Pan-fried Buns with Chives and Minced Pork Filling

Ever tried this delicious Chinese pan-fried pork buns (韭菜豬肉餡餅)? You might have known or even tried the famous and popular Chinese dumplings (餃子 jiaozi). Dumplings and buns are two different kinds of Chinese snacks anyway. The pan-fried buns shown here are more or less like pan-fried dumplings (煎餃子 jian jiaoz) in taste, with totally different shape and texture. Well, the ingredients called for in this recipe are similar to making pan-fried dumplings. Even better, you don’t need to worry about the appearance of them whether they would look good or not, because it’s pretty easy to seal the buns. Best of all, you can wrap as much meat as you like for meat lovers who would really enjoy the juicy and succulent filling inside, yet with thinner wrapper outside.

Makes 10 buns

Ingredients:

• 180 gm plain flour
• 6 Tbsp hot water, about 80C
• 3 Tbsp cold water
• 170 gm Chinese chives (available at Asian grocery stores)
• 160 gm minced pork
• 1 tsp minced garlic

Seasoning for minced pork:

• 1 Tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp cornflour
• 1/2 tsp chicken stock powder
• 1 tsp Shaoxing wine
• Pinch of salt, to taste
• dash of sesame oil
• pinch of pepper

Method (making filling):

1. Rinse chives and briefly blanch in boiling water until just tender. Drain well and let cool. Squeeze water out of the chives and chopped into small pieces. Set aside.
2. Add seasoning, minced garlic and chopped chives into minced pork. Blend all ingredients towards only one direction, either clockwise or anti-clockwise according to your preference, no turning backwards though. This method will ensure the pork stick together very well. Mix pork very well until elastic, about 15 minutes. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. The filling is done (see the picture 1 above).

Method (making and frying buns):

1. Sift flour into a big bowl. Add 6 tablespoons of 80C hot water into the flour. Use a spatula to mix well and create some little flour crumbs (see picture 2).
2. Add 1 tablespoon of cold water at a time into the flour. Use hand to knead the dough until the surface is not sticky (see picture 3). Brush a bit of oil on the bottom of a bowl, place dough inside and covered with a damp towel. Let sit for 30 minutes.
3. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times until smooth. Roll and stretch the dough out into a long strip, about 1 1/2 inches in thickness. Divide into 10 equal parts. Roll each part into a small ball. Lightly flatten with your palm and roll out into a thin, even round using a rolling pin. (see picture 4). Wrap a heaped teaspoon of filling in the center. Seal the edge (Trim excess dough on the seal if you like, it tastes and looks better then.) with the seal facing down. (see picture 5 & 6).
4. Heat non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons of oil. Place wrapped pork buns in a single layer without touching with each other. Fry them until both sides are light brown. Add 1/2 cup of boiling water, cover with a lid and cook until the water dries up. Done! Serve hot, accompanied with a zesty dipping sauce, combining soy sauce, vinegar and chili sauce.

Note: If you'd like to trim the sealing, you can reuse the excess dough when you wrap the next bun. The last one would be a bit bigger of course. You have nine perfect buns, not too bad though.