Steamed Pork Buns (菜肉包)

This recipe of steamed buns comes late, a bit behind my original schedule. These pork buns were cooked last week and posted on my Chinese food blog a few days ago.

Over the past few days, south-east Queensland has experienced a very devastating flood, so called “inland tsunami”, similar to 1974 tragedy. The family was spared as we are not in the flood zone. Sadly, countless suburbs, the CBD of Brisbane and Ipswich are inundated, awaiting for clean up once the flood waters are clear. My mind was totally occupied by all those images and news about the flood through the media. It’s so sad to see many people lost their houses, their business, their property and even their loved ones. I’ve ever seen such a horrible flash flood since I moved to Australia. Hope I won’t see any again. My thoughts and hearts are out to all those affected in this traumatic flood.

The flood came so quickly, much quicker than anyone expected. So, be thankful and enjoy what you have right now. Even if it’s something as simple as eating a few buns, it's a bliss by itself. Speaking about the buns, they can be kept in freezer for up to two to three weeks once they are steamed and cooled down. I usually take one or two out form the freezer, needless to defrost, and quickly bring their softness and freshness back by steaming in a wok/steamer for breakfasts.

Steamed Pork Buns (菜肉包) (Printable recipe)

Prepare 10 6cmx6cm baking paper/wax paper

Ingredients:

• 200 gm plain flour
• 2 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• ½ tsp instant dry yeast
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup, warm milk (should be under 40C)
• a pinch salt

Fillings:

• 130 gm Taiwanese cabbage (or other vegetables you like), shredded
• 170 gm pork mince

Seasonings:

• 1 Tbsp light soy sauce
• ½ tsp freshly grated ginger
• ½ tsp sugar
• ½ tsp chicken powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 3 Tbsp water
• pepper, to taste

Method:

1. Mix pork with seasonings well. Chill in fridge for about 15 to 20 minutes. Combine pork with cabbage. Set aside.
2. Use a measure cup or a bowl, pour in milk. Add ½ teaspoon of sugar and yeast. Rest for about 5 to 10, until bubbles arise.
3. Combine flour, 1½ teaspoon of sugar, water, oil and yeast mixture, knead into a smooth dough.
4. Place the dough in a bowl, covered with a cling film. Let rest for 15 to 20 minutes.
5. Transfer the dough onto a clean surface. Cut into 10 equal portions. Shape each in round balls, then roll into a disc with a rolling pin, with edges thinner than the middle. Wrap a spoonful filling inside, pinch seam tightly. Place on a piece of baking paper. Repeat this step with the rest of the dough. Transfer to a steamer/wok, covered, let rest for about 15 to 20 minutes.
6. Add cold water into steamer/wok. Steam buns over medium-high heat. When steam is vigorously releasing, continue to steam for 12 minutes. Turn off the heat, let rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Notes:

• You can substitute with other vegetables, like baby bok choy, chive, or any vegetables you like.
• The buns you steamed might look a bit yellowish if you use ordinary flour. Except you use the bleached flour, then your buns would look as white as those bought from shops. But I used the ordinary, unbleached flour, and made it whiter by adding some milk in the process of making the dough. So the buns shown in this post were quite white. If you use only milk without any water to make buns, they’d look even whiter. As I don’t want these Chinese buns taste heavy milk flavour, I just incorporated water to milk, with a ratio of 1:1. You can adjust the ratio according to your preference. You can skip the milk if you don’t like, of course. Just replace it with the same amount of water. That’s easy.
• Please refer to this post on how to wrap Chinese buns with video shown.