The steamed, BBQ pork-filled bun, cha siu bao, is like the gateway drug of dim sum. They’re easy to find, inexpensive, and even the worst of them are satisfying in their own way. If you didn’t grow up in an Asian household, there’s a good chance it was the first dim sum you ever had, other than a greasy take-out eggroll. Like I said, they’re the gateway drug. Before I had ever ventured into xiao long bao, har gau, or even the fairly mundane shiu mai, and before I ever dreamed of owning a bamboo steamer of my own, I was hooked on cha siu bao. I see them in the windows of Chinese bakeries and can’t help but go in. When we go for dim sum, it’s the one thing that everyone (except the vegetarians) seems to agree on.

‘Cha siu‘ or ‘char siu‘ refers to the method of preparing the BBQ meat, typically pork. ‘Bao‘ means “bun”. And it turns out that, if you’re comfortable making a very simple yeast dough, they’re easy to make.

To celebrate Chinese New Year with the Perfectly Edible gang, we made pork buns two ways. First, the traditional, stuffed steamed bun — the little pillow of crack-like BBQ pork addressed above. Then, using the second half of a batch of cha siu, we made the clamshell-style pork buns popularized by David Chang of Momofuku in New York. Now, Chang didn’t invent the clamshell pork bun, as he and everyone else will rush to tell you, but it’s undeniable that he is the reason for the global food-crush on them at the moment. And he makes a damn fine pork bun, so credit where it’s due.

Although Chang includes a recipe for the Steamed Bun dough in his book, Momofuku (page 81), I used the recipe for Basic Yeast Dough in Andrea Nguyen’s Asian Dumplings: Mastering Gyoza, Spring Rolls, Samosas, and More (page 92) for both styles of bun, and it came out perfectly. I also substituted 1 package of active dry yeast for the instant yeast Nguyen calls for, without any trouble.

Basic Yeast Dough
- makes 16 medium sized buns -

1 envelope active dry yeast
3/4 C lukewarm water
2 Tbsp. canola oil
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
12 1/2 oz. (2 1/2 C) all-purpose flour*

1. Put the yeast in a small bowl with the lukewarm water to soften for 1 minute. Whisk in the oil.

2. Combine the sugar, baking powder, and flour in the bowl of your food processor, and pulse two or three times to combine. Turn the processor on, and pour in the yeast-water-oil mixture in a slow, steady stream. Continue mixing for about 20 seconds, until the dough starts to come together and form a ball. Run the machine for another 45 to 60 seconds. The dough should be in a large ball now.

3. Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set in a warm, draft free place to rise for about 45 minutes or until doubled.

Note: While you’re waiting for the dough to rise is a perfect time to assemble your filling, if you haven’t already.

Char Siu Pork Bun Filling
Flavoring sauce:
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 pinch salt
1 pinch of white pepper
1 Tbsp. light soy sauce
2 tsp. oyster sauce
1 Tbsp. water

Filling:
2 tsp. canola oil
2 scallions, white and green parts, chopped
1/2 lb. char siu pork, diced (storebought, or made with the fantastic recipe on pg. 224 of Asian Dumplings)
1 Tbsp. Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry
1 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in 2 Tbsp. water.

1. Mix all ingredients in the flavor sauce except the sugar together. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve.

2. Heat the 2 tsp. of canola oil for the filling in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the scallions and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the pork, stir, and add the flavoring sauce. Cook for about two minutes, until pork is heated through.

3. Add the rice wine to the dissolved cornstarch. Add the mixture to the skillet with the hot pork and cook for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly. The cornstarch will thicken the sauce and the whole mixture will start to stick together.

4. Remove from the heat and cool completely before using.

Assemble the Pork Buns

1. Divide the Basic Yeast Dough into two even portions. Cover one half in plastic wrap while you work with the other to prevent it from drying out.

2. Roll the dough into a 12″ log, then cut it into 8 even pieces.

3. Roll each piece of dough into a ball, then flatten with your hands to about 1/4 inch thck.

4. Using a wooden-dowel style rolling pin (or a large cooking chopstick, or a plain wooden dowel about 3/8″), roll each of the flattened disks of dough out to about 3 1/4″ in diameter, leaving a 1″ belly in the middle, so that the middle is thicker than the edges. This creates an even thickness on the top and the bottom when you fill the bun. For a more detailed explanation, see Nguyen’s explanation in the LA Times: How to roll out dough for bao.

