Ah Yee's Bao Zhi

Today i woke up earlier than usual, at 7am to make sure i catch Ah Yee in action with her baos. She had planned to make bao zhis for lunch for us last night, and i told her i desperately want to learn how to make one since i love them so much. Too bad it's not 'char sao' filling, nevertheless, it has been a pleasure learning to make these 'white cabbage pork' baos (bai chai zhu rou bao)...and i'm sooo glad i finally knew how to make one!!

To start with, Ah Yee made the dough out of merely high protein flour, yeast and some warm water. She kneaded the dough until they formed a paste just like this:

I told Ah Yee i hated baking breads without the machine particularly when comes to the kneading part. Why? Once you see me knead, you'll know why...sweat all over and think i could shed 1kg just kneading bread dough! I'm amazed at how strong Ah Yee is, despite her petite size, she not only knead very well, she could even carry and change a 10kg drinking water tank all by herself!

Ah Yee constantly reminded me that the filling is what makes a bao taste good. I totally agreed. Unlike Hong Kong/nan fang baos which considers the dough equally as much as the fillings (the more spongy the better), Ah Yee emphazied that bei fang puts more attention to the filling. To them, the thinner the dough the better. Therefore, the proofing time is much shorter and not much kneading required.

This filling consists of pork, white cabbage, spring onions, big onions, soy sauce, sesame oil, scallops, and some other seasonings.

After rolling the dough flat, Ah Yee slowly showed me the steps; 1) Put enough filling and arrange neatly in the middle,

(2) While the left thumb holds the filling to prevent them from falling off, the right hand starts working to cover them and slowly fold them upwards until they are fully covered.

(3) Arrange neatly on the steaming pot with enough distance to prevent them from sticking to each other. I forgot to ask Ah Yee why white cabbage leaves are needed at the bottom; but i suspect they're to prevent the baos from sticking onto the pan. Like greaseproof paper. Maybe.

(4) After steaming for approximately 15 - 30 minutes (depending on how big is the pot), the baos are now ready!! Yum Yum.....

Don't ever judge from the look. I have seen many chinese baos looking like pathetic 'bao-ko-zhung' , but they taste superb!

The filling was really superlicious delicious (three cheers to Ah Yee!). One of the best pork baos i have eaten. Guess how many i had for lunch?? Not too many...in comparison to how many i helped Ah Yee to make! :-)