Steamed Meat Bun (sang yuk bao) 生肉包

The first time making this, the filling turned out quite dry. My mother's exact words where "good flavour but kon jang jang (in cantonese, it means dry)". I couldn't agree with her more. Therefore, in my second attempt, I did the following changes:

1. I added more water;
2. I added more fats (yes, you need the fats to make it delicious); and
3. I added oil.

My goal is to have a slightly soggy inner wall of the bao skin. I have also replaced the cabbage with yam beans to give it more texture. The result? Exactly what I envisioned it to turn out. I was satisfied.

Makes 8 baos

Ingredients

1 portion pau skin dough (click here)
2 hard boiled eggs, quartered

Filling

250 gm pork with 25-30% fats, minced
1 cup of yam beans (sengkuang), coarsely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cm ginger,  finely chopped
1 tbsp chopped coriander, or 2 tbsp chopped scallion
2 tbsp cornstarch
3 tbsp water
2 tbsp oil

Seasoning

1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp soya sauce
2 tsp Shao Xing wine
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp dark soy sauce (optional)
3 tsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp pepper

Cooking Instruction

1. Prepare bao dough. (see bao skin recipe).

2. Prepare filling. Chop garlic, ginger and scallion finely. Cut yam beans. Add all ingredients together and mix until combined. Weigh 40 grams of meat each and roll into balls. Keep refrigerated until needed.

3. When dough is ready, divide into 50 grams portions. You might have some extra. If you do not have a weighing machine, just equally divide into 8 equal portions.

4. Use a small rolling pin to flatten the dough into a circle. Thin out the edges more than the middle. Dough should be about 13 cm in diameter so that it could comfortably wrap the filling.

5. Put a piece of meatball together with a piece of egg onto the rolled-out dough. Pleat the dough by pressing the dough together between your thumb and forefinger. After filling is completely wrapped, twist it to seal the bao. Rest bao for another 45 mins.

6. Steam bao for 20 mins on medium high fire.

7. Remove from fire and serve hot.