5. Cut parchment paper into 3″ squares, 1 for each bun.

6. Place a rolled-out piece of dough in one hand, cupping it slightly. Scoop about 4 tsp. of the filling onto the dough, pressing gently, and keeping 1/2″ to 3/4″ clear all the way around. Use your thumb from the hand holding the bun to press the filling down while pinching the top of the bun closed with the other hand. It may take a few tries to get it right, but it’s not difficult at all. There’s a great explanation on page 52 of Asian Dumplings

7. Place each finished bun on a parchment square, pleated side up, on a baking sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or kitchen towel while making the remainder of the buns. Let the tray sit in a warm dry place for 30 minutes for the dough to rise again.

8. Put the buns in a steamer with at least 1 inch between each bun, and between the buns and the sides of the steamer. Cook for 15 minutes. When done, the dough will look dry. Remove from steamer and cook on a wire rack for 5 minutes.

Clamshell Pork Buns

Make the same Basic Yeast Dough recipe above and divide into 16 even pieces. Roll each piece out to 1/4″ thick — there is no need to leave the “belly” in the middle of the dough. Brush one half of each disk with canola oil, fold it in half, and place on a 3″ square of parchment. Put each of the buns on a tray, cover with plastic wrap or a dish towel, and set aside to rise for half an hour. After half an hour, steam the buns as above for 6-8 minutes. They don’t take as long as the filled buns.

Serve the clamshell buns with sliced BBQ pork, hoisin, sriracha, scallions, cucumbers, kimchee, or whatever else sounds good.

*On her blog, Asian Dumpling Tips, Nguyen recently posted a comparison of using different flours for the bao dough, to see which gives the purest white: How to Make Steamed Chinese Bao White?. Definitely worth checking out. We used Gold Medal AP flour, and everything came out great. Normally, I have King Arthur AP or Whole Foods AP, which is manufactuered by Giusto’s, both of which may have too high a gluten content for good steamed bao dough.

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I have quasi-fond memories of making dumplings. Fond in that it was quality time spent with my mom and I loved having a freezer full of dumplings for the coming weeks. Quasi in that it was basically child labor. My tired little fingers folding dumplings for hours on end, with only meager sips of tea to fortify me. Okay, maybe that last part was a bit melodramatic.

Growing up, we only made pork dumplings. MEAT. For our dim sum potluck, however, we had a vegetarian in the crew. I decided to make vegetable dumplings so that she’d have something else to eat. Vegetarians are people, too!

For these, I cobbled together veggies that I had in the crisper, using a combination of bok choy, carrots, leeks, bell pepper, and dried mushrooms. Don’t like bell pepper? Feel free to leave them out. Don’t have bok choy? Feel free to sub in spinach. You can use whatever veggies you like. The most important thing about vegetable dumplings is that you pre-cook the vegetables so that they release the bulk of their water before you wrap them in the dumplings. You can blanch, steam, or stir-fry the vegetable mix, whichever you prefer.

The thing that seems to be mildly controversial about dumplings is the skin and whether it’s homemade or store-bought. My mother long ago switched to buying store-bought wrappers, so I feel no guilt whatsoever in buying them. I gladly pay the $1.50 for 16 oz., enough for roughly 50 dumplings. You can buy wrappers at any Asian grocer and you’d be surprised at the variety. This time around, I used two different kinds:

The default ones are the wrappers on the right, the “sue gow wraps.” “Sue gow” roughly translates to water dumplings, i.e. boiled. You would not want to use these wrappers if you intended to fry your dumplings as they are too thin and would have the wrong consistency. I picked up the H.K. Style wrappers because they were right next to the sue gow ones and I’m an impulse buyer like that. The H.K. style ones were a bit thinner, so I thought they had a nicer texture once cooked. They’re also a touch smaller, so your filling will go further. The big negative for me, though, was that they were too delicate and tore easily while I was working with them, resulting in much swearing on my part. I don’t think the benefit in texture was worth the added hassle while wrapping.

