bakpau daging [ Steamed Bun with Meat Filling ]

Who doesn't love meat buns, you can have it fried, baked or even steamed! Its delicious and filling. You can have it as a snack on a rainy cold days or even for the kids lunch the next day. Very practical, dont' you think?

Buns Ingredients:

400 gr Tang mien flour or medium protein flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 sachet of yeast ( around 10 gr)
220 ml warm milk
50 gr sugar
1 tbsp oil (you can use sunflower seed oil, canola oil or olive oil)
½ tsp salt

Special equipment:
1 rice cooker that has steamer option
1 kitchen cloth, damped
1 tongs
parchment paper, cut into squares 

For those of you who has their electric kneader broken (like myself, obviously), lets do this manually! First of all, lets wash our hands clean and scrap beneath the nails. Roll up our sleeves and tie up our hair. Girls, lets get started!

1. Mix together yeast, sugar and warm milk, set aside and let the yeast develops
2. In a big bowl, mix Tang Mien flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well with spatula. 
3. Add the yeast mixture into the flour bowl. Here is where our beautiful hands come to action. Mix the yeast and flour. Add the oil in. Knead until dough surface is smooth and elastic.
4. Cover the bowl with damped kitchen cloth and let stand until triple in size, about 1 to 1½ hours.
5. While the dough is rising, lets work on the filling!

Meat filling ingredients:

300 gr ground meat (well, thats what I had left in my fridge, but you can also use ground chicken mixed with shrimp or pork)
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, bruised then finely chopped
2 scallions, finely chopped
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp ketjap manis
1 tsp chinese five-spice powder mix (in Indonesia, we call it Ngo Hiang)
Salt and pepper to taste
oil for sauté
1½ tsp maizena flour mix with a bit of water to thicken 

1. In a wok, sauté shallot and garlic until its soften and release pleasant smell.

2. Add in the meat, cook until it starts to change color.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

4. Cook in medium heat until the meat is thoroughly cooked. 

5. Add in the maizena mix and continue cooking until the meat mix thickened.

6. Turn the heat off and set aside to cool down. 

Now, lets get back to our dough...

1. Punch down dough, and spread out on a floured board.
2. Knead for about a minute then divide dough into 2 parts, and place the piece you are not working with in a covered bowl.
3. Divide each half into 12 parts. Shape each part into a ball with smooth surface up.
4. With a roller, flatten each part into a disk with more or less 4''.

5. Add the meat filling to the center of the dough disk

6. Lift the edges of the disk up around the filling, then press the edges together to seal the filling snugly inside the bun and form a ball. Make sure there are no holes otherwise the meat filling will leak out.

7. Put each ball on a squared parchment paper. 

8. Put water on the bottom of your steamer and place each bun on the rack. You might want to put them a bit apart from each other since they grow while they are cooking. 

9. Wrap your steamer lid with a kitchen cloth, this is to prevent any evaporated water to drip onto the buns.

10. Steam the buns for around 10 minutes.
11. Using the tongs, gently pick up the buns and serve with your favorite condiments! Mine was Thai sweet chilli sauce.

PS: Keep the left over buns in a container and put it in the fridge and simply reheat the buns in the microwave anytime. 

Happy cooking!!