← Nouns Cooking · Chinese

Ingredients

• 300 g plain flour
• 4 g instant dried yeast
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 170 ml warm water
• 400 g minced pork (not too lean)
• 1 tbsp Ginger, finely grated
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 1 tsp Sugar
• ½ tsp Salt
• ¼ tsp White pepper
• 1 tbsp Toasted sesame oil
• 80 ml cold chicken stock or water
• 3 Spring onion, finely chopped, plus extra to serve
• 2 tbsp neutral oil, for frying
• 120 ml water, for steam-frying
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
• 3 tbsp black vinegar with ginger shreds, to dip

Method

1. Mix the flour, yeast and sugar, add the warm water and knead for 8 min into a smooth, soft dough. Cover and leave in a warm place for 1 hour, until doubled.
2. For the filling, stir the pork with the ginger, soy, wine, sugar, salt and pepper in one direction until sticky. Add the stock a spoonful at a time, stirring hard after each, until it is all absorbed. Mix in the sesame oil and spring onion and chill.
3. Knock back the dough, roll into a log and cut into 16 pieces. Roll each into a 9 cm circle, thinner at the edge. Put a spoonful of filling in the middle and pleat the edges up and around it, pinching tightly closed at the top. Cover and rest for 15 min.
4. Heat the oil in a large, heavy non-stick frying pan with a lid over medium heat. Set the buns in, pleated side down or up as you like, 1 cm apart, and fry for 2–3 min until the bases are golden.
5. Pour in the 120 ml water (it will spit), cover at once and cook over medium heat for 8–10 min, until the water has evaporated, the buns are puffed and the filling is cooked through.
6. Uncover and cook for 1–2 min more to re-crisp the bottoms. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and spring onion and serve hot with the vinegar for dipping. Bite carefully: the juice inside is scalding.

Tips

• Beating the stock into the pork is what makes the buns soupy, so take your time over it.
• Make them ahead up to step 3 and freeze them on a tray; fry from frozen with a couple of extra minutes under the lid.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Sift & Simmer Tiffy Cooks Serious Eats