Sichuan's bean sprout steamed buns

These are from Sichuan, so you know they are not even remotely as mild-mannered as the name “bean sprout steamed buns” suggests. They are also one of my favorite types of buns because they are so full of personality: meaty with a nice nutty crunch from the sprouts, spicy with a touch of Sichuan peppercorns, and almost creamy from the extra fat I’ve sneaked in there.

Traditionally, these are made with pork. But Sichuan is one of the few places in China that really revels in beef, so I’ve taken the opportunity here to make this one beefy. Of course, you can use whatever meat you like. In fact, if you are serving vegetarians, try a fake ground beef, like “Gimme Lean,” plus a veggie butter substitute – they are equally delicious and have made many a meatless friend very, very happy.

These buns often have some red oil flecking the outsides, which is not at all a bad thing. I actually like this decorative touch, as it also helps to set these apart from all other baozi.

The amount of hot bean sauce here is negotiable, depending upon both your and your guests’ taste and the amount of salt and heat in the sauce. So, start with 4 tablespoons and add more at the tasting step if you think it needs it. Each brand of Sichuan hot bean sauce is different, so you’ll have to wing it the first time or two and keep notes. But do be sure to make this filling at least a little bit on the salty and spicy side, since its flavor will be balanced out by the mild bread wrapper.

 

Trimmed soybean sprouts

One thing you must do is use soybean sprouts here, not mung bean sprouts. Soybeans make those big yellow seed heads that offer up so much texture to the mixture. Find the best quality ones in Korean markets, where people really know how to shop for their soybean sprouts. 

Keep them fresh by placing the sprouts in a resealable container and covering them with ice water. Refrigerate the sprouts for a couple of days, and they will still be perfect. Always remove the whiskery ends, which isn’t as awful a chore as it may seem. Just pick up 4 or 5 sprouts near the heads so that their tails are all in the same direction, then pluck off the skinny ends with your fingernail. That’s it.

The wrappers are slightly different from my usual steamed bread recipe since they have fat added. This helps make them more waterproof, but the fat can be left out if you don't care about some of the oil seeping out.

Wrapping the baozi

Serve these any time of the day. Freeze those extra ones for an almost instant treat whenever you need something really tasty to make your day right.

Sichuan’s bean sprout steamed buns

Dòuyá  bāozi豆芽包子

Sichuan

Makes 32 baozi

Wrappers:

2 cups (500 ml) warm water

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

3 tablespoons sugar

4½ cups (1000 g) regular Chinese flour, or 3 cups (660 g) unbleached all-purpose plus 1½ cups (330 g) pastry or cake flour, plus more as needed

4 tablespoons white shortening or lard, softened

1 teaspoon peanut or vegetable oil

1 tablespoon baking powder

Filling:

Around 7 ounces (200 g) soybean sprouts

The colorful finished filling

3 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil

3 green onions, trimmed and chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 pound (450 g) ground lean beef, pork, or turkey

4 tablespoons Sichuan hot bean sauce (la doubanjiang), plus more to taste

1½ tablespoons regular soy sauce

2 tablespoons mild rice wine (Taiwan Mijiu)

4 teaspoons sugar

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1. Get the wrappers started by sprinkling the yeast and sugar over the warm water. Place the flour and shortening in a large work bowl. When the yeast is foaming nicely, stir it into the flour and shortening, then turn it out onto a floured board. Knead the dough, adding more flour as needed, to make it smooth and elastic. Rinse out and dry the work bowl, lightly oil it, and place the ball of dough in there. Let it rise twice (this will take about an hour or two), and punch it down after each time. 

2. While the dough is rising, prepare the filling. Pinch the roots off of the sprouts, since they otherwise will feel like hairs in your mouth. Remove any seed casings while you’re at it. Rinse the sprouts, drain well, and chop them coarsely.

A happy array of buns

3. Heat the oil in a wok over medium-high, and then add the green onions and garlic. Stir these around to release their fragrance, and then add the beef. Use your spatula to break it up. When it is no longer pink, scoot everything up the side of the wok. Scoop the bean sauce into the bottom of the wok so that it can heat up quickly. Stir it around, and when it starts to bubble, toss it into the meat. Season this with the soy sauce, rice wine, and sugar. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Toss in the butter and then the cornstarch, and remove the wok from the heat when the filling has thickened. Bring it to room temperature and refrigerate for at least an hour, as this will make it easier to work with as you fill the buns.

