February 21, 2022
This post is a bit late, but Happy Lunar New Year! 2022 is the year of the tiger and all I keep thinking about lately is steamed buns and bubble tea. More specifically, I’m craving fluffy steamed buns filled with meat and veggies served alongside a brown sugar milk-based bubble tea à la Tiger Sugar. Is there a better time of year than the year of the tiger to enjoy bubble tea with tiger stripes? Since we live too far away from a Tiger Sugar shop, I’ve been attempting to make my own version at home. I watched a ton of YouTube videos online on how the brown sugar bubble tea are made in a variety of tea shops and then experimented with making my own version at home. Bubble tea and steamed buns are one of my favorite food combinations. To celebrate, I steamed up two different types of steamed buns – one filled with mushroom and veggies and another packed with Asian style BBQ chicken. Kev and I both love steamed buns immensely. Kev’s favorite is the BBQ pork steamed buns he would eat at tea houses throughout Hong Kong where he grew up. I took a slightly different approach and made him some BBQ chicken steamed buns instead. I swapped in chicken thighs for the usual pork filling to yield an ultra-tender filling. For my preferred version, I made a vegetarian filling featuring chopped shiitake mushrooms and bok choy. This veggie version is super simple to make and requires just a few ingredients to prepare. Kev and I both grew up eating steamed buns on opposite sides of the world. Kev, who grew up in Hong Kong, has had his fair share of authentic steamed buns in restaurants throughout Hong Kong. I grew up in New York and have also had my fair share of truly delicious steamed buns. My favorite versions, aside from the classic BBQ pork steamed buns, is definitely the veggie buns. The ones I remember eating growing up were packed with a variety of veggies and aromatics ranging from bok choy to chives. I like to fold in shiitake mushrooms whenever I can to add a deeper, more intense umami flavor to any dish I make. The steamed buns are the perfect addition to the Lunar New Year menu alongside my mom’s turnip cakes, sweet and savory tang yuan, and pork and cabbage dumplings. This year, we added my version of BBQ chicken steamed buns and mushroom bok choy steamed buns to the menu as well. When making steamed buns, I started by making the dough. A trick I figured out over the years is to use a combination of all-purpose flour and cake flour to help the buns achieve the fluffy yet firm texture. If I use just cake flour, the buns will be too soft and not form properly once steamed. If I use just all-purpose flour, the buns will tend to be hard and just slightly chewy once steamed. The combination of the two flours though yields buns with a fluffy texture yet holds a beautiful shape when folded (or pleated) together. Since we eat with our eyes as much as our mouths, having beautiful looking buns results in a much more enjoyable eating experience. Kev and I ended up having a super low key Lunar New Year this year. We both had to work, so we just celebrated by having video calls with our family. We spent a day Zooming with Kev’s family in Hong Kong and another day FaceTiming with my family in New York. Aside from a variety of steamed buns, we also enjoyed some crumbled Asian beef tacos (not exactly a traditional dish for Lunar New Year), spicy, sweet, and savory veggie noodles, and tons of my mom’s sweet tang yuan. Hopefully, by next year, we will be able to gather with our families in person and enjoy all of our favorite dishes for Lunar New Year as a family.
For the assorted steamed buns:
For the bun dough:
· 2 cups cake flour
· 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
· ½ teaspoon kosher salt
· ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
· 1 cup lukewarm water
· ¾ cup all-purpose flour, plus additional ¼ cup for kneading the dough
For the shiitake mushrooms and bok choy filling:
· 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
· 1-2 stalks scallions, thinly sliced
· 8-10 baby bok choy, roughly chopped
· 5 shiitake mushrooms, (reconstituted in water about 1 hour beforehand), diced
· ½ teaspoon sesame oil
· ½ teaspoon kosher salt
· ¼ teaspoon white pepper powder
· ½ tablespoon soy sauce
· ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
· 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
· 1 tablespoon cornstarch
· 1 tablespoon water
For the BBQ chicken filling:
· 1 chicken thigh, diced
· 1½ tablespoons sugar
· 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
· 1 tablespoon soy sauce
· ½ teaspoon sesame oil
· ¼ teaspoon white pepper powder
· 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
· ½ large onion, diced
· 2 cloves garlic, minced
· 1 tablespoon cornstarch
· 1 tablespoon water
For steaming the buns:
· 6-8 cups water
Directions:
1) Set aside two steamer baskets. Cut out sixteen 2-by-2-inch squares of parchment paper. Set aside.
