Mixed Vegetable Buns

There’s two parts to these classic Chinese steamed buns. Make the dough and make the filling. Make the filling first as it needs to be cool at the time you will wrap it into the dough. If you had two teams; dad and the kids, you could do both at the same time since there is a fair bit of time spent kneading the dough, so the filling will have some time to cool off.

Mixed Vegetable Buns – make the filling

Ingredients

• 1 cup shitake mushrooms
• 100 gram veg golden mushroom non-meat
• 3 Carrots
• 1 cup of frozen peas
• 100 g of vermicelli noodles
• 1 cup of shredded cabbage
• 4 tablespoons Olive oil
• 5 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon pepper

Method – make the filling

• Wash and then soak the mushrooms for ½ hour. Drain and thinly slice.
• soak the noodles until soft, 10 minutes.
• Shred the carrots
• drain the noodles and chop into small lengths.
• Finely chop the golden mushroom
• put oil into a sauce pan. Add the mushrooms and fry for 10 minutes. Add the carrots, cabbage, noodles and peas, fry for another 10 minutes.
• Add the soya sauce and pepper
• cook another 10 minutes, set aside to be used as the filling.

Mixed Vegetable Buns – make the dough

Ingredients

• 2 x 397g packs of Steamed Bun Cake Mix (rooster brand)
• 1 cup of Soy milk
• 1 cup of water
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon/lime juice

Method – make the dough

Method – prepare the dough

• set aside 6 tablespoons of flour for the rolling of the dough
• wipe down the table to prepare a dough making spot
• heap the rest of the flour onto the table
• make a well in the middle
• dissolve the sugar and lemon into the soya milk and water.
• slowly add all the liquid mixture into the well of flour
• gradually mix from inside the well working outwards, slowly adding the flour to the middle as you mix outwards.
• Once the mixing is complete add the oil, sprinkle flour onto the table. Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes.

 Method – make the bun

• Divide the dough in four
• Knead the four sets separately once again for 10-15 minutes
• Cover 3 portions with a wet cloth
• Take one portion, roll the dough into a sausage shape 4 cm thick
• slice the dough into sections 5 cm long
• Take one section and put the rest under a wet cloth
• With the one section of dough roll from the centre outward, turning the dough as you do so.
• Roll to a thickness of ½ centimetre
• NOTE: the filling should be room temperature before wrapping into the dough.
• take one tablespoon of filling, press it into the middle of the dough. Bring all the corners of the dough into the middle covering the filling and pinch together to make a seal.

Method – cook the bun

• place the sections onto a base of banana leaf or grease proof paper.
• Lay the sections onto a steam tray
• put 2 litres of water into the steamer and bring to the boil
• put the steamer trays on top and steam for 15 minutes

Warmed us up at Easter:  Easter Chinese Buns session