Al - Looks great! In case you're not already set with a recipe, this thread has links to an LA Times article about Char Siu Bao which Jessica posted for me.

I still haven't gotten around to it; my bamboo steamer set is unused. Maybe you'll inspire me...

Here is a link that might be useful: LA Times article

FOAS, thanks for the link. Yes, I remember seeing that a while back. For this batch I am going to use the recipe from the library book I checked out last week. The char siu recipe is also from the same book. I have tested out the bun recipe last week; it turned out better than any recipes that I'd tried. I never could create the correct texture of authentic bao but this recipe came pretty close.

I am excited (and a bit nervous) about the bamboo steamers. I hope I will have time to make some char siu bao this afternoon, for dinner. The dough takes a while to prepare and to rise. I also have to soak clean the steamers prior to using them. Keeping my fingers crossed! :-)

Al

Your char siu looks fabulous. My rice cooker is a simple 10 cup, cook/keep warm Panasonic. I've made yogurt in it but not much else, besides tons of rice. What type of rice cooker do you have? Would you please share how you made the char siu in it?

TIA

Lee

Thanks Lee! I have a cheap 5-cup Rival rice cooker. I don't particularly like rice. Got the rice cooker because hubby and little man love sushi. A 5-cup cooker is more than enough for the three of us.

If your rice cooker is a 10-cup, the amount of pork I used (a bit over a pound) would be swimming in it. You may want to increase to 2 - 3 pounds or at least fill the base of the cooker.

The sauce recipe in the book was pretty much a mixture of equal amount of Hoisin sauce, ketchup, honey, and a bit of salt. Use food coloring if you want but I didn't. For every pound of pork I would make about 3/4 cup of sauce (1/4 C Hoisin + 1/4 C ketchup + 1/4 C honey). I have seen recipes that call for Chu Hou sauce but I have never tried that one. Next time I will add some minced garlic and ginger powder to give the sauce a small kick.

Marinate pork in the sauce for at least 4 hours. I did mine overnight. When the meat is ready, place the meat in the rice cooker, then 2/3 of the sauce, close the lid and cook away. Check the sauce periodically to make sure it didn't get dried up completely. Turn over the meat to brown the other side. If the sauce looks very thick, put the rest of the sauce into it and let cook until rice cooker pops. If you like dried char siu, fish out the meat and arrange on a lined baking sheet to bake/broil in the oven until the sauce thicken to the desirable consistency. Brush honey over char siu before baking will give the glossy look and a sweeter taste to the meat.

Enjoy!

Al

Al, I'd love your char siu recipe. I made some awhile back and it was awful.......too sweet or something.

Keep us posted.

I love cooking Chinese and a good char siu bao would be a great addition to my recipes.

Thanks Al. I think I would add some garlic and some minced fresh ginger, which I always have. Did you use pork butt or some other cut? I'm amazed at how easy your recipe is and it looks so good. What could be more simple than let it cook until it stops! Of course I would watch it too.

When I have made yogurt in a quart jar in the rice cooker I have used a chop stick to prop the lid and control the temperature of the water bath, checking the temperature every once in a while with a probe thermometer, once I got the lid in the right place the temperature was maintained overnight. I would think the same technique could be used here if it looked as though the sauce for the pork was cooking to fast and it would still shut off when the sauce was reduced enough.

Lee

Chase, the recipe been posted. I tasted a bit and it was REALLY GOOD! I can imagine the flavor will only improve when adding garlic and ginger into the marinate sauce.

Lee, the rice cooker Char Siu is very easy, a lot easier than I thought. Most people bake the Char Siu but I love the meat moist and that's how I came up with the idea of using the rice cooker. Works very well.

I am amazed to hear how you control the temperature of the rice cooker to make yogurt. I should try it some day. I have just done a batch of 6 cups of coconut yogurt today. Hubby loves coconut yogurt and I make that just for him. Little man and I use kefir instead. I make a kefir smoothie every morning for little man's breakfast and he loves it.

