Steamed Pork Buns

rangapeach's Note:

This came from a good friend who is not Asian but loves to cook all Asian styles. It's an easy recipe although it helps to be able to just buy the Chinese barbecue pork. I do make my own barbecue pork, using a couple of whole filets and "Char Siu" sauce. You can also add sauteed cabbage to the filling if you want to make larger amounts. This is a typical Dim Sum item, served between brunch and 2 pm. with tea. (Amount of water in the dough is corrected.)

• Total Time: 55 mins
• Prep Time: 45 mins
• Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 12

Dough

• 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1⁄3; cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon lard
• 2⁄3; cup lukewarm water

Filling

• ¼ lb sliced Chinese barbecue pork or ½ lb ground pork , sauteed and drained
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 2 scallions , minced (green onions)
• 1⁄3; cup water

Seasoning

• 3 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions:

1. Sift the flour.
2. Add sugar, baking powder and lard.
3. pour in water and knead until smooth.
4. Cover with a damp teatowel and rest for 30 minutes.
5. Saute the onions and pork briefly in the oil.
6. Add water and seasonings and simmer until the sauce thickens.
7. Spread this filling onto a plate to cool.
8. Roll the dough into a long sausage shape and cut into twelve equal pieces.
9. Roll each into a ball and flatten into a circle with your fingers.
10. Place a spoonful of filling in the center and bring the dough up around it.
11. Pinch the dough firmly to join it.
12. Put each bun on a separate piece of parchment or wax paper.
13. At this point the pastries can be frozen (IQF) by placing them on a tray in the freezer.
14. Otherwise, brush each with a little water and set them in a steam basket.
15. Steam over rapidly boiling water for 10 minutes.
16. When steaming, do not crowd the pastries.
17. If necessary steam them in batches.
18. They can be rewarmed (once) carefully in the microwave.

Reviews

[Cook Canuck]

The dough is delicious, its fluffy and just sweet enough to counteract the salty soy sauce mixture. I think next time I'll include more green onions since the powerful flavour of the soy sauce and the oyster sauce really overshadow the relative delicacy of the onions. I used 1.25 tablespoons of butter instead of lard, and it worked out well. The dough was difficult to work with until I got used to working with it, then things went along like a breeze. Thanks for the recipe!

[nyc foody]

these were outstanding, and so easy to make. used shortening instead of lard, and 1 scallion rather than 2. used a stand mixer with dough hook to mix the dough, and did end up needing to add an extra 2 tbls of water, but the mixer made it very easy. suggestion - make the buns as thin as you possibly can while still keeping them thick enough to hold the filling. they puff up a lot when steamed, and if they start out too thick, you will have way too much bun and not enough filling.

[Kitsune]

The dough was quite tough to work with. I had to add more water to get it to work and it was difficult to shape into a flat circle. The filling ,however, was delicious. I have tried the dough from another meat bun recipe, recipe #11087 and it was much easier to shape. I used the meat filling from this one though.