Lastly, when making dumplings, you should consider making a lot and freezing most of them for later. They freeze very well and there’s enough effort put in to making the filling and wrapping them that it really does make sense to make extra. As a very rough guide, for each cup of filling, you can make a dozen dumplings. It may vary depending on the wrappers, but if your wrapper takes approximately one tablespoon of filling, it works out.

Vegetable Dumplings
- makes about 60 dumplings -

2 large heads of bok choy, stalks finely diced and leaves cut into bite-sized ribbons
1 red bell pepper, finely diced
2 medium to large carrots, peeled and finely diced
2 large leeks, white and light green parts only, finely diced
16 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 Tbsp. grated ginger, to taste
4-5 Tbsp. oyster sauce, to taste
2 Tbsp. soy sauce, to taste
1-2 Tbsp. sesame oil, to taste
1 Tbsp. corn starch
ground white pepper
kosher salt
2 packs of dumpling wraps
egg wash, for sealing dumplings

1. Rehydrate the dried mushrooms by soaking in hot tap water for 30-60 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, set a pot of water with a steamer insert to boil.

3. As you’re waiting for the water to come to a boil, prep all of your vegetables. If you have a food processor, now would be a great time to use it. You don’t have to go crazy dicing the vegetables, but keep in mind that they’re going to be in the wrapper and I generally prefer a fine dice.

4. I prefer to steam the vegetables separately by type, starting with the bok choy, then the bell pepper, then the carrots. I do not pre-cook the leeks. As you put each vegetable in the steamer insert, make sure to season with salt. Steam until the vegetables are bright in color, and they begin to collapse and give up their water, anywhere from 3-5 minutes. You do not have to be as anal with the bell pepper or carrots as you do with the bok choy.

5. As the vegetables finish steaming, spread onto a sheet pan lined with paper towels and allow to cool.

6. While the vegetables are cooling, stem the rehydrated mushrooms (re-use the stems for stock or compost) and dice the caps. Reserve 2 Tbsp. of the mushroom soaking water, strained of any debris.

7. Once the steamed vegetables are cool, roll in the paper towels to remove excess water and combine in a large bowl. When you are rolling the bok choy in the paper towel, make sure to squeeze the water out. Add the leeks and diced mushrooms to the bowl. At this point, you should have approximately 5 cups of filling.

8. Season the mixture to taste by adding the oyster sauce, soy sauce, grated ginger, white pepper, sesame oil, and salt. This may take a little tweaking, but season and taste until it’s just right.

9. In a small dish dissolve the corn starch in 1 Tbsp of the mushroom soaking water. You may need a teaspoon or so more of water, but do not use more than 2 Tbsp. Add the corn starch solution to the filling and mix to combine. The corn starch is a little bit of extra insurance against a soggy filling.

10. Have the wraps ready along with the egg wash (beat 1 egg and mix in 1 Tbsp of water). Spoon approximately 1 Tbsp of the filling onto the center of the wrap, leaving approximately 1/2″ of wrap all around. Using your finger, smear the egg wash along the edge of half the wrapper. Fold the wrapper over and firmly press the edges together to ensure they’re sealed.

11. As you finish wrapping each dumpling, place on a sheet pan covered with a sheet of parchment paper, ensuring that the dumplings do not touch. I find that dusting the parchment paper with flour isn’t necessary as long as you don’t move the dumplings around again until after they’re frozen. When the sheet pan is filled, place directly into the freezer, uncovered. Once the dumplings are completely frozen (2-3 hours), you can take them off the sheet pan and place into ziploc bags. In theory, they’ll keep for up to 6 months in the freezer, although I’ve always eaten them before that.

12. The cooking instructions are the same whether the dumplings are fresh or frozen (if frozen, do not defrost before cooking). Bring a pot of water to boil. Once boiling, add the dumplings to the pot. Cook until the dumplings float, the dumpling is cooked through, and the skin is translucent. Usually no more than 5 minutes if from frozen.

13. Serve either plain or with black vinegar as a dipping sauce and enjoy!

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Yes, Virginia, there is Jello in Chinese cooking. You say you don’t believe it, but indeed, it’s true.

Are you having visions of quivering rings of Astro-turf-colored sugar topped with glistening slices of Peking duck? (Actually, I found this photo on Flickr, it might be worse: duck hearts in gelatin.)

