Bao Redux

This deserved its own post. We re-made the Bao recipe but with some modifications, and it turned out just... great.

Ingredients

• Bread dough
  
  
  
  • 3 tsp yeast
    
  • 3 tsp sugar
    
  • 1tsp salt
    
  • 1 cup milk, scalded and cooled
    
  • about 2.5 cups regular flour
    
  
  
  
• Filling
  
  
  
  • .25lb ground pork
    
  • 1/2 small yellow onion chopped
    
  • 1 tbsp garlic, crushed
    
  • 1 large carrot, peeled and chopped fine
    
  • 2c kale, chopped fine
    
  • to taste (our amounts in parentheses): ginger (.5tsp), soy sauce (2tbsp), black vinegar (1tbsp), oyster sauce (1tbsp), thai chili sauce (.75tsp), chicken stock (1/2tsp), corn starch (.5tsp mixed with some cold water), black pepper (.25tsp)
    
  
  

To make the dough:
Throw the milk in the microwave on high for 1.5-2 minutes, until it's about to boil. Set it aside to cool. In the mean while, add the flour, sugar, and salt and whisk together. Add the yeast to the dry mixture and give another stir. When the milk is cool enough that you can just put your finger in for about 2-3 seconds comfortably (but not much more), mix the milk in with the dough. Stir together, and then turn dough out onto a well floured surface and knead until smooth. Put the dough back into the metal bowl and place in a humid place to rise. (Try microwaving a cup of water for 2.5 minutes until it boils and then move the cup aside and stick the bowl of dough in the microwave to create a humid warm chamber).

To make the filling:
While the dough is rising, prepare the filling.
Place all the vegetables in a heavy-bottomed saute pan. Add some neutral oil (peanut oil?) and set to medium-high heat. Add about 1/8-1/4c water and cover. Once the water is mostly evaporated, turn to medium-low heat. Add the ground pork and cook. Our ground pork was frozen, so I covered it and let it thaw at a low temperature, then broke it apart with my spoon and set over high heat until it was completely cooked through.

Now add all of the sauces / flavors you want. Finally add the cornstarch (mixed with a little water) and set to high heat again until the sauce (if there is any to speak of) thickens. In ours, even with all the sauces we added there wasn't much liquid in the final mixture, so the corn starch was probably overkill. Anyway, be sure to taste and make sure you like what you taste. We added a little bit extra vinegar because we wanted a little more acid, but I could see adding more thai chili sauce, which is a little sweet.

To put them together:
Once the dough has risen for 40 minutes or so, dimple it into a sheet with your fingers and fold in 3 first one way then the other. Put back in the bowl and cover to let rise another 20 minutes. Pinch off a piece of dough about half the size of your fist. Press into 4-5" rounds. Put an appropriate amount of filling in the center of the round of dough - about 2tsp. With your fingers, gather the edges of the dough and pinch them together in the middle as best you can. Pinch the dough so it will hold MORE OR LESS together - doesn't have to be perfect because this side is facing up. Place the filled bun pinched side up on a square piece of parchment paper. Put in a bamboo steamer. Place buns a few inches apart, because they will expand during the steaming. If they stick together, it's no big deal. When steamer basket is full, cover the steamer with a lid and cook. Steam the buns for about 6 minutes.

Thoughts: Second time's a charm. We followed all of the minor changes in the previous edition but used different filling - this time with pork instead of beef. The flavor was much stronger and had a fairly authentic taste even with the carrots and kale (which we were just trying to use up). Next time I can see using mushrooms, finely chopped, and more pork-to-vegetable ratio. But the flavor was just fantastic. Secondly, the dough was much softer and lighter. The high amount of leavening probably gave it substantial rise in the relatively short time. Using only milk instead of milk and water gave the dough a very velvety texture that made it easy to work with. We TRIED baking one bao instead of steaming. It ALMOST worked - if we were really motivated, we'd do all the bao but place them pinched side DOWN on the parchment and then brush the other side with an egg wash. But it was a little bit too much work. Steaming was actually much easier. Somehow this was just much less work than last time. And better tasting.

Disaster Index: 1/10