A challenging weekend part 2

So right after breakfast, we started preparing the steamed pork buns in time for lunch. The procedure was pretty much the same as the pandesal but this time we had to add a filling. The steamed buns turned out really good and yummy. The dough was soft and there was no floury aftertaste similar to some I had before. The only fault I made was stuffing the dough with a small filling quantity. This made the ratio of the bun and filling out of proportion (30% filling and 70% bun) after they went off the steamer. Husband was a little disappointed because of that.

I find this project to be very challenging as it involves tedious process of bun slicing and rolling, filling preparation, stuffing them into the bun, and the preparation of the sauce. The entire process was almost 4 hours! Talk about exhausting since I felt really tired after lunch! Nevertheless, it felt good to have made steamed buns from scratch for the first time. Nothing beats home made goodies.

In summary, we learned the following in this experiment:
(1) The KA KPM50 can knead 5 cups bread flour at the max speed of 3 as a precaution. Talk about misleading us into thinking we can use speed 4! The mixer felt hot to the touch during the kneading process making us think and assume that the KA was having a little tough time in kneading the dough.
(2) KA helped us prepare 2 sets of dough in the span of an hour! Which was excellent as we have limited to no experience in the manual kneading process. Time management was indeed better than not having one.

Overall our experiment turned out great as it was both yummy and fun!

Steamed Pork Buns (Siopao)

from PinayinTexasCooking

Dough:

• 5 cups bread flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 cups warm water
• 2 ½ tbsp sugar (for yeast mixture)
• 1 pouch dry yeast (0.25 oz)
• 1 ¼ Tbsp baking powder
• 6 tbsp shortening

Pork Ball Filling:

• 1 1/2 cups ground pork
• 1/4 cup shrimps, chopped
• 1/4 cup onions
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ tsp Salt
• ¼ tsp Black pepper
• 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 raw egg
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 3 pcs chorizo, cut into 1 inch length
• 3pcs. hard boiled eggs, peeled and quartered crosswise

Sauce:

• 2 cups water
• ¼ cup onions, minced
• 1/8 cup garlic, minced
• 5 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 1 Tbsp water
• 3 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp hoisin sauce
• 2 pcs star anise
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• 2 tsp vegetable oil

Instructions

For Pork balls filling: 

1. 1. Put all ingredients in a bowl except chorizo and hard boiled eggs . Mix well. 
2. 2. Flatten 1½ Tbsp of the meat mixture on a plate then put a piece of chorizo and egg in the middle. Put 1 Tbsp of the meat mixture on top.
3. Shape into a ball.
4. In a pot of boiling water, cook the meat balls. About 2 minutes after they float, remove from pot and transfer to a plate with paper towel. Set aside until the dough is ready for filling.

For Dough:

1. Follow Pandesal instructions from 1-7.
2. Cut into 1 inch thick slices. Flatten each dough with a rolling pin to form a flat round shape dough.
3. Put the filling on the middle of the flattened dough. I used 2 Tbsp filling for each bun.
4. Gather and pull the edges up.
5. Twist the top to fully cover the filling. Cut 2½-inch square parchment or wax paper and use this to line the bottom of each bun. Place the pork buns in a steamer. Make sure that there’s 1 to 2-inch space in between bun. Steam for 15 minutes. Be sure to put a cloth under the cover to avoid water from dripping to the buns.

For the sauce: 

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, mix water, garlic and onions. 
2. Add soy sauce, hoisin sauce, sugar, salt, pepper, and star anise. Simmer for 10 minutes. 
3. Remove from heat. Remove star anise, garlic and onions using a strainer. 
4. Return sauce to pan over medium low heat and bring to a boil again. Add the vegetable oil and the dissolved cornstarch and keep on stirring until sauce becomes thick. 
5. Remove from heat and allow to cool down before transferring to a bowl or a sauce container.