Banh Bao - Vietnamese Steamed Pork Buns

IMy friend, Cuc, makes these buns for me regularly and I finally convinced her to show me how to make them. Here are the photos of our endeavor. I found Vicky Pham's recipe online and it is really similar to Cuc's. I like how Vicky wraps the quail eggs in the pork. We didn't do that and it is more difficult to wrap that way.

http://www.vickypham.com/blog/vietnamese-steamed-pork-buns

Here is Vicky's recipe and I've added Cuc's additions in red.

Makes about 10-15 steamed buns (Cuc prefers bigger buns)

• 1 bag of steamed bun self-rising flour (follow package instructions)
• Parchment paper cut into 15-20 squares or circles to fit underneath buns

Filling

• 15-20 quail eggs (hard boiled and peeled)
• 1 lb ground pork
• 5 lg raw shrimp, peeled and chopped
• 1/3 cup dried black fungus (Woodear mushrooms), snipped finely
• 1 green onion (slice thinly)
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped white onion
• 1/4 cup green peas (optional)
• 4 Chinese sausages (dice)
• 2 T chicken granules
• 1 T sugar
• 1T ground black pepper
• 1 T salt
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce

Prepare the dough, according to package instructions. It usually has baking powder in the package and you add milk, sugar, and oil. Knead it well.  It has to rest for 1 hour. Then divide dough into the number of banh bao that you would like around 15 or for really large boa 10. Let dough balls rest for at least 20 minutes.

Note: We added the flour and baking soda/powder? packet to a bowl and mixed it well then separately mixed about 1 c of milk with 1/3 c of sugar. We slowly added the milk mixture to the flour mixture kneading the whole time, along with around 3 T of oil. The dough became really dry and crumbly in between each addition of a bit of the liquid. It takes a lot of kneading and then you have to let it rest for the baking powder to work for about 30 minutes or longer. After that we kneaded it some more and divided it into the number of buns that you want to make.

1. In a medium bowl, hydrate the black fungus with 2 cups water.
2. Once hydrated, rinse thoroughly, squeeze out the excess water and mince finely.
3. In a large bowl, mix together ground pork, black fungus, green onions, white onion, green peas, Chinese sausages, sugar, pepper, salt and oyster sauce. You may test the flavor of the marinated meat by quickly cooking a small piece in the microwave.
4. Once satisfied with the seasoning, divide the marinated ground pork into 15-20 pieces.
5. Flatten out each piece and place a quail egg in the middle.
6. Encase the quail egg in the ground pork by slowly rolling it back and forth in the palms of your hands.
7. In a steamer, cook the ground pork balls for about 5 minutes.
8. After 5 minutes, remove the pork balls from the steamer and let it drain and cool on a plate lined with paper towels. If you notice that the pork isn’t cooked all the way through, do not worry. It will go back into the steamer anyways.
9. Roll out the dough into a flat circle.
10. Place the pork filling ball in the middle.
11. Gently wrap the dough around the filling. Fold the dough over itself at the top to create pleats then pinch the top together to seal.
12. Place the now fully assembled buns onto cut parchment paper.
13. Place the pork buns into the steamer, leaving room in between for expansion.
14. Steam for 30 minutes.