vrijdag 6 mei 2016

FOOD - The best Bapao recipe ever (steamed Chinese buns)

When we were young my mother made all the cookies and snacks by herself. She had to cook for a family of 10 children and of course baking and roasting but she was a hard worker and I must say that we always got the best stuff for meal and snacks. Even when there was less money. Besides that, she cooked also for other people and sold cookies and snacks. Her recipes were written down in a notebook and later my father tapped all over with an ordinary typewriter.



When we were older we were obliged to help because my mother was obviously not making one bapao per person but usually 3 per person and she always made more with in her mind that when we have visitors they also have to eat something. So it was agreed that she needed help to make 100 bapao on one day. My sister and I were the persons for the first taste of a dish, cake or bapao. That's why we've been so slim after all these years ... hahahahaa ...

Bapao


It is always good to know what the dish is and where it originally come from. Bapao is a steamed bun with a filling that originates from the Chinese cuisine. It is through Indonesia also became known in the Netherlands.The filling may contain meat such as beef, chicken, chicken satay, pork, other meats or vegetarian mince. But bapao can also be well filled with sweet things, such as a mixture of pieces of peanut, coconut and sesame flavored with brown sugar. Bapao filled with vegetables is also possible, but must be vegetables that are not too much moisture issues when it is cooked, such as carrot or onion. In Vietnam, there is also a hard-boiled egg placed in bapao as extra padding.A bapao usually has the form of a Mantou. Because it is steamed, however, it does not have a brown crust. Bapao is sometimes eaten with chilli sauce, but in China and Indonesia is not that common....no they always eat it fresh steamed.The bapao is called "filled roll. This is actually a pleonasm: in Chinese means pao (包) namely 'roll. "

Voorbereidingen

Always make sure you the ingredients are at roomtemperature because they better mix. Think for example of eggs, butter, and milk which must be at roomtemperature in order to be well mixed with each other so that they form an emulsion which retains air to the the batter or dough.

Usually you have to take out the eggs from the freezer or fridge an hour before you bake so they are at room temperature when you're baking, but what if you forget it now? No problem with this simple trick. Place the eggs for 5 to 10 minutes in a bowl with hot (not boiling ) water, then the eggs are ready to use!


You can get the butter at room temperature by leave the butter in the paper packaging to be defrosted in the microwave for 8 seconds. Turn again the butter and defrosted again for 8 seconds. The butter is very soft but not melted.
Or cut the butter into small pieces and let the diced butter in a dish in the microwave for a few seconds each time something warm until the butter is malleable . Stay there because sometimes it can go very quick into melting butter and then splashes (read explodes ) throughout your microwave.


Milk at room temperature: pour the milk into a cup (must be microwavable) and allow the milk to warm in a few seconds in the microwave.


Ingrediënts (for 50 pieces)


1 kilo breadflour or wheat flour
500g self-raising flour ( = flour with baking powder) OR all purpose flour
75 grams of fresh yeast (or 20 g dry yeast ) mixed with warm water (not hot) and leave for 15 minutes before use
3 eggs (beaten, use one yolk)
75 ml . hot milk (made in a saucepan, heat together with 11 tablespoons of sugar and whisk into whipping cream)
1/2 teaspoon salt
50 squares cut out from parchment or baking paper

Preparation

  • Put in a large doughbowl the flour and the other flour
  • Add salt
  • Mix them well
  • Add the beaten eggs
  • Add the mixture of yeast
  • Add the creamy milk-sugar mixture

You get a dough that you must knead for 15 minutes . I use a food processor that can handle the 15 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead another 5 minutes and discard the dough between the counter top.
Make sure the dough does not stick to your hands or else you must add some more flour for your dough. Make sure the dough is not too dry or else you have to wet your hands with warm water. You can see that the kneading changed the dough of a "havoc" dough into a smooth dough.


Put the dough in a warm bowl and cover with cling film and place a hot moistened towel over it. Place the bowl in a warm place (near a heater or in a very warm kitchen). Make sure the bowl is not in a draughty environment or cold wind, otherwise the dough will not rise properly. Let the dough rise for 1.5 hours and sometimes I let rise for 2 hours.

Ingrediënts meat filling



I 'm allergic for pork and therefore you will never find recipes with pork on my blog. Fortunately there are many alternatives and substitute meat . For the filling of the bapao I usually use mince chicken I let my Moroccan neighbor butcher mince it.

1 kilo chopped/mince Chicken (for 1.5 kg flour)
1 large bunch celery (chopped fine)
1 large brown onion
6 cloves garlic
3 handfuls fried onions
3 pieces spring onions
black pepper
pinch of salt
( 2 blocks of broth or a pinch of aromat for the taste)

Preparation filling


Chop all the ingredients fine. I grind them together fine (except the spring onions and celery) in a food processor and fry in 3 tablespoons vegetable oil until golden brown (don't fry it too dry because otherwise they get into black pieces in your filling).
Add the chopped pieces with diced. They should not make one lump. So, free-flowing baking. Then I add the spring onions and the celery at last because you have to see the green color in the filling.
Put the meat in a colander so that any excess oil drips out. Otherwise the meat becomes to oily for the dough.

Making the bapao

Before you make the bapao you have to put in the meantime the steamer or bapaopan on the stove and fills the bottom pan with water and let it cook. When you have finished forming the bapao you can steam them straight into the steamer or bapaopan 


When the dough has risen (you see the dough 2 times arose in volume ), we now make the pellets. I always make balls of 50 grams and put them on the square cut parchment paper on a baking tray. You have to cover the prepared balls with a wet towel otherwise they dry out and appear dry crusts that you see again if you go steaming the bapao .

When all the balls are rotated I put a cling film over the pan and leave them rise again for about half an hour before I fill them with minced meat.


I know, it's lot of work but if they are ready you can eat them fresh and you enjoy it. You can put them in the freezer for when you've got for example visitors.

Put the filling in the doughballs

Take a doughball, knead them for a minut with warm hands en rotate again to a ball. Make with a finger a hole in the middle of the ball and put with a teaspoon the minced meat filling in the hole. I usually put 3 teaspoons and make the hole closed by squeezing sides towards each other. Again make a ball and put it back on the baking paper and then with a flat hand pushing the ball at the top. Voila. You're filled roll is finished. Now you have to do it with the remaining 49 doughballs

STEAMING

I steam the rolls in 20 minutes in a bapaopan but you also can use a steamer for small quantities.
 


And voila, you have made ​​bapao. I say ... Selamat makan, bon appetit, enjoy your meal .

Greetings Paula

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