You of biting sarcasm and suspicious mind, hear me out.

The Chinese, with their many-thousand-year history, have figured out a thing or two. The compass, paper, gunpowder, and now my personal favorite, how to get the soup inside a soup dumpling without puncturing the dumpling wrap.

Intrigued?

The soup is ingeniously inserted into the dumpling in solid form (yes, the gelatin) and when steamed, it melts into broth. I am determined to find other applications for this technique. Anyone have ideas?

For those of you who have never had a soup dumpling, or xiao long bao, it is a delicate, steamed dumpling with a ground pork filling surrounded by a savory broth. To eat it, put it in a deep spoon, drizzle it with tangy vinegar and slurp it down. Or, if it’s cooled enough to handle, grab one with your fingers, dip into the sauce and pop into your mouth, all in one motion.

Since Dan had said that everything he had made from Andrea Nguyen’s book, Asian Dumplings: Mastering Gyoza, Spring Rolls, Samosas, and More had been delicious (and I had never made soup dumplings), I decided not to tamper much with her recipe. He was right and she is fantastic – these are really good. I think all of us at Perfectly Edible are big fans. Ms. Nguyen has a blog, check it out.

I quadrupled the following recipe and had enough for a party as well as 50 or so for the freezer (freeze them uncooked).

Shanghai Soup Dumplings
Adapted from Andrea Nguyen’s Asian Dumplings: Mastering Gyoza, Spring Rolls, Samosas, and More
- makes about 30 small dumplings-

Soup
1 1/3 c. chicken stock
1T salty, smoky ham chopped
1 whole scallion, cut into 2-inch lengths and lightly smashed with broad side of knife
3 quarter-sized slices ginger, smashed w/ knife
1 ½ t unflavored gelatin

Filling
Generous 2-inch piece ginger
1 scallion, chopped
scant ½ t salt
1/8 t pepper
1 ½ t sugar
1 t soy sauce
1T rice wine or sherry
1 ½ t sesame oil
½ lb. ground pork

Dipping sauce
Chinkiang or balsamic vinegar
Finely diced ginger

Package of Shanghai-style dumpling wrappers (round, thin, white)

To make the soup: Combine everything but the gelatin in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook, uncovered for 8 min or until stock has reduced by half (you should have a generous 2/3 cup). Cool a bit and then strain.

With the stock is still slightly warm, put back in saucepan and sprinkle gelatin over it. Heat on medium-high heat, whisking until dissolved. Bring to a boil then turn off the heat. Pour into 8×8” Pyrex or other ceramic/glass shallow dish to make a thin layer. Cool on the counter, then cover with saran and refrigerate until set.

To make filling: Add to a mini-food processor thinly sliced ginger, scallion, salt, pepper, sugar, soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil. Pulse until you have a paste. Scrape out into a bowl and add the ground pork. Mix well. Refrigerate for at least 30 min. I made all of this a day ahead of time, so I didn’t combine the broth gelatin and pork until just before making the dumplings. When ready to make the dumplings, cut the gelatin into quarters and use a spatula to peel out of the dish. Mmmm, chicken broth Jello. Chop into small pieces and mix into the pork mixture.

To assemble: This will take some practice. Probably by your 10th dumpling you will get the hang of it. I was lucky to have a friend (Chinese? No, Jewish) show me what the heck to do. We used a little bit of water to help the dumpling wrappers stick closed.

So, hold a dumpling wrapper in one hand, put in about 1 teaspoon of filling in the center. Dip a finger in some water and swipe it around the edge of the wrapper, around the filling. With the same hand, pinch the edges of the wrapper around the filling so that it starts to look like a cupcake wrapper (accordion-like).  With the same hand, gather together all the little accordion edges and try to twist gently into a “knot” at the top. You won’t have much dough to spare, so use your “holding” hand to help stretch the dough just a little bit. Squeeze the top-knot together so it sticks.

To cook: Put a steamer insert over a pot of boiling water. Put a piece of parchment paper or leaves from a napa cabbage on the bottom of the steamer. Place dumplings on top, cover and cook for about 8-10 minutes.

Serve immediately with dipping sauce.

