Our Daring Cooks’ December 2011 hostess is Sara from Belly Rumbles! Sara chose awesome Char Siu Bao as our challenge, where we made the buns, Char Siu, and filling from scratch – delicious!
Sara..... Belly Rumbles.... well hello there, that would be me!
What an honour and privilege to host this month's Daring Kitchen's Daring Cooks' Challenge. It was also quite nerve wracking with months of recipe testing and trying to make everything perfect.
A quick explanation for those of you that aren't familiar with the Daring Kitchen or how the Daring Cooks' challenges work. Each month the challenge is hosted by a member of the Daring Cooks' Group. The host posts the challenge on a specific date in the members area. It is kept a secret from the public. The members participating in the challenge all reveal how they went on a specific date, through their food blogs, the 14th of the month.
It is a global community and, to be honest, I was nervous oh what people would think of the challenge. All feedback was positive, but I can't wait to read how everyone went. A big hug and thanks to those who participated this month. Also a big hug to Lis and Audax for their help.
Let me share with you the challenge I set for this month.
My Introduction to the Daring Cooks
Hi guys, I am Sara from Belly Rumbles, a little food blog from Sydney Australia. What an honour it is to be this month's host of the Daring Cooks' Challenge!
Sydney is a very multicultural city, and we are blessed with an amazing choice of cuisines and access to a wide range of ingredients and fresh produce. In our household we eat a lot of Asian cuisine. Yes Asian is a very wide term, and I generally cook Japanese, Chinese, Thai and Malay or my experimental versions based on one those.
My family and I regularly attend yum cha for brunch on a Sunday. Nothing beats a lazy start to the day and then grazing over a number of different steamed and fried dumplings as well as other various treats. Often we will choose a plate of cha siu (Cantonese BBQ pork) which is sliced and usually splashed with some soy sauce and can be scattered with peanuts. Steamed or baked cha siu bao (Cantonese BBQ pork buns) are also a regular item. My freezer always contains a six pack of frozen cha sui bao (not homemade) for steaming and a piece of cha siu is a regular purchase from the local Chinese BBQ shop.
Therefore what better way to challenge you guys and myself than having a go at making the Cantonese dish of char siu and then baking/steaming some cha siu bao.
The Challenge
Baked Char Siu Bao
Ingredients
Filling Ingredients
- 350 grams char siu finely diced
- 2 green onions/spring onions finely sliced
- 20 ml 1 tablespoon hoisin
- 20 ml 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 60 ml ¼ cup chicken stock
- 1 teaspoon cornflour
- 10 ml ½ tablespoon vegetable oil
Dough Ingredients
- 1 satchel of dried yeast 8 grams
- 55 grams ¼ cup sugar
- 125 ml ½ cup warm water
- 300 grams 2 cups plain flour
- 1 egg slightly beaten
- 60 ml 3 tablespoon oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Egg wash: 1 egg beaten with a dash of water
Instructions
- Filling Directions
- Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or pan.
- Add diced char siu to the wok/pan and stir then add spring onions, cook for 1 minute.
- Add hoisin, dark soy sauce and sesame oil to the pork mixture, stir fry for one minute.
- Mix cornflour and stock together and then add to the pork mixture.
- Stir well and keep cooking until the mixture thickens, 1 or 2 minutes.
- Remove mixture from wok/pan and place in a bowl to cool. Set aside until ready to use.
- Bun Directions
- Place the sugar and warm water in a bowl, mix until the sugar has dissolved. Add yeast and leave it for 10 - 15 minutes until it becomes all frothy.
- Sift flour in to a large bowl.
- Add yeast mixture, egg, oil and salt and stir. Bring the flour mixture together with your hands.
- Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for approximately 10 minutes. The dough should be smooth and slightly elastic.
- Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Leave to rise until it is double in size. This will take from 1 - 2 hours depending on weather conditions.
- Once dough has doubled in size knock back and divide in to 12 portions and shape in to round balls.
- Use a rolling pin to roll out to approximately 5cm in diameter. Then pick the piece of dough up and gently pull the edges to enlarge to about 8cm in diameter.
- By doing this it keeps the dough slightly thicker in the centre. This means when your buns are cooking they won't split on the tops.
- Place a good sized tablespoon of filling on the dough circle. Then gather the edges and seal your bun
- Place the bun seal side down on your baking tray. Continue with rest of dough.
- Once all buns are complete brush surface with egg wash.
- Place in oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Nutrition
Mushroom Bao
Ingredients
- 170 grams swiss brown mushrooms finely diced
- 90 grams shitake mushrooms finely diced
- 240 grams flat mushrooms finely diced
- 2 shallots finely diced
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon hoisin
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- ¼ cup vegetable stock
- 1 teaspoon cornflour
- ½ tablespoon vegetable oil
Instructions
- Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or pan. Sauté the shallots for one or two minutes until soft
- Add the mushrooms to the onions in the wok/pan. Cook until mushrooms have rendered down and most of the liquid from the mushrooms has evaporated.
- Add soy sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin and sesame oil, cook for another few minutes.
- Mix cornflour and stock together and then add to the mushroom mixture.
- Stir well and keep cooking until the mixture thickens, 1 or 2 minutes.
- Remove mixture from wok/pan and place in a bowl to cool. Set aside until ready to use.
Nutrition
Storage & Freezing Instructions/Tips
The baked char siu bao freezes very well. All you need to do is take them out of the freezer and place in the over to warm. The steamed ones should freeze okay as well. To warm them place in microwave for about 30 seconds until warm and defrosted.
Additional Information
If you are going to attempt the steamed buns, this is a fantastic demonstration of folding the streamed char siu bao