4. Turn the dough out onto a clean, smooth work surface and sprinkle it with the baking powder. Lightly knead it into the dough so that it is fully incorporated, and then divide the dough into 32 even pieces. Roll these into balls and flour them so that they do not stick to each other.

5. Follow the directions here on how to fill and shape baozi, making each wrapper about 3 inches (7.5 cm) wide. Let the filled buns rise for around 15 minutes. Prepare your steamer baskets by lining them with either steamer paper or cloth. Spray these with oil and bring your steamer to a full boil.

6. Arrange about 6 buns in each steamer so that they are at least 1 inch (2 cm) apart. Steam the buns for about 15 minutes, turn off the heat, and let the sit in the cooling steamer for about 5 minutes to set their shape. Eat immediately. These buns may be frozen at the end of Step 5 or after they have been steamed. To cook the frozen buns, place them in the steamer baskets while they are still frozen and steam for about 20 minutes; already cooked ones only need to be thoroughly heated through.

Nobel Prize alert

Tip

-->

This is a great discovery of mine that I am so proud of: Freeze your unsteamed buns in muffin tins for about an hour, and then pack them in freezer bags. 

I have always had a real problem with buns getting squished in the freezer, no matter how careful I am. But this way, the buns are totally protected. 

Consider this my early Christmas gift to you!

Something Chinese for the Easter Bunny, part 1

Easter is becoming a bit of a thing in China. The Chinese are great that way, adopting just about every Western holiday as another excuse to have fun and eat stuff. Peeps and hot cross buns have not taken the country by a storm, though, probably because there’s something so much better to chomp on there: bunny buns.

Baozi are made into all sorts of shapes in China, but the best and most traditional of all are rabbits. When I lived in Taiwan, these used to sometimes appear at the end of a major banquet, and they never failed to charm. Birthday celebrations for someone particularly old might produce buns shaped like longevity peaches, but, like today's recipe, they were basically plain steamed bread dough with a red bean filling.

Beautiful Easter Bunnies

Nowadays Chinese bakeries and dim sum parlors will offer steamed buns in any number of animals (like hedgehogs or pigs), vegetables (lifelike mushrooms are my favorite, followed by pumpkins and ears of corn), and even cartoon characters (such as Hello Kitty and panda heads). It’s clever and always entertaining, and the kids sure love this obvious nod in their direction.

Rabbits are traditional in China, though, and are deeply ingrained in its legends and art. One of the members of the Chinese zodiac is, of course, the rabbit, which puts it in pretty rarified company. (For some odd reason, the Japanese subbed out the rabbit for a cat. Boo.)

Dough and filling

The moon seems to have been connected to the rabbit since ancient times, probably because you can see the Jade Rabbit pounding out the elixir for longevity when the moon is at its fullest. So, think of cracking this out for the Moon Festival too if you want a break from all those moon cakes!

If you do an Internet search on rabbit-shaped baozi, you will see that most are not very successful. The reason for this is that the ears and other decorations are first added to the buns before they are steamed. But, if you clip open the ears and tail after the bread is steamed, you get very high detail and an almost lifelike appearance for these little guys. Thanks to the great Sichuan chef Chen Kenmin 陳建民 for this wonderfully easy and magical way to create rabbit buns. This idea came from the recipes he developed for a lovely 1980s cookbook called Zhōngguó diănxīn 中國點心. 

Wrap the filling in the dough

Note: Because Easter is this coming Sunday (3/27), I am going to put next week's blog post up a bit early - on Friday instead of Monday - so that you have time to make this other treat for the holiday, too. It's something that I like to think of as Chinese hot cross buns. It's not really the same thing, but you'll see...

Red bean bunny buns

Xiăotù dòushābāo 小兔豆沙包

Makes 16 buns

Filling:

1 (15 ounce/430g) can red bean paste (see Tips)

¼ cup/60 ml toasted sesame oil

½ teaspoon sea salt

Make a plump half circle

½ cup/65g shelled walnuts, chopped and preferably toasted (see Tips), optional

Dough:

1¼ cups/295 ml warm water

2 teaspoons yeast

1 tablespoon/12g sugar

½ teaspoon sea salt

2½ cups/320g white Chinese flour, plus extra for kneading

2 teaspoons peanut or vegetable oil

2 teaspoons baking powder

Decoration:

1 drop red food coloring

Pinch in one end for the head

1. First make the filling: mix the red bean paste, oil, and salt together in a small pan over medium heat until the paste is bubbly and glossy, and all the oil has been absorbed, about 10 minutes. Scrape the paste into a heatproof bowl and let it cool off. Cover and chill the paste for a couple of hours, if possible, so that it is easy to shape without squishing. If you are using them, mix in the chopped walnuts.

