Chinese Bao

This Bao's got fillings for you...and me too! I can't even begin to describe how yummy this turned out to be. The home-made bao and the sauce that went along with it totally completed this experience of a good tasting complete snack!

My recipe gave me enough dough for 4 baos so you can adjust the recipe as per your liking.

Ingredients:

For the Bao

90g Flour (Maida)

2g Sugar

1g yeast

1g Baking powder

Pinch of salt

50g Milk

8g Oil

Method:

1. Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl.

2. Warm up the milk and oil until 50ºC, that means it should be warm when you touch it, but shouldn't burn you. Add it to the dry ingredients and form a dough. If you want you can also use a wooden spoon to do this.

3. Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes, you'll notice it becomes smoother as you knead. If required, you can also use a few drops of water if it feels dry.

4. Once the dough is ready, form it into a taught ball and cover and rest for 1 hour, or until it doubles in size.

5. After 1 hour, punch the dough down and divide into four balls. Roll out each ball into an oval and apply oil to one side. Fold it into half and roll again. Keep the shape somewhat semicircular. Let this rise for another 30 minutes.

6. After 30 mins, place in a steamer and steam for 12 minutes. The bao will be done when you press on it and it bounces back.

7. Open up the bao and fill it with the filling, serve warm.

For the dipping sauce:

3 tbsp Sugar

3 cloves of Garlic

1 Chilli Padi (or 1tbsp chilli flakes)

1 cup of water

1tbsp Vinegar

Method:

1. Caramelise the sugar in a pot till it is an amber colour, don't take it too far.

2. Add half a cup of water, the sugar will harden but don't worry, eventually, it will melt away.

3. Add garlic, chilly and vinegar and let this boil. Top up with a half cup of water. Let this boil for another 5 minutes and cool down completely.

4. This can be served as a dipping sauce for any snack.

For the Filling:

1/2 cup sliced Mushrooms

1 finely chopped Onion

2 Cloves of chopped garlic

Salt to taste

1 tbsp Oyster sauce

1tsp Soy Sauce

1tbsp of sweet chilli sauce (from above)

Spring onion greens to garnish

Method:

1. In an open pan, saute onions, garlic and mushrooms with 2 tbsp of oil on high flame.

2. You want the mushrooms to just soften and not shrivel up all the way, so keep an eye out for that.

3. Once the mushrooms are cooked, add salt, oyster sauce, soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce.

4. Mix well, taste and adjust seasoning. Garnish with spring onion greens and stuff into warm baos.