Took a couple days off work to clear leave last week. With plenty of time to myself, I experimented on making my own char siu bao which I had bookmarked from the post of easy to cook char siu on Wendy's blog. The pork belly that I bought was not as fatty as hers therefore you can see the fatty parts of the meat. Maybe, I should get the more fatty ones next time, these were too lean even for me.
I used the Happy Call Pan to cook the char siew filling. The non-stick surface made this dish easy to cook. I just boil the meat for 10 minutes to get rid of scum then simmer in the HCP
Easy Char Siew Filling
Recipe created by: WendyinKK
600gm pork belly (no skin)
60ml light soy sauce (3 chinese soup spoon)
40ml dark soy sauce
20ml Chinese rose wine
20ml oyster sauce
150gm sugar
20gm corn starch (1 heaped Tbsp)
1. Boil pork belly in 2 cups of water for 15 minutes or until cooked.
2. Fish out pork belly and let it cool down until it is manageable.
3. Retain 1 cup of the pork boiling water, cool and mix with cornstarch. Set aside.
4. Finely dice pork belly.
5. Return pork belly to pot (w/o oil) and cook until you can smell it being fragrant (that's when the oil starts to ooze out)
6. Put in soy sauces, wine and oyster sauce. Cook until the pork looks dry.
7. Put in sugar and cook until it melts.
8. Put in cornstarch mixture and cook until the gravy thickens.
9. Put fillings into a bowl. Let it sit for 15 minutes and you will see some oil on the surface. Use paper towel corners to absorb the oil, if preferred.
10. Chill filling or freeze until time of use, remember to cover it to prevent drying out.
*To divide into portions, after chilling, the filling will be firm, scoop them and form piles according to the weight required. Keep them covered and freeze until time of use.
for the dough:
Pau Skin recipe
A) 600gm pau flour
120gm sugar
¼ tsp salt
B)300ml warm water
1 sachet dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
60gm shortening (melted, but not too hot)
1) Mix B together and wait for the mixture to froth.
2) Mix A together. Pour B in.
3) Knead until it becomes smooth and doesn't stick to the side of the mixing bowl. My Kenwood Kmix helped me to do this part:)
4) Pour in melted shortening, and knead until the oil is fully incorporated. (It may seem to be very oily, but don't worry, just knead) ~ credit goes to Kmix again:P
5) Shape into a ball and cover mixing bowl with cling wrap and let sit until dough has doubled. (I knead in a pot, so I just cover up with the pot lid) ~ I left it in the mixer, covered with a piece of cloth to proof.
6) Punch down and knead. Divide into 50gm balls.
To assemble:
1. Take a ball of dough weighing around 50gm each, flatten it into a circle.
2. Place a table spoon of chilled cha siew filling into the centre of the circle.
3. Gather sides of the circle carefully and pinch the top together.
4. Place onto a piece of paper.
5. Let sit for 30 minutes and steam on high fire for 10 minutes.
***
By the time I finish doing the last one, it's more than 30 minutes, so I just prepare the steamer and steam the first few paus. No need to wait.