2. Make the dough as directed for the flower rolls, and be sure and add the salt. When the dough has risen and rested, lightly dust your work surface and pat it out into an even rope 16 inches long. Then, cut the dough into 16 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and cover with a towel to let them rest while you prepare a double layer steamer and line it with steamer paper. Prepare the steamer baskets as directed in the flower rolls recipe.

Mr. Mantou & Miss Doudou

3. Divide the filling into 16 pieces and roll these into balls; keep the filling cold.

4. Now, before we start filling and shaping the buns, first study the pictures of our own buns on the right. Their names are Mantou (Steamed Bun) and Doudou (Little Bean). Cute, huh?

5. Working on one piece of dough at a time, flatten it into a circle about 3 inches in diameter. Place a ball of filling in the center and pinch the edges of the dough together over the filling so that you have a fat half-circle. Gently roll this between your hand and place it smooth-side up on the steamer paper; because they rise, be sure and leave an inch or so between the buns. This means that you probably will have to steam them in two batches, with four buns per basket. 

Blobs in the steamer

6. Now, pinch one end of the bun to form its head. Repeat these two steps with the rest of the dough and filling until you have 16 blobs that will improbably turn into bunnies. Just watch.

7. Let the buns rise for about 10 minutes, and then gently press in on either side of the faces once again so that they keep their shape in the steamer. Steam these for around 15 minutes, then let them sit in the steamer for another 10 minutes with the heat turned off so that they do not suddenly deflate.

The ears appear

8. Have a clean tea towel, a pair of kitchen shears, a bamboo skewer or toothpick with a flat end, and that drop of red food coloring ready in a small bowl. 

9. Here comes the fun part: making the rabbits appear. First, hold one of the hot buns on a tea towel so you don't burn your hands. Use your shears to clip the ears by aiming the tip of your scissors at the nose and then cutting the triangular ears from atop the rabbit's back.

10. Then, snip open the tail.

Then the tail

11. Finally, dip the flat end of your skewer/toothpick in the red food coloring and dab a little red eye on both sides of the head. 

Tips

I always get the Japanese brand of red bean paste called Ogura-an, which is slightly coarse in texture, not as sweet as the Chinese brands, and of great quality.

And then the eyes

It’s still pretty sweet and one note, though. To remedy this, I like to fry it with the sesame oil and a dash of salt, which rounds out the flavors. This also gets rid of the metallic flavor that hovers in the background.

To toast the walnuts, bake them at 300°F/150°C for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool before using.

These buns can be steamed and decorated, and then frozen. Steam them directly from the freezer for about 10 minutes. I'd strong suggest that you wait until you steam them the second time around before painting in the eyes, as you don't want the coloring to run. 

The end

An old Beijing breakfast

Breakfast is simply exciting in China, no matter where you are. It’s always been my favorite meal of the day no matter where I happen to find myself, and when I get to a breakfast heaven like Beijing or Taiwan, things just don't get much better in my book.

Part of the reason for my passion for Chinese breakfasts is the simplicity of it all. You generally are presented with an unadorned meal that is well made, and - according to your appetite or personal feelings on the matter – you can dress it up with lots of chile paste or vinegar or garlic, or you accept it as is and enjoy a milder version.

Making this a balanced & delicious meal

Another reason is the incredible amount of creativity that goes into these offerings. In South China it might be made out of something like rice paste or steamed rice, but in the North, steamed breads and pastas are the kings of breakfast. Plain steamed breads (mantou), filled steamed buns (baozi), and flower rolls (which are steamed bread dough rolled up around a thinnish filling of some sort) are at one end of this spectrum, while plain flour noodles or wrappers get called into play for everything from filled jiaozi dumplings to pot stickers to noodles soups.

It seems that most of these flour-based dishes originated in Central Asia somewhere before traveling into North China along the Silk Roads and setting root all along China’s far west and upper regions. Records show that although China made do with some sort of native wheat, a much finer strain was introduced long ago from the Fergana Valley, an area that is now divided between what are nowadays known as eastern Uzbekistan, southern Kyrgyzstan, and northern Tajikistan.

These foreign origins can be seen in the character for wheat: mài 麥, which has the character lái 來 (to arrive, to come) over a pictograph of a wheat kernel. Pretty cool, eh? Now you can see why I love this language so much...

