Haven’t posted for a while. I still haven’t bought a new oven since my last one was broken down. I’m still interested in eating all those high carb food though. The Chinese New Year has just come and I’ve made 3 kinds of Chinese New Year steamed cakes today. They are Chinese Turnip Cake (left), Sticky Cake in the shape of Variegated Carp, and Water Chestnut Cake (top).
Cake in Cantonese/Mandarin pronunciation is the same as “high” in the same language. Therefore we have these cakes meaning for a better life in the new year.
Bread can be “cooked” in different ways. It can be baked, steamed, grilled, cooked in a tandoor, etc. Do you know it can also be cooked with a pan? Some of you might know pita can be cooked with a frying pan. Below is a Chinese bun which is cooked with a pan too.
Basically it’s a the dough of steamed bun, pan-fried for a minute at the beginning and then added with water to cook the bun. Therefore upper part of the bun tasted like a steamed bun while the bottom is crispy to give a tasteful texture. It’s usually filled with vegetable and minced pork inside.
My oven is broken down (!) and hence I prepared this pan-fried bun to celebrate the World Bread Day 2011. Do you know any other ways to “cook” a bread?
Flour 160g (the chef taught me there’s a kind of flour used for making Chinese buns which the protein is lower than bread flour but higher than cake flour, and not exactly the same as all purpose flour. The common one is in this link. Or you can look for other brands in China town that are used for making buns)
Sugar 16g
Yeast 2g
Baking powder 2g
Water 80g
Filling
Minced pork 80g (the pork is minced with a chopper by myself. Also it’s better to have about 1/4 fat inside which would help the filling taste juicer. The fat should be cut into small dices and mixed to the minced lean pork)
Salt 1/2 tps
Rice wine 1/2 tps
Pak Choi 80g (cut into dices. Cooked with boiling water for 20 secs. Drained. Wait till cool and use your palms to squeeze out extra water. This helps softening the vegetable and avoids breaking the dough during wrapping)
Sugar 3 tps
Corn starch 2 tps
Water 60g
Others
Spring onions, Toasted sesame seeds (for sprinkling on the buns)
To prepare the buns:
1) Mix all the ingredients until smooth. A window pane test is not required
2) Rest for 20 mins (no need double in size. Just wait until the dough is relaxed)
To prepare the filling:
1) Mix all the ingredients except water and pak choi
2) Add the water slowly in 5 times. After adding the first 1/5 of water, mix the pork mixture and water with a pair of chopsticks in circular motion until the water is absorbed. Continue until all water is added.
It might look too much water at the beginning but it will all be absorbed by the mixture at last.
3) Add the pak choi
4) Place the filling in refrigerator for at least 30mins and the mixture will be firmer
To fill the buns:
1) Roll the dough into a log and cut into 12pcs
2) Press or roll the small dough into a flat one of 8cm diameter
3) Place 1 tps of filling onto the dough
4) Wrap up the dough (as below video which I found from YouTube)
5) 2nd fermentation is not needed
To pan fry the buns:
1) Heat a frying pan. Add some oil
2) Place the buns to the pan. Each of them should have 1-2 cm spacing between as the buns would be bigger after cooked
3) Pan fry for 1 min. Bottom should look crispy at this moment
4) Add water to the buns to reach 1/2 of the height of the buns. Wait until the water is boiled
5) Cover with a lid until cooked at medium heat
6) Sprinkle with spring onions and toasted sesame seeds
A sourdough with 13.5% of amaranth flour (to all flour) added to the final dough. Overall hydration is 68%. The bread this time darkened even more quickly compared with the amaranth sourdough that I made before which the overall amaranth was about 9%. I covered the crust with aluminum foil in the midway to avoid the crust getting burnt before the crumb was fully baked. Texture with the increased amaranth flour was also not as chewy as last time as well. I still love the beautiful reddish brown color that the amaranth flour gives to the crust.. Now I’m thinking of other bread recipes with amaranth flour for next time. Any good ideas?
Recipe
Bread Flour
212.5g
85%
Amaranth Flour
37.5g
15%
Water
163g
65%
Salt
5g
2%
Starter (100% Hydration with Bread Flour)
50g
20%
220C for 15 mins. Then lower to 200C for another 20 mins.
Bread can be “cooked” in different ways. It can be baked, steamed, grilled, cooked in a tandoor, etc. Do you know it can also be cooked with a pan? Some of you might know pita can be cooked with a frying pan. Below is a Chinese bun which is cooked with a pan too.
To pan fry the buns: 
Nat
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