2) Make the dough for the buns by combining the cake flour, active dry yeast, kosher salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Add the lukewarm water to the mixture. Use your hands to begin mixing the dough. The dough will be sticky at this point. Gradually add the ¾ cup of all-purpose flour slowly into the bowl as you continue kneading the dough for about 3-5 minutes. Cover the bowl with a sheet of plastic wrap. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes. While the dough is resting, you can start making the filling.
3) To make the veggie filling, combine the minced garlic, sliced scallions, chopped baby bok choy, diced shiitake mushrooms, sesame oil, kosher salt, white pepper powder, soy sauce, and granulated sugar in a bowl. Set aside. Heat a skillet on medium heat and add a tablespoon of vegetable oil. Once hot, add the veggie filling to the skillet. Cook until the veggie filling is softened, about 3-5 minutes. Prepare the cornstarch slurry by stirring together the cornstarch and water. Add the cornstarch slurry to the skillet. Cook the veggie filling for another minute until the filling begins to thicken. Transfer the filling back to the bowl and set the filling aside to rest.
4) To make the BBQ chicken filling, combine the diced chicken thigh, sugar, oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, and white pepper powder in a bowl. Set aside. Heat a skillet on medium heat and add a tablespoon of vegetable oil. Once hot, add the diced onion and minced garlic to the skillet. Let the onion and garlic cook for about 30 seconds. Add in the diced chicken coated in the sauces. Cook until the chicken pieces are cooked through, about 3-5 minutes. Prepare the cornstarch slurry by stirring together the cornstarch and water. Add the cornstarch slurry to the skillet. Cook the BBQ chicken filling for another minute until the filling begins to thicken. Transfer the filling to a clean bowl and set the filling aside to rest.
5) When the resting time for the dough is up, heat a large pot filled with 6-8 cups of water on medium high heat.
6) As the pot of water is heating, prepare the dough for filling by transferring the dough to a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough in half and transfer half of the dough back to the bowl. Cover the dough with the plastic wrap to prevent the dough from drying out. Shape the other half of the dough into a large circle. Cut the dough in half vertically, then horizontally, and then diagonally on both sides until you form eight equal pieces of dough. Roll each piece of dough into a ball. Repeat this process with the other half of the dough. While rolling out the other half of the dough, transfer the already shaped dough balls back into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap to prevent the dough balls from drying out. Set aside the eight rolled-out dough balls when ready to begin forming buns.
7) Prepare a small bowl of flour using the ¼ cup of all-purpose flour. Working quickly, sprinkle a small bit of flour onto a surface and begin rolling out the pieces of dough into a circle one by one onto the lightly floured surface. Starting with the veggie filling, place about one tablespoon of filling on the rolled-out dough circle. Bring the edges up, pleat and pinch around the edge of the dough wrapper until you form a rounded bun. Pinch the top of the bun to seal the bun. Place the filled and shaped bun onto a sheet of parchment square. Place the bun and parchment square in the steamer basket. Continue this process with the rest of the dough balls and filling until all eight buns are formed and transferred to the steamer basket.
8) Repeat step 7 with the BBQ chicken filling. Set aside.
9) Once the pot of water begins to boil, fit one of the steamer baskets on top of the pot. Cover and steam the veggie buns in the steamer basket over the pot of water for 5 minutes. Remove the steamer basket carefully as the steamed buns will be very hot at this point. Transfer the steamer basket filled with the BBQ chicken to the top of the pot. Cover and steam the BBQ chicken buns in the steamer basket over the pot of water for 5 minutes. Let the steamed buns rest for a few minutes before serving. Enjoy!
Takeaways: The mixture of cake flour and all-purpose flour in the bun dough helps the buns maintain their fluffy texture even when sitting out. These steamed buns are best when served immediately, but leftover buns can be placed in an airtight container and stored in the refrigerator for up to three days. To warm up the refrigerated buns, I like to place the chilled buns on a skillet, cover it with a cover, and let it warm on medium low heat for 5-7 minutes. I then serve up the warmed leftover buns with or without a simple vinegar soy dipping sauce.