Homemade wrappers are easy

Anyway, back to breakfast: Here is a delicious and surprisingly easy way to greet the day that shows those Central Asian roots in another couple of ways. First, there's lamb, which is the meat of choice out among Beijing's Hui Muslims (although you can sub in another favorite - beef - or even go with American dark turkey), and second, there are the carrots that were also brought to China via the upper Silk Roads that snaked across the length of Asia.

One delicious technique here in particular is worth learning: Lots of seasoned water is whipped into the meat. Sichuan peppercorns are whirled with plain old water and then the spices are strained out. This water in turn lends a subtle, piney, faintly numbing background. It doesn't seem possible, but a whole cup of water is easily absorbed by this pound of ground lamb. This results in a much lighter filling and a satisfying puddle of juice in each bun. I’ve also included directions for mincing the meat again with your Chinese knives, as this amplifies its lovely texture. It’s optional, and just so you know, even if you skip this step, these will taste fantastic.

Chop, chop, chop

Try this for breakfast or as a snack with some soy milk, millet congee, or even a cup of coffee. Make extra and freeze them for an even easier treat later on.

Beijing-style steamed lamb buns

Lăo Běijīng yángròu bāo 老北京羊肉包

Beijing

Makes 16 (4 inch/10cm) baozi

Wrappers:

1¼ cups/295 ml warm water

2 teaspoons yeast

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2½ cups/ Chinese flour, plus extra for kneading and shaping

2 teaspoons peanut or vegetable oil

2 teaspoons baking powder

Filling:

1 pound/450g ground lamb (about 20% fat)

1 cup/235 ml water

2 tablespoons Sichuan peppercorns

2 tablespoons regular soy sauce

2 tablespoons/25g sweet wheat paste

6 tablespoons/80g toasted sesame oil

¼ cup/50g peanut or vegetable oil

1 teaspoon sugar

2 carrots, grated (about 1 cup/200g)

2 green onions, trimmed and finely chopped

½ bunch cilantro, trimmed and chopped

2 tablespoons finely chopped ginger 

Let the yeast foam up to prove it's alive

1. First make the wrappers: Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water. Allow the yeast to expand for about 10 minutes; if it is not foaming at this point, discard and get some fresher yeast. 

2. Stir the flour and salt together in a large work bowl. Use chopsticks or a wooden spoon to mix in the yeast solution until flakes form. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured smooth surface, and then use a pastry scraper in one hand and your other hand to scrape and knead the dough. When it is elastic and no longer sticks to the board, check the texture: a pinch of the dough should feel like an earlobe. Form the dough into a ball. 

Steamer paper makes things conveninent

3. Clean the work bowl, dry it, and lightly oil both the bowl and the ball of dough. Transfer the dough to the bowl, cover it tightly with some plastic wrap, and place in a warm place to rise until double in size. Punch down the dough and fold the edges in on the ball. Cover the bowl again and let it rise until it is once more double in size. 

4. Turn the dough out onto a clean, smooth work surface and sprinkle with the baking powder. Lightly knead the baking powder into the dough, cover the dough with the plastic wrap and let it rest for around 10 minutes. 

5. Lightly dust the board and roll the dough into a long, even strip 16 inches long. Form the wrappers as shown here. Line two Chinese basket steamers with either steamer paper or cupcake liners; spray the cupcake paper with oil. Set the baskets and cover over a pan of boiling water for a couple of minutes to heat them through, and then turn off the heat.

  

7. To prepare the filling, you can first chop the ground meat again with two Chinese knives as shown on the right until the color becomes paler and the meat feels pasty. Scoop the meat into a medium work bowl. Grind the water and Sichuan peppercorns together in a blender until the spice is pulverized, and then pour the liquid through a fine strainer; discard the solids. Use your hand to gradually mix the water into the meat, which should easily absorb every last drop. Use your hand to mix in the rest of the ingredients until the filling looks even. This makes about 4½ cups/1000 ml filling.

  

The meat will absorb the seasoned water

8. Fill the wrappers as directed here, using around ¼ cup/32g per bun. Place the buns either in the warmed up steamer baskets to rise for at least 15 minutes, or arrange them on a baking sheet lined with plastic wrap and immediately freeze them. (Store frozen buns in a resealable freezer bag and steam for an extra 5 minutes or so.) To cook the fresh buns, set the baskets over rapidly boiling water and steam them for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat, but allow them to stay covered in the baskets so that they do not deflate easily. Serve hot. Leftovers can be re-steamed for around 10 minutes.

Tip

Don't use whole wheat flour here, as it is too coarse to hold the juicy filling. You can add a bit (maybe a quarter of the total amount), but you really need the elasticity provided by white flour here. Believe me, I've tried.