Anyway, I steamed 12 buns in two baskets TOGETHER! I threw a big towel over the whole steamer set and steamed away. I did steam the buns longer than 15 minutes. They turned out a bit yellowish, not sure if the change of color has anything to do with a longer steam time. Well, despite the color, the buns turned out very good. Here are a couple of pictures:

I am very happy with the results.

Al

Good for you, Al! Those buns look perfect. I'm happy for your success. Now you have me thinking about making them.

Jim

They look wonderful, a perfect balance of filling and dough. And your pleating/pinching looks like you have been doing it all your life. I'm not sure I could do half that well.

Lee

Thanks Jim! I am very happy with the results. If you like Char Siu Bao, it's really worth the time making them! :-)

LOL Lee, this is actually my third time pleating buns. You should have seen my first attempt! My buns looked like volcanoes with red lava about to spurt out! My second attempt, just over a week ago, was better. At least most of the tops stayed closed as they should, like this:

By the way, I'd almost forgotten about your question. The pork was shoulder stew meat. I bought the pack when it was on quick sale (best used before tomorrow) at 30% off. Great for today's use. The stew meat was in chunks, not strips, but good enough. The meat had fair amount of fat in it, perfect for making char siu.

Al

Al,

I have to tell you how impressed I am with those fine looking baos! I also like your attention to detail of serving the boas on a small Chinese dish.

dcarch

"If you like Char Siu Bao..."

Is there anyone who doesn't? LOL

Jim

Looks great, Al! I just took some chicken thighs out of the freezer and plan on trying the curry chicken version from the LA Times article. I'm sure mine won't be as pretty as yours though!

Thanks dcarch! I did use your suggestion throwing a towel over the steaming baskets. The towel got browned around the wok so I am a bit nervous about using it next time. I probably will try steaming without it once to see if the results will come anywhere near this. We have a set of Chinese dishes but we use them a lot and most of them are chipped. Still good to use in taking pictures though! :-)

LOL Jim. I was reading a blog about this girl who used to bring char siu bao to school for lunch. Her little friends thought her buns were not baked properly! LOL I hope kids these days are exposed to different cultural foods enough to know that steamed buns are not supposed to look brown. At least my little guy knows! :-)

FOAS, I can't wait to see the pictures of your curry chicken buns. Hubby loves curry and I am sure he will love curry chicken in steamed buns as well. I have some frozen breast in the freezer... maybe I can do that in the rice cooker too! ;-)

Al

No pictures from me. And if I won't post a picture, you know it wasn't pretty!

I made two types, both chicken. One half was the curry recipe from the LA Times article, the other half was essensially the hoisin/ketchup/honey mix with minced ginger and garlic added.

To me both chicken fillings tasted great on their own. But even with the dumplings that turned out looking ok I felt the dough was an unwelcome gummy presence. Next stop, find a good place for dim sum and figure out if it's bao in general that I don't care for or just the way I made it.

It was fun though!

Hey "fun" is the key. I don't recall a lot of success at first attempt. Like you, I didn't take any pictures of my first batch of char siu bao. They reminded me of erupting volcanoes. LOL

If you were not pleased with the texture of the buns, would you care to try a different recipe?

Al

I would not describe good bao as gummy.

I would describe good bao as fluffy.

Jim

Well then, Jim, I guess my bao wasn't good. You'll get no arguments from me.

Al, I'd love to try another recipe. If you're offering, I'm accepting. In fairness, I should also re-try the recipe I used, because I know where I may have gone off course, at least partially.

FOAS, the last batch of my char siu bao I used a recipe from a book "Dim Sum, The Art of Chinese Tea Lunch" by Ellen Leong Blonder. When I first saw the book I was not impressed with the cover and presentation. It has that kind of humble appearance that doesn't attract one's attention immediately. After reading the book and trying out a couple of recipes, I became very impressed. As always, I modified her recipes for my own convenience. This is what I did for a bao dough:

Make a sponge:

2 tsp active dry yeast
1 C lukewarm water
1/2 C sugar
1-1/2 C cake flour (I used part unbleached** and part cornstarch to make 1-1/2 C of flour mix)

The recipe suggested proofing the yeast in warm water for 10 minutes prior to making the sponge, but I skipped this part. I knew my yeast was good so no need to do that. I simply added everything together, stir to smooth, let sit in a warm, draft-free place for an hour.

