It has been more than a week of working from home and staying home. Surprisingly, Kevin and I have been doing just fine. I guess it is because we are both inner homebodies. Kevin has not stepped foot outside our home in almost two weeks. I did leave our home a few times to run quick errands, replenish groceries, and take out the trash. It has been somewhat strange to see how empty the streets are. There is the occasional person walking a dog outside, but otherwise, the streets are mostly empty. Most people are opting to stay home out of abundance of caution. Aside from work, I’ve spent a lot of time testing, developing, and refining recipes. On most weekdays, I make quick meals using potatoes, flatbreads, pastas, noodles, rice, and whatever I can find in my pantry. On weekends, I take time out to make dishes requiring more time in the kitchen. Currently, I’m working on homemade hand pulled noodles and a variety of baked goods. I will share those recipes down the line once I’ve tested them out a few times. This Saturday, I woke up craving some steamed buns and bubble tea. Steamed buns are one of my favorite brunch food items when I lived in New York. Brunch in my family meant gathering as a group for dim sum on weekends. We would all make the trek out to our favorite Chinese restaurant, wait in line to be seated, and then immediately order our favorite dim sum dishes once we were seated. Little bro always ordered egg tarts and cheung fun. Big bro goes for the har gow, siu mai, and congee. I tend to opt for the steamed buns (usually char siu bao). My parents weren’t picky and typically ate whatever we ordered. When I moved to the Midwest, I missed dim sum with family on weekends the most. In the Midwest, it is a bit more difficult to find authentic Chinese Restaurants near where we live. Usually, if I want authentic Chinese food, I have to drive quite a bit to get to an authentic Chinese restaurant. Instead of eating out, I started learning to recreate some of my favorite authentic Chinese dishes. One of the first dim sum dishes I started to tackle was steamed buns. I experimented with different doughs and fillings until I found the perfect combination. My experiments led me to the fluffiest cabbage and pork steamed buns. My cabbage and pork steamed buns are beyond fluffy, tasty, and always turn out delicious. The secret to my fluffy buns is cake flour. Cake flour has less protein and a lower gluten content resulting in fluffier buns. Steamed buns can be sweet or savory. I prefer savory steamed buns and have recently developed some truly tasty vegetable steamed buns. I created my vegetable steamed buns as a way to use up the remaining pieces of cabbage, bok choy, and onion in my refrigerator. My vegetable steamed are vegan friendly and packed with flavor. In under an hour, I had prepared some magnificent vegetable steamed buns and condensed coconut milk bubble tea. The vegetable steamed buns and bubble tea made for the perfect start to a slow, relaxing weekend.
For the vegetable steamed buns:
For the steamed bun dough:
· 2 cups cake flour
· 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
· ½ teaspoon kosher salt
· ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
· 1 cup lukewarm water
· ¾ cup all-purpose flour, plus additional ¼ cup for kneading the dough
For the vegetable filling:
· 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
· 1 inch knob of ginger, minced
· ½ of an onion, finely diced
· 2 stalks scallions, thinly sliced
· 5-6 baby bok choy, stems trimmed and finely chopped
· 5-6 leaves Napa cabbage, finely chopped
· 2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine
· 2 teaspoons light soy sauce
· ½ teaspoon sesame oil
· 1½ teaspoons confectioners’ sugar
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· Dash of white pepper
For steaming the buns:
· 10-12 cups water
Directions:
1) Line three bamboo steamer baskets with fitted steaming cloth. Set aside. As an optional step, cut out sixteen circles about 2-3 inches in diameter from a large sheet of parchment paper.
2) To make the dough, combine the 2 cups of cake flour, active dry yeast, kosher salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Add the lukewarm water to the mixture. Use your hands to thoroughly mix the dough. The dough will be sticky at this point. Gradually add the ¾ cup of all-purpose flour slowly into the bowl as you continue kneading the dough for about 3-5 minutes. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 30 minutes. While the dough is resting, you can start making the filling.
3) To make the filling, combine the minced garlic, minced ginger, diced onion, sliced scallions, chopped bok choy, chopped cabbage, Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, confectioners’ sugar, salt, and white pepper in a large bowl. Use your hands to combine all ingredients until well mixed. Set aside.
4) Heat a skillet on medium heat. Cook the vegetable filling for 3-5 minutes until softened. Scoop the mixture back into the large bowl. Set aside to cool.
5) When the resting time for the dough is up, heat a large pot filled with 10-12 cups of water on medium high heat.
6) Roll the dough out into a circle. Cut the dough into half horizontally. Then, in half vertically and then diagonally until you form eight equal pieces of dough. Cut those pieces of dough in half again until you form sixteen pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a circle. To make the steamed buns, prepare a small bowl of flour using the ¼ cup of all-purpose flour. Sprinkle a small bit of flour onto a surface and begin rolling out the pieces of dough into a circle one by one onto a lightly floured surface. Place about two tablespoons of filling on each piece of dough. Bring the edges up, pleat and pinch around the edge of the dough wrapper until you form a rounded bun. Pinch the top of the bun to seal the dough leaving a small hole for steaming. Continue this process with the rest of the dough balls and filling.
7) Place each bun on top of a circle parchment paper, if using, and arrange about five buns into a steamer basket. Repeat with the remaining steamer baskets.
8) Once the pot of water begins to boil, fit one of the steamer baskets on top of the pot. Steam the vegetable buns in the steamer basket over the pot of water for about 10 minutes. The steamed buns will be very hot at this point. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Takeaways: I ended up with fifteen pieces of dough pieces because I forget to cut one of the triangles in half again after cutting the dough into eight equal pieces. If you do not have steaming cloths, you can use pieces of parchment paper cut into circles to prevent the buns from sticking. Vegetable steamed buns are a great way to use up leftover vegetables in your refrigerator. I’ve had the most success with using leafy greens in the filling.
For a sweet spin, I tested out some peanut butter and jelly steamed buns on the right.