Best Bao Zi Tsai Ru Bao Vegetable Pork Steamed Buns Recipes

VEGETABLE AND PORK STEAMED BUNS

Steps:

• To make the filling, in a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, salt, white pepper, and water and stir to dissolve the sugar. Set this flavoring sauce aside. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté for 1 to 2 minutes, or until soft and fragrant. Add the pork, breaking it into small pieces, and cook and stir for about 2 minutes, or until half done. Add the mushrooms, cabbage, carrot, and peas, stir to combine, and then pour in the flavoring sauce. Sauté for 5 to 6 minutes, or until the vegetables are cooked and only a little liquid remains. Add the Chinese sausage and Char Siu Pork and stir to combine. Add the cornstarch and stir for 1 minute to bind the filling. Transfer to a bowl and set aside, uncovered, to cool completely.
• To make the dough, in a bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, and baking powder. Make a well in the center, pour the oil and milk into the well, and use a rubber spatula to stir the ingredients to form a soft, ragged mass. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 1 to 2 minutes, or until it is a relatively smooth, yet slightly sticky ball. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest for 1 hour.
• Fill the steamer pan halfway with water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Lower the heat until you are ready to steam.
• Have ready sixteen 3-inch squares of parchment paper. Remove the dough from the bowl, cut it in half, and then re-cover one-half with the inverted bowl while you work with other half. On your work surface, shape the dough into a log and cut into 8 equal pieces. Loosely cover 7 of the pieces with a dish towel to prevent drying. To make a bun, place a piece of dough, cut side down, on a lightly floured work surface and shape it into a disk. Imagine a quarter-sized circle in the center, what the Chinese call the belly of the wrapper. You want to roll out the disk into a flat, round wrapper that retains a thick belly, so that there won't be more dough on the bottom of the bun than on the top. With this in mind, start rolling out the disk from the center to the rim, keeping the belly 1/4 inch thick. (An Asian-style rolling pin, which is essentially a 1-inch wooden dowel, is ideal for this job.) Lift and rotate the dough frequently to make sure it doesn't stick to your work surface. Aim for a wrapper about 5 inches in diameter and 1/8 inch thick at the edge.
• Pick up the wrapper and hold it in a slightly cupped hand. Use your free hand to spoon a heaping tablespoon of the filling into the center of the wrapper. Gently press on the filling with the back of the spoon to create a well. Add a wedge of egg, curved white side up. Mound another tablespoon of filling on top. The wrapper will seem very full; your cupped hand should naturally close a little more to keep the bun's shape.
• To enclose the filling, use your free hand to pleat the rim of the wrapper. Pick up the rim of the dough circle between the tips of your thumb and index finger, stretching it a bit and pinching the dough together to form 1/4- to 1/2-inch pleats. Keep gathering and pleating the rim in an accordion pattern. As you pleat, use the thumb of your cupped hand to tuck the filling inside the wrapper. After you have pleated all around the rim, there will be a small fluted hole at the top. Twist and pinch it closed; if there is an excessive amount of dough, pinch some off and discard. Place the bun, pleated side down, on a parchment square. Repeat with the other dough pieces. Then cut and shape the remaining half of the dough for 8 more buns. Place as many buns in the steamer trays as possible, spaced 1 inch apart and 1 inch away from the edge where condensation collects. Leave the remaining buns out, covered, until a tray is available.
• Return the water in the steamer pan to a rolling boil. Loosely cover 1 of the filled trays with parchment or waxed paper to prevent drying. Place the other tray in the steamer, cover, and steam the buns for 20 minutes, or until they have puffed up and look dry. Turn off the heat and wait for the steam to subside before lifting the lid, and then lift it away from you carefully to avoid condensation dripping onto the buns. Remove the tray and use a metal spatula to transfer the buns, on the parchment, to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Steam the second tray the same way. Put the remaining buns in the empty tray and repeat.
• Arrange the buns, still on the parchment, on a platter and serve. Remove the parchment before eating the buns out of hand.

ZHU ROU BAO ZI (STEAMED PORK BUNS)

Steps:

• Smash the unpeeled ginger with the flat of a heavy cleaver so that it will release its juices. Put the ginger in the cup of water, stir, and set aside. 1 to 2 hours is preferable.
• Add the sugar and the yeast to the cup of lukewarm water and stir until it dissolves. In the meantime, sift the flour into a bowl. When the yeast mixture is foaming, add it to the flour and mix vigorously until the mass begins to stick together.
• Add the oil and when the dough coheres enough, place it on a floured counter and knead for 10 minutes until it is smooth. It is very important that the dough be soft. Do not add more flour unless necessary to keep it from sticking to your hands and the kneading surface. Once the dough is kneaded, oil the dough ball with peanut oil and place in a covered bowl in a warm place.
• Separate and blanch the cabbage leaves for 3 minutes in a large pot of boiling water. Remove, drain, and cool. When it is cool enough to handle, roughly chop the cabbage and put in a clean hand towel. Wring out as much of the water as possible, then mince.
• Mix together the pork, cabbage, the minced ginger, minced scallion, minced garlic, salt and pepper. Mixing thoroughly with a wooden spoon or paddle of a kitchen mixer, add the cup of strained ginger water, soy, wine and sesame oil. Add cornstarch, and mix in one direction for several minutes. The filling should be moist, almost like batter; add chicken stock if the filling seems stiff or dry.
• Have the steamer ready before you begin. When the dough has doubled in bulk, and you are ready to make the baozi, punch down the dough and make several indentations in the dough with your fingers. Sift the baking powder into these holes, fold up the dough and pinch the edges together to contain the baking powder.
• Knead for five minutes, or until the baking powder is thoroughly incorporated. Cover the dough ball and let it rest for five or ten minutes. Form the dough into two ropes, approximately 1-1/2" in diameter, then cut the ropes into sections approximately 1-1/2" long. Roll each segment into a ball, place, separated, on a tray, and cover.
• To make a baozi, flatten one of the balls with your hand, keeping it as round as possible. Roll the discs into approximately 4" rounds, as thin as possible on the edges, and 1/8" or so in the center. Roll out several rounds and keep them covered as you begin to fill the baozi (Doing these somewhat ahead once again rests the dough and makes them more manageable).
• Smear a couple of heaping tablespoons of filling to the dough, leaving a border of a half inch or so, and begin pleating the very edge with your fingers and thumb, overlapping the dough by a quarter inch or so. The pleat should be squeezed firmly and pulled slightly vertically to prevent the top of the finished bun from being too thick.
• As you pleat, rotate the baozi clockwise, making sure the filling remains well below the edges of the bun. Complete the process by closing the top with a spiral twist. Place the pleated baozi, separated from one another, on a steamer tray lined with perforated parchment paper or (napa) cabbage leaves and steam, covered, for 14 to 15 minutes.
• It is very important to make one or two sample baozi to test for salt and seasonings. When you've done this, you are ready to complete the batch of 20 - 30 baozi.