Pan Fried Baos 生煎包

Have u ever eaten this soft at the top & crisp at the bottom type of bao? I don remember where did I 1st eat this, HK? Shanghai? Taipei? I just remember they r very delicious and I'm dying to try cooking it myself for a very long time, but couldn't pull the guts together til this morning.

I saw the recipe at Florence's Do What I Like, after comparing it with Carol's and Angie's, I decided to put my hands on Florence's.

Ingredients

Dough 1:

100g plain flour (I used bluekey brand pao flour)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp oil

45ml boiling water

10ml - 15ml water (to regulate dough, I didn't add this as I find my dough enough with the boiling water)

Dough 2:

160g plain flour (I used bao flour)

40g cake flour (I used superfine flour)

1 tbsp sugar

3g instant yeast

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp oil

105ml water

Frying mixture:

230ml water

2 tbsp flour

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1. Mix all items for dough 1 together using a pair of chopsticks. If dough is too dry add in some water. Leave to cool
2. Mix all items for dough 2 together til u get a smooth dough. Rest dough for 20 minutes
3. After 20 minutes, knead dough 1 and dough 2 together. Rest dough for 20 minutes.
4. Divide dough into 20g pieces. Roll into flat round disk of about 8 - 9cm in diameter. Wrap in 1 tbsp full of pork filling
5. Heat a little oil in a flat based frying pan, arrange the baos in the pan and fry for 1 minute on medium low heat
6. Pour in the frying mixture, make sure the baos are at least 30% but not more than 50% submerged in the frying mixture. Cover the pan with a lid til the frying mixture has dried up. Half way through the frying process, remove the lid and sprinkle some sesame seeds onto the sticky baos

Pork Filling:

150g minced pork

1 tsp sugar

1/2 - 3/4 tsp salt or 1/2 tsp salt + 1/4 tsp chicken stock powder

1 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 - 2 tsp oil (I used 1 tsp fried garlic oil & 1 tsp corn oil)

1 tbsp water or chicken stock

1 tsp Chinese wine (I used ginger wine)

pinch of pepper

some grated ginger (omitted as no ginger)

some minced garlic

a) 200g Chinese cabbage, diced

b) 1.5 tsp corn flour (I used potato starch as I couldn't locate the bag of corn flour)

c) 1 - 2 stalks scallion, thinly sliced (used the chopped spring onions I stocked in the freezer)

1. Cook the diced cabbage in hot boiling water for 1 - 2 minutes. Drain and leave to cool. (I lightly squeezed out the water from the cabbage)
2. Mix all items in the pork filling together except a, b & c, stir with a pair of chopsticks till mixture is sticky and paste like. Add in a & b. Chill in the fridge til ready to use. Add in c only when u are ready to wrap the baos

This was the 2nd batch I cooked, we emptied the 1st batch so fast that I totally forgot of capturing a pic

I'm so satisfy with the baos as they r just like what Florence promised: the dough is soft but 'Q' (springy) and the meat filling is very juicy.

Little girl ate 3 (in 1 go!) for her lunch, and 2 after her pre-school, as for me, I lost count, ate so many of it, keep popping 1 into mouth whenever I walked to the kitchen (intensionally or accidentally, I can't figure it out)!