Steamed Pork Buns

Preparation

Prep dough

Follow bao dough recipe. When the dough is proofing, move on to the next steps to make filling.

Prep cabbage

Place cabbage into a large mixing bowl, throw in 1/2 tsp of salt and mix with fingers, incorporating salt throughout. Let cabbage sweat out water for about 15 minutes.

Make filling

Meanwhile, put the remaining filling ingredients into a large bowl. After the cabbage has sweated out all its water, place onto a thin dish towel or a few layers of thick paper towels and wrap around the cabbage to enclose. Using your hands and brute strength, squeeze out as much excess water from the cabbage as you can through the towel. Transfer cabbage to the rest of the filling mixture and use fingers to mix all that juicy meat mixture goodness together. Use a circular motion with your fingers until the filling looks homogenous and sticky, about 3 minutes. When mixture is done, cover with plastic wrap and set aside in the fridge until the dough is proofed and ready.

Rolling dough

When your dough is ready, dust a large work surface with flour. Punch the excess air out, give your dough a couple kneads, then place your dough on the work surface. Use a bench or knife to cut dough into quarters. Roll each quarter into a long, even log until it's the thickness of a Twinkie. Cut off the uneven tail ends of the log on both sides, then cut log into 6 equal pieces, each piece should be the size of a large marshmellow - you should have around 24 pieces. Dust work surface with a little bit of flour and firmly flatten each piece of dough with the palm of your hand making a rough circle and set each piece aside. Once all your dough marshmellows are flattened, take a rolling pin with your dominant hand and with a flattened piece of dough in your other hand - roll from the edge to the middle. Use the hand holding the dough to then slowly rotate the dough and continue to roll from the edge to the middle until the dough is flattened to about 1/8-1/4 inch thickness.*

Fold and seal the bao

You can fold the baos however you'd like and have fun with it! For a braid fold like the cover photo, place a golf ball sized amount of meat into the wrapper (it's okay if it seems like a lot). Create a taco shape with the wrapper and push one of the ends a 1/2 inch into the meat to make a “w”. Squeeze the to folds together and push into the meat again. This time, take the right half of the “w” and pinch, push into the meat, then take the left half of the “w” and pinch, squeeze into the meat again. Repeat this process (the excess meat will squeeze itself out) until you've enclosed the meat. Pinch the tail end of the braid and shape the bao to resemble a tear drop.

Steam the bao

Place small pieces of parchment paper under each bao and place into a bamboo steamer. Use a shallow, wide pot the same circumference as your steamer and fill with water, put the pot on heat and boil. Once the water is boiling turn the heat down to medium-high. Place steamer on top of the pot and put your lid on the steamer and set a timer for 15 minutes for buns to be fully cooked, steamy and ready to serve.