Wholemeal Pau 麦片包子

Healthy Pau   

I’ve been trying hard to keep my post up to date. However my current work schedule seems hard for me to keep up the pace. This was another month old birthday post, as this special healthy steamed bun/Pau was meant to be hubby’s birthday “cake”.




Happy belated birthday dear!

Hubby is never a pastry and sweet tooth guy, hence when I mentioned making a cake for him to celebrate his birthday instantly he declined and asking to have Supreme big Pau (steamed Bun) instead. Well, the ancient Chinese steamed peach shaped Bun 壽桃寿包 did play similar role as the birthday cake today.

I had shared the steamed buns with shredded chicken breast, egg and yambean fillings and Kaya filling in my old posts. This improved version replaced 1/5 of the Pau flour with wholemeal flour. This time besides the chicken fillings, I also tried out my own homemade red bean paste. I will share the making of red bean paste in a later post.

Wholemeal Pau 麦片包子

Frankly, with the wholemeal grain, the texture of the Pau was not as refined and soft as plain Pau, kind of similar texture to expect when you eat white bread compared to wheat grain bread. Nowadays, with more and more people going for healthy diet, eating healthy and eating right has become the key factor in food preparing, overshadowing the taste of the food. Of course, it’s still best to have both!

In my opinion, all who love cooking love to be able to serve healthy and delicious food to our loved ones right? J

BBQ Buns (Cha Siu Pau )叉燒包

I suppose those who love dim sum would agree Cha Siu Pau is one of the signature buns served among dim sum dishes. It is also a must order item whenever a family with kids visits a dim sum restaurant.

On 8th August, in commemoration of my late mother-in-law 3 years passing anniversary, we had prepared a hefty lunch featuring her favourite dishes.  I made these buns and Auntie Lan helped to make fried noodles, and Kiam Chai Boey (Stew Salted vegetables). All these recipes are available in my blog, just click on them.

Initially, I was thinking of making own Cha Siu but when I went marketing that morning, the main ingredient, pork loin, had been sold out.  Since in Malaysia ready-cooked Cha Siu was easily available, I decided to go for an easy way out instead. J However, if you wish to attempt making your own Cha Siu (BBQ pork), the simple version recipe is available here.

If you happen to have roast pork for dinner, you can use the left over for its filling too.

Steamed Buns (Baozi/Pau) 包子

Supreme big Baozi/Pau, anyone? 大包？ 

Bread is the main staple food to Western Cuisine as in Baozi/Pau (steamed buns) is to Chinese cuisine.  Baozi is especially popular in the Chinese breakfast serving.  Baozi making shares similar process to bread making which requires  yeast dough, kneading and proofing with the only difference in its cooking method - steam instead of bake. Hence, baozi can also be regarded as stuffed steamed bread.

There are various types of baozi ranging from plain buns to stuffed baozi with various fillings. What filling can be used in baozi?  The classic fillings are meat (cha siu /BBQ pork/beef/chicken) or sweet fillings like red beans, lotus paste, kaya (coconut egg jam), peanut butter or even vegetables. I would say the list is too exhaustive to name and only imagination is the limit.

Having mastered the basic skill in Western bread making, I reckoned it was time to take up new challenges in learning up Chinese bread making J  I had two fun experience with my cooking members back in Auckland in making Shanghai pan fried baozi(上海生煎包). However, at that time I did not have the chance in making the yeast dough from scratch. The yeast dough was prepared and proof in advance and we were invited to go over to help in wrapping and pan fried.

Last Sunday, I decided to try out the steamed buns yeast dough recipe from Agnes Chang’s “Delightful Snacks and Dim Sum” cook book. With this yeast dough I had successfully made 4 big supreme big pao with shredded chicken breast, egg and yambean fillings and 6 small Kaya bao using my homemade kaya filling.    

Steamed Buns (Baozi/Pau) 包子

I was delighted that the texture of the steamed buns was very soft and springy. However, hubby commented that the taste of the meat fillings could have been improved with longer marinating time overnight in the fridge to further tenderize the chicken breast and the seasoning more thoroughly absorbed.