Vietnamese Steamed Pork Bun Recipe (Banh Bao)

Ingredients

• Wheat flour

  Whole-grain

  100g

• Quail egg

  Whole, fresh, raw

  1.2kg

• Ground pork

  Fresh, raw

  12 oz or 339g

• Mushrooms

  Shiitake, dried

  12g

• Scallions

  Spring onions or scallions (includes tops and bulb), raw

  2 medium or 30g

• Onions

  Raw

  ½ cup, chopped or 80g

• Sugar

  White, granulated sugar

  1 tsp or 4g

• Pepper

  Spices, white

  ¼ tsp, ground or 0.6g

• Oyster sauce

  Ready-to-serve

  2 tbsp or 36g

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, hydrate dried woodear mushroom with 2 cups hot water. Once softened, rinse thoroughly, squeeze out excess water and mince finely.
2. In a large bowl, mix together ground pork, woodear mushroom, green onions, white onion, green peas, Chinese sausages, sugar, pepper and oyster sauce. You may test the flavor of the marinated meat by quickly cooking a small piece in the microwave.
3. Use plastic gloves for easier handling to divide the marinated ground pork into 12 equal balls (about 63 grams each). Gently make in a hole in the middle of each filling ball. Insert quail egg in the middle and work the pork filling to fully encase the quail egg.
4. In a steamer, cook the ground pork balls for about 3-4 minutes. This will remove most of the moisture to prevent a soggy bun. Remove the pork balls from the steamer and set aside.
5. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll out the dough into a flat circle using a small rolling pin. Place the pork filling ball in the middle. Gently wrap the dough around the filling using large pleats. Pull all the pleats up and pinch the top to seal.
6. Place the assembled buns onto cut cupcake liners then transfer them into a steamer, leaving room in between for expansion. Steam for 10 minutes.
7. Serve immediately for best results. Any left over should be wrap individually and freeze for later.
8. (source: https://www.vickypham.com/blog/vietnamese-steamed-pork-buns)