Recipe - Cha Siu Bow (Steamed Barbecued Pork Buns)

Yield: 2 doz.
1 recipe of bun dough*

FILLING
4 cup Barbecued pork;dice fine
One half cup Dehydrated onion flakes

SAUCE MIXTURE
2 teaspoon Hoisin sauce
2 teaspoon Sherry
4 teaspoon Oyster sauce
2 teaspoon Catsup
1 teaspoon Sugar
1 One half tablespoon Cornstarch
1 One half cup Chicken stock

*Recipe is included in this collection. TO MAKE FILLING: Soak onion flakes
in a cup with just enough water to cover flakes. Mix sauce in a small sauce
pan.
Cook over medium high heat until sauce thickens. Stir in the minced pork
and onion flakes. Chill 34 hours.
WRAPPING: Divide filling into 24 portions. Divide dough into 24 balls.
Slightly flatten each ball then roll out into 4inch discs, leaving the
center of the disc twice as thick as the side. Place 1 portion of the
filling in the center of the dough. Gather up the sides around the filling
and twist dough to seal.
Place on a 2 inch square piece of wax paper, twist side down. Put the
wrapped buns at least 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet and allow the buns
to rise in a draftfree place (the oven) for another hour.
STEAMING: Steam for 15 minutes. Turn heat off and let the steam subside
before lifting the cover. BAKING: Cha Siu Bow can also be baked. Preheat
oven at 350 degrees. Set buns 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.
Brush with a mixture of 1 beaten egg white, 1 tsp.
water and One fourth tsp. sugar. Bake for 2025 minutes or until golden brown.
Brush with melted butter. DO AHEAD NOTES: Cook and freeze. Reheat by
steaming if steamcooked originally. Steam frozen buns for One half hour to
reheat. If baked, thaw and wrap buns in foil or cover pan with foil and
reheat in slow oven for One half hour.

COMMENTS: A good filling should have some pork fat mixed in with the lean
meat. Most importantly, Cha Siu Bow filling should be very juicy. That's
why Ms. Yee uses so much liquid in the sauce mixture. By chilling the
filling thoroughly, the sauce, which is very thick, adheres to the filling
much better. Ideally, when you make the barbecued pork, you should try to
save the pork drippings and use them as part of the sauce mixture. Ms. Yee
deliberately leaves the center of the dough a bit thick because, if you
roll it out to an even thickness, the top of the bun will ended up being
too thin in comparison to the bottom due to of the way the dough is
wrapped. In a pinch, you may use frozen bread dough as a substitute.
However, frozen dough works best when baked. It does not steam well.
Source: "Dim Sum" by Rhoda Fong Yee. Formatted for MM by Karen Adler
FNGP13B.

File ftp://ftp.idiscover.co.uk/pub/food/mealmaster/recipes/mmdja006.zip