June Bread

Bao!

This month Jenny and I decided to embrace our Chinese heritage and try our hands at bao. I rifled through my Mom’s recipes and dug up a baked and steamed version to try out.

I’ll admit to having assisted my Mom when she has made bao but it isn’t something we make often. For one thing who really needs  a couple dozen buns in the house at once, all those tasty bao just sit there and tempt you. Plus heading to the bakery or restaurant to pick up a couple to satisfy the cravings when you have them.

I pulled out my handy recipe for Char Shiu (Chinese BBQ Pork) to start off the bao right. I always avoid those lean bright red pork slices you find in deli’s and grocery stores across the country. Real Chinese BBQ pork is neither bright red nor dry. Call me a snob if you want but that stuff is crap and should be avoided at all costs. Making your own Char Siu is simple and uses ingredients found in most grocery stores.

Time was short this month so rather than making far more bao than I needed I decided to go with the baked version. Not only is it less fussy but it is easily made in just a few hours. The steamed recipe requires an overnight rest for the starter.

I made a dozen good sized buns, each filled with a couple of heaping tablespoons of pork filling. I added a little too much gravy to my filling mixture so only one bao managed to not leak. It might also have had something to do with my tendency to put in as much pork in each bao as possible.

While I only tackled the baked bao this month I’ve included the steamed version as well as my recipe for the bbq pork below. For all cooking posts I plan on including downloadable pdf’s of the recipes I made whenever possible.

Recipes:

Char Shiu

Baked Char Shiu Bao

Steamed Char Shiu Bao