Our Daring Cooks’ December 2011 hostess is Sara from Belly Rumbles! Sara chose awesome Char Sui Bao as our challenge, where we made the buns, Char Sui, and filling from scratch – delicious!
The first time I had Char Sui Bao was in San Francisco. My husband and I were on vacation and having dim sum at a little place in Chinatown. One of the foods they brought by the table were these fabulous bbq pork buns. It was love at first bite.
We were given several options on how to cook the Char Sui and I opted to cook it on the grill. Many of the other Daring Cooks omitted the food coloring from the Char Sui recipe, but I loved the deep red color it gave the meat. This meat is so flavorful, it was impossible to resist snacking on the crispy ends while I was chopping the meat for the filling.
I served the buns with Panda Express Orange Sauce for dipping and a Honey-Orange Broccoli Slaw salad. I made it over three days. Marinating the meat one day, barbecued it on another, then baked the buns on the third day.
I hope you’ll give this one a try. It’s well worth the effort.
Ingredients
- 2 pork fillet/tenderloin (mine weighed 1.8 pounds)*
- 4 large cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 teaspoon (3 gm) ginger, grated
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil
- 1 ½ tablespoons maltose (you can substitute honey)
- 1 ½ tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce (I used all dark)
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon oyster sauce (I omitted since I'm allergic)
- 1 tablespoon shaoxing cooking wine
- ½ teaspoon (2 gm) ground white pepper (I used black pepper)
- pinch of salt
- ½ teaspoon (2 gm) five spice powder
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon pillar box red food colouring (I used about 1/8 teaspoon gel food coloring)
- 350 gm (12 oz) char sui (finely diced)
- 2 green onions/spring onions (finely sliced)
- 1 tablespoon hoisin
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- ¼ cup (60 ml) chicken stock
- 1 teaspoon (2 gm) cornflour
- ½ tablespoon vegetable oil
- (1 tablespoon=15 ml, 1 teaspoon=5 ml)
- 2 1/4 teaspoons (1 package) of dried yeast
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 2 cups (280 gm/10 oz) plain flour
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 3 tablespoons oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Egg wash: 1 egg beaten with a dash of water
Directions
- Trim the pork loin to remove fat and tendon and slice lengthways so you have four long
- pieces, then cut in half. By cutting the pork in to smaller pieces to marinate you will end up
- with more flavoursome char sui. If you want to leave the pork in one piece you can do this as
- well. Place in container that you will be marinating them in.
- Combine all the other ingredients in a bowl and mix well to combine. Microwave the maltose in
- for a few seconds to make it easier to work with.
- Cover pork well with 3/4 of the marinade mixture. Marinate for a minimum of 4 hours, or overnight. Place the reserved 1/4 portion of the marinade covered in the fridge. You will use this as a baste when cooking the pork.
- Place marinated pork loin on the BBQ grill.
- Cook on a medium heat, approximately 15 minutes, until cooked through (145º), turning frequently and basting occasionally. Be careful to watch it closely so you don't burn the pork.
- *Made twice as much Char Sui as called for in the bun recipe, so I double the filling ingredients and froze half to make another day.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or pan.
- Add diced char sui to the wok/pan and stir then add spring onions, cook for 1 minute.
- Add hoisin, dark soy sauce and sesame oil to the pork mixture, stir fry for one minute.
- Mix cornflour and stock together and then add to the pork mixture.
- Stir well and keep cooking until the mixture thickens, 1 or 2 minutes.
- Remove mixture from wok/pan and place in a bowl to cool. Set aside until ready to use.
- Place the sugar and warm water in a bowl, mix until the sugar has dissolved. Add yeast and
- leave it for 10 - 15 minutes until it becomes all frothy.
- Sift flour in to a large bowl.
- Add yeast mixture, egg, oil and salt and stir. Bring the flour mixture together with your
- hands.
- Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for approximately 10 minutes. The dough
- should be smooth and slightly elastic.
- Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Leave to rise until it is double in
- size. This will take from 1 - 2 hours depending on weather conditions.
- Once dough has doubled in size knock back and divide in to 12 portions and shape in to round
- balls.
