Cha Siu Bao with Passion Fruit Hoisin Sauce - Chinese Meat Buns
Over winter break I was really craving some cha siu bao. Unfortunately, while in Hong Kong this summer, I was not able to try any, so the craving was really coming on strong now!
My mom and I made these ourselves. We didn’t make it using our own flour though. Mom usually uses pre-bought packaged cha siu bao flour (Click the link for an image—the packaged flour is actually for banh bao, a Vietnamese version of cha siu bao, and can be bought at your local Asian market). My mom always talks about not ever having enough time to do things, so she likes to use this flour to save time so that she does not have to make the flour base herself. Actually, it doesn’t seem hard to make the flour base, it only requires a few ingredients and one day I will make it myself, but for now….
Also, cha siu bao is traditionally made with pork. However, we used leftover beef that my mom had used to make beef pho stock. The beef, having been cooking for so long in stock, had become super tender and thus was perfect for making bao.
Beautiful. And delicious. I made a spur-of-the-moment sauce to drizzle over the bao using some Passion Fruit gelatin that I had left over from the Mousse de Maracuya recipe. Just melt a bit of gelatin in the microwave for about 10 seconds. Remove, let cool slightly, then add a bit of hoisin sauce (click link for a picture of Hoisin sauce).
Plain cha siu bao without sauce is also very delicious.
Recipe:
Actually, the recipe….. The thing is, while I was away folding laundry for like 2 minutes, my mom had made the cha siu sauce mix using some ingredients I had read off Use Real Butter earlier. I didn’t even tell her the amounts…I’m not even sure she remembered all the ingredients I told her because I told her quickly while she was cooking something else… So I can’t really tell you how to make it like ours because I wasn’t there for the adding and mixing of ingredients. I can tell you though, that she didn’t use the rice wine because we did not have any. Still tasted amazing.
You can imagine though, that I was a bit upset because I wanted to make cha siu bao myself….Oh well. Next time. I did all of the assembling and closing of the baos though! I think they look very beautiful. As authentic as I remember seeing them made by grandma or mom (insides not exploding out and making a mess, not all smushed together at the pleats)—but my mom didn’t seem too ecstatic about it. Apparently they can look BETTER! Hahaha. Oh well, if that is the case, I will get better as I make more of these delicious things.
-
saboreats posted this
