April 20, 2020

Pork & Cabbage Steamed Buns (Baozi, 大菜肉包子)

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Let me get straight to the point: These pork & cabbage steamed buns are absolutely amazing. How amazing?

Wow-I-just-did-that amazing.

I’m-full-but-I’ll-eat-one-more amazing.

Let’s-personally-deliver-some-to-my-sister-living-45-minutes-away amazing.

If you want to experience a feeling of personal accomplishment and pride at making something authentic and delicious, keep reading.

But before we get into the recipe, be sure to Pin this image to Pinterest to make sure you have this recipe for later. (Plus, it helps me out a little to grow my blog 😉 )

*Wrapped buns resting at room temperature before steaming. (It’s okay to have ugly ones!)*

pork & cabbage steamed buns: a brief background

Steamed buns, or（包子）baozi in Mandarin, can be made with a variety of fillings. These range from regular pork, to pork & cabbage/leek/carrot, to mixed vegetable & mushroom. I’m hoping to try my hand at each of these variations in the future (and share my recipes for them), but I decided to start with my personal favourite: Pork and Napa Cabbage.

Making the Baozi

Firstly, when kneading the dough, it’s important to knead until the point where the surface is smooth and no longer sticky. There’s a Chinese rule of thumb for this, roughly translated to “3 Smooths” (三光). It refers to the dough (面光), the mixing bowl/working surface (盆光), and your hands (手光) being ‘smooth’. In other words, the dough itself should be smooth and shouldn’t stick to your hands or your mixing bowl.

Napa cabbage is a Chinese vegetable that holds a lot of water. As a result, the cabbage shrinks during cooking as the water seeps out (think: spinach). Consequently, when working with Napa cabbage for bun/dumpling fillings, we need to dehydrate it so our dough doesn’t get soggy during cooking. This can be done by using salt or by boiling it first to drain out the water. Make sure to give it a good squeeze before adding to your filling.

Finally, to wrap the baozi, start by making a fold on one side of the wrapper, and keep going around in a circle until you reach the end. You can choose to leave the hole open or to seal them completely by pinching it closed. Need help? Check out this video by the Woks of Life: https://vimeo.com/97605248

Alternatively, you don’t need to make fancy folds at all! Just pinch to seal them as best you can, then flip them upside down to steam. They’ll end up looking like smooth round balls, but still taste the same.

*Updated photos from June 7, 2020: Proof that practice makes perfect!*

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below!

If you made these pork & cabbage steamed buns, be sure to share it with me on social media and tag @houbakes!

Pork & Cabbage Steamed Buns
(大菜肉包子)

Recipe by Sophia HouCourse: Lunch, DinnerCuisine: ChineseDifficulty: Medium

Servings

buns

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Resting time

minutes

These delicious savoury steamed buns can be enjoyed fresh or steamed from frozen to make the perfect grab-and-go lunch or dinner. Share your creation and tag @hou_bakes on Instagram!

Ingredients

Dough wrappers:
500g all-purpose flour
5g active dry yeast (instant)
1.5 cup warm water
Filling:
2-3 leaves napa cabbage
1/4 tsp salt
150g ground pork
1 tbsp green onion, chopped
1/4 large yellow onion
1.5 tsp ginger, minced
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1.5 tsp Shaoxing cooking wine
1/2 tsp Hoisin sauce
1/2 tsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1.5 tsp sesame oil
dash white pepper
dash 5 spice

Directions

Prepare the Dough
Combine flour with instant active dry yeast. Slowly add 1 cup of warm water to form dough; if dough is too dry, continue adding 1 tablespoon at a time if necessary.
If not working with instant yeast, let yeast activate by soaking in 1 cup of water for 10-15 minutes before slowly adding to flour.
Knead dough until perfectly smooth and elastic.
Form into a ball and let proof, covered, until doubled in size (about 1.5h).
Prepare the Filling
While the dough is proofing, prepare the filling: First, finely chop napa cabbage into a small dice. Combine with 1/4 tsp salt and let rest on the side for 5 minutes.
Dice onion, chop green onion, mince ginger, and add to a small pot or medium bowl. Add ground pork and combine.
Using your hands or a cheesecloth, squeeze out the excess liquid from the napa cabbage. Discard the liquid, and add the cabbage to the filling.
In a small bowl, combine: dark soy sauce, Shaoxing cooking wine, Hoisin sauce, 1/2 tsp salt, sugar, sesame oil, white pepper, and 5 spice. Add to filling, taking care to stir in one direction only to fully incorporate liquids into the meat.
If dough has yet to finish proofing, cover and refrigerate.
Make the Wrappers
Remove the proofed dough and knead thoroughly until it is once again smooth in order to knead out the air bubbles. Rest on your cutting board for 10 min.
Divide the dough into 2-4 equal portions, and roll each portion into a log.
Cut each log into small pieces (about 40g each). Flatten each piece slightly, then use a rolling pin to roll into circular wrappers. Focus the pressure on the outer edges of the wrapper so that the centre is thicker that the edges (about 2x thicker).
Assemble & Steam the Bao
Place 1-3 tsp of filling into the centre of the wrapper (you may need to start with less filling before you get the hang of wrapping the bao).
Make about 10-15 consecutive folds around the wrapper until it comes full circle. See this video by the Woks of Life for a good demonstration.
After all the bao have been wrapped, let rest on your cutting board and cover with a damp cloth for another 20min for the second rise.
In the meantime, prepare your steamer: begin boiling water and line the steaming rack with napa cabbage leaves or squares of parchment paper.
After the second rise, place bao in the steamer and cook for 15-20min (depending on the size of the bao). Turn off heat and let sit with the lid covered for an additional 5 minutes. Remove and enjoy.