an egg, heh). All I had was an egg yolk left over from making the stuffed bitter melons. So my egg wash consisted of an egg yolk and honey mixed with some water, which is why my pastries aren't as brown or as shiny as I'd liked. I hope you have better results!

Beware of bad pidan. If there is a hole or crack in the shell, discard it and don't use.

A better picture than a rotten egg to end the post.