To make the dough:

1/2 tsp salt
1 T rice vinegar (I used white vinegar)
2 C cake flour (once again, I used unbleached**/cornstarch mix), plus about 1/4 C for dusting the board
1 T baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda (I skipped this)
1 TBSP vegetable shortening (Traditional Chinese buns used lard; I had some so I used it)

** If you don't want yellow-ish buns, you may want to use AP flour instead of unbleached. Even AP flour won't give you that bright white Chinese buns we see in restaurants, but AP flour definitely will produce whiter color than unbleached. For very white buns, you will need to use special flour i.e. Hong Kong flour, for the best results.**

Stir the salt and vinegar into the sponge starter. In another bowl, sift together the 2 C cake flour (or the flour mix), baking powder, and baking soda (none for me). Stir the flour mixture into the yeast mixture. When combined, add the shortening (lard) and work it in with your fingers. The dough will become a sticky, somewhat shaggy mass. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured board and knead it for about 15 minutes, or until smooth, adding flour as necessary. Grease a clean, large bowl with a little shortening, place the dough in the bowl, and cover it with a damp cloth or plastic wrap. Let it rise in a warm, draft-free place for 1 hour. (If you have made a bao filling ahead and refrigerated it, take it out now to let it come back to room temperature.)

Lightly punch the dough down, and then proceed to shape the dough for wrapping. This recipe will yield 18 large or 24 medium buns, depends on the size you want. Placed wrapped buns on wax paper (2-3 inch squares), at least 1" apart, in steamer (I used bamboo) and let rise for 30 minutes.

Bring the water in the steamer to a boil over high heat. Steam a single tier of buns at a time (I used two tiers together), over high heat for 12 (15 for me) minutes. Repeat 2 or 3 batches, if you steam one tier at a time, until all buns are steamed. Serve hot.

I've built a unbleached flour sourdough starter last week and this morning it looked ready. I am playing with it now to see if I can make sourdough char siu bao with unbleached/rice flour. So far the dough looks very soupy. I am not going to add more flour until the dough has risen to double. If in four hours the dough is still spongy I will add more flour into it. Since this is sourdough, it will take 7-8 hours to get the dough ready. Probably won't know the outcomes until tonight.

Even if this doesn't work out, I will learn something from the experiment and have fun with it.

Keep smiling! Cheers!

Al

I was told that the pure white boas are done by a special bleaching proccess after cooking.

I was told that the vinegar is to make the boas whiter, but you don't put it in the dough, you put it in the water for steaming.

I was told, still, the vinegar cannot get the boas as white as the restaurant can with their bleaching method.

dcarch

Thanks a lot Al! I'll have to give that a shot.

dcarch - I've never see pure white boas- this one is close - but I suspect they're albino, which would mean it's a genetic thing that has nothing to do with vinegar. ;)

{{gwi:1513792}}

FOAS, you're very welcome.

Dcarch, I didn't think the purpose of vinegar was to bleach the flour. From a baking forum I read an explanation by a chemist "Vinegar doesn't seem to harm yeast in small amounts, but is a yeast inhibitor if you use too much. The way it helps breads achieve more height may have more to do with the beneficial effect acids have on gluten development."

The boa, hmmm... could this one be a vinegar-holic! LOL

Al

boas! LOL, thanks to spell-check/type-ahead automatic feature!

Al,
There are some information out there regarding how to make baos whiter, the use of vinegar is one of them.

I can't remember what chemical is used to bleach the baos white. I think it's a fumigating chemical. Not sure.

dcarch