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1. Vegetable Dumplings
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Shu mai (also spelled shui mei, siu mai, etc.) is a traditional Chinese dumpling and with Chinese New Year around the corner we decided it was the perfect time to experiment. I recently bought Cooking Light’s Way to Cook and so far, everything I’ve made from this cookbook has been great. Plus it has really helpful “how to’s” about equipment, food preparation, and great background on ingredients including nutrition.

Making shu mai is easy but definitely time consuming. We prepared the filling ahead of time and then made the shu mai right before our company arrived. It took a while to get the hang of filling the wraps. We found it was easiest to have a bowl of water handy, dip a finger in the water, wet the outside of the wrap while in our palms, fill it, and then crimp the edges together. While the shu mai was tasty we felt like perhaps it should have been cooked a little longer as it was hard to pick up the shu mai without part of the wrap breaking. The next batch we left to steam a little longer and it was much easier to handle.

While it was fun to experiment for Chinese New Year I think on Feb 14 we’ll go out for dim sum to celebrate!

Shrimp & Mushroom Shu Mai
- Adapted from Cooking Light’s Way to Cook -

Cooking spray
3 1/2 cups thinly sliced cremini mushrooms (about 6 ounces)
1 3/4 cups thinly sliced shitake mushrooms (about 4 ounces)
1 cup thinly sliced green onions
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon dry sherry
2 1/2 teaspoons minced peeled ginger
2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
4 ounces peeled and deveined medium shrimp
24 gyoza skins (round wonton wrappers found at local markets)
6 peeled and deveined medium shrimp, each cut crosswise into 4 pieces
4 large napa cabbage leaves
1 tablespoon sambal oelek (ground fresh chile paste) or Sriracha (hot chile sauce)

1. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat with cooking spray. Add mushrooms to pan and saute for 8 minutes or until liquid evaporates. Spoon mushrooms into a food processor. Add onions and the next five ingredients. Process 10 seconds or until finely chopped.

2. Working with 1 gyoza skin at a time (cover remaining skins with damp towel to prevent from drying), spoon 1 tablespoon shrimp mixture into center of each skin. Moisten edges of skin with water. Gather up and crimp edges of skin around filling. Lightly squeeze skin to adhere to filling, leaving top of dumpling open. Place one shrimp piece on top of filling, pressing gently. Place dumpling on baking sheet; cover loosely with a damp towel to prevent from drying. Repeat procedure with remaining skins, filling and shrimp pieces.

3.  Line each tier of a two-tiered bamboo steamer with 2 cabbage leaves (you can also use parchment paper).  Arrange dumplings 1 inch apart over cabbage in each steamer basket. Stack tiers, and cover with steamer lid.

4.  Add water to skillet to a depth of 1 inch and bring to a boil. Place steamer in pan and steam dumplings 15 minutes or until done. Remove dumplings from steam and spoon 1/4 teaspoon sambal oelek onto each dumpling. You can reuse the cabbage to steam more dumplings. Enjoy!

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Chinese New Year is February 14 this year. The same as Valentine’s Day. How doubly auspicious!

As a kid, Chinese New Year held a special place in my heart because my parents let me stay home from school. It was my first foray into playing hookey (is it hookey if your parents consent?) and I maintain it is because of that early taste that my attendance record my senior year in high school was so abysmal. But hey, I think I turned out okay.

Fully in control of my own schedule, I now cherish the Lunar New Year for it’s food. It’s an excuse to get together with friends, share a meal, and (hopefully) “ooh” and “aah” over the food. We here at Perfectly Edible decided to celebrate the new year a little bit earlier, though. Pesky Valentine’s Day conflict.

At first we thought we might feast on a few traditional Chinese New Year dishes. The thing is, noodles with dried oysters and hair seaweed just isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. What we could all get behind, however, is dim sum. Wonderful, glorious dim sum.

This week, we bring to you the Week of Dim Sum. Every day, we’ll post a recipe for one of the items we brought to our dim sum potluck in early celebration of Chinese New Year. Here’s a little peek at the food:

Char shiu bao (roast pork buns)

Xiao long bao (shanghai soup dumplings)

Vegetable dumplings

Shu mai

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2. Shanghai Soup Dumplings
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