- Use a rolling pin to roll out to approximately 5cm (2 inches) in diameter. Then pick the piece
- of dough up and gently pull the edges to enlarge to about 8cm (3 inches) in diameter. (
- By doing this it keeps the dough slightly thicker in the centre. This means when your buns are
- cooking they won't split on the top)
- Place a good sized tablespoon of filling on the dough circle. Then gather the edges and seal
- your bun
- Place the bun seal side down on your baking tray. Continue with rest of dough.
- Once all buns are complete brush surface with egg wash
- Place in a preheated oven of 400º F for 15 minutes or until golden brown
Visit the Daring Kitchen for information on joining the Daring Cooks and to see all the great buns the Daring Cooks cooked up this month. Thanks Sara for a terrific challenge.
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I love to bake, especially cookies, cakes, and pies. I’ll post my adventures in the kitchen, my favorite new recipes, as well as our family favorites.
Wonderful! I love char siu bao and those look appetizing.
Cheers,
Rosa
Do you know how well these would go over at my house? My girls would love these and I am sure they would be a request again and again. This would be something fun to make on the weekends when my husband could help me…love this!
I’m a bit intimidated!
I am so glad you enjoyed the challenge. I know what you mean about snacking while chopping, very hard to resist! Your buns look wonderful.
Oh these look incredible. It is like a mini meat pie but with savory, rich and saucy pork! I love it!
Wow, this sounds so incredibly tasty!
Great job!! As usual, you excelled at this month’s challenge! Your Char Sui and Bao look amazing!
This looks fabulous!
Barbara, you amazes me, these buns look better than the ones that I get at the local Dim sum…perfectly done.
Hope you are having a wonderful week
Un bon plateau repas !!
Je te souhaite une belle soirée
Valérie
I love char-sui pork but I’ve never made it from scratch. It looks like it’s not too tricky.
Your pork buns look so perfect!
I love the photo collage, and your honey-orange salad is a nice citrusy contrast to the pork bao.
I haven’t had one of these gems in many, many years. I’m bookmarking this and will try it after the holidays. I used to buy these by the dozens in Chinatown, then freeze them. One with a cup of tea is the epitome of comfort.
Oh, that looks so good.
I’ve been trying to get out of a chicken rut.
This will help!
Your bao look great, as does the salad you served alongside.
Must have if one visits Dimsum restaurants! Those look so very inviting!
Love your version of baked buns…and the Char Siu looks delicious. Great job and beautiful pictures!
I’ve been wanting to make these for ever, unfortunately every time I do my char siu, it gets eaten before a chance to make the buns LOL.
Note to self. Stick to new years resolution and be more organised!
What a wonderful post!! Loved the pictures…I am drooling! http://cosmopolitancurrymania.blogspot.com
I love the deep red also, it’s what I grew up eating. I grilled my pork also, it was a great challenge and you’re right, well worth the effort.
What a sumptuous recipe! I have never attempted Char Sui Bao but with planning ahead and preparing a piece of the recipe each day, it looks doable. Thanks for making the recipe approachable. Your Char Sui Bao looks Stunning!
Thanks for the recipe. I’m gonna be heading to kitchen.
Your Char Siu Bao look wonderful. I make my own all the time…but my recipe is quite different from yours.
The Daring Cooks challenge sounds like fun!
Your Char Siu Bao are so perfectly round – mine were crooked due to being overloaded with pork lol I’m awed by your beautiful presentation. That honey – orange broccoli slw looks terrific and is a great accoutrement to the buns!
What a lovely job you did on this challenge I adore the colour and look of the buns! Your photos are so professional well done. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.
what a great post! thank you for sharing this and have a great weekend.
These sound great. I love to order these when I go out for dim sum. I think making this recipe will be tomorrow’s project. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Woohoo…hats off to you GF. What an intensely involved and delicious dish. Each component perfect, and then they all come together in a grand finale. Must have been so worth the effort. WOW!!
I won’t have time to make this recipe before Christmas but it’s at the top of my list when life slows down a little bit. I love these buns but have never made them at home. Thanks for sharing this, Barbara. Happiest holiday best wishes to you and your family.
Wow, these look amazing!!!
your website is beautiful. these buns look great too!!!
The buns look great. I love how your filling came out.