No-Frills Recipes ... cooking, baking & excerpts on travel

From the onset, I had the impression that Shangjian Bao can be quite an intimidating recipe to attempt but after sitting down and surfing the internet for various versions on how this bao is being made, I was quite confident to give this a try.  It wasn't that difficult after all and I really enjoyed biting into the golden brown crisply fried bottom and they stayed crispy even after some time. Will definitely make these again and perhaps use chicken filling instead. Recipe for Shengjian Bao ~ Pan-fried Pork Buns ~  生煎包 (adapted from 'here' with adjustments) Ingredients Dough 200 gm plain flour 110 ml warm water 1/2 tsp dried yeast 1.1/2 tsp sugar 1 tsp oil Pinch of salt Sesame seeds to garnish Filling 200 gm minced pork 2 Shitake mushrooms, soaked and cubed 1 stalk of spring oinions, chopped Seasoning for Filling 2 pips of minced garlic 1 Tbsp light soya sauce 1/2 tsp sugar 1 tsp cornstarch 2 tsp water 1 tsp ses...

Siew Bao is among the many items that I'll order whenever I have dim sum in the restaurant but not all dim sum joints serve this pastry.  I chanced upon a post by My Kitchen Snippets for this favourite pastry and decided to give it a try.   The Siew Bao turned out great and I had Gertrude to thank for!   They were indeed yummy more so if teamed with a hot cup of Chinese tea. Recipe for Siew Bao (Baked BBQ Buns)    Ingredients for Oil Dough 240 gm plain flour 120 gm shortening Water Dough 240 gm plain flour 60 gm icing sugar 60 gm shortening 90 to 120 ml water Egg Glaze - 1 egg + 1/2 tsp honey Sesame seeds Filling 400 gm chicken or pork, diced. 1 big onion, diced 3/4 cup green peas 1 Tbsp oyster sauce 2 tsp dark soya sauce 2 tsp light soya sauce 1/2 tsp seasalt 2 tsp sugar or to taste A dash of pepper 1/2 cup water 1 Tbsp cornflour + 2 tsp water to thicken Method   for the Filling (best ...

Had a crush on Pau after having had some dim sum brunch lately, so set out to DIY and bring forth this Chicken Mushroom Pau.  This time, the dough took a little bit longer to prove perhaps due to the gloomy, wet weather but nonetheless the end result was just as satisfactory. Recipe for Steamed Bun ~ Pau     (Please refer  ' Here '  for the recipe and method for the Pau skin) Ingredients for Chicken Mushroom filling 450 gm free range chicken, cut into bite size 10 Shitake mushrooms, washed, soaked and stemmed 250 gm turnip (sengkuang), diced 5 pips garlic, chopped 1 pc kwai far yoke in lieu of sausage, cut (optional) 1.1/2 cups water 1/2  tsp salt, light soya sauce to taste 2.1/2  Tbsp cornflour + 2 Tbsp water to thicken Seasoning 1/2  tsp each of  :  salt and dark soya sauce 1 tsp each of :  oyster sauce, sugar and light soya sauce a dash of pepper Preparation Season the chicken and mushr...

As mentioned in my   'Steamed Mantou ~ Flower Bun'   post, this is the soy braised pork belly that I whipped up to pair with the steamed buns.  I had made this a day before and over time the meat mellowed and it was so soft and tasty the next day.  This meat together with the sauce complimented the Mantou very well.

I've been putting off making these 'Nam Yue' pau for quite some time but finally got down to it.  Instead of pleating the folds of the pau, this time I chose to just roll it up for a change, hence 'Nam Yue' rolls.  For those readers who do not have an idea of what 'nam yue' is, do check it out  'here' .

There's this famous coffee shop in Tanjung Malim, Perak ..... 'Yik Mun' that sells Hainanese curry chicken pau/buns and also pau with different fillings like curry beef, red bean paste and kaya/coconut jam.  As it is a certified halal outlet, other than the Chinese, Malays and Indians also frequent this shop and it's normally packed during breakfast and lunch.  We used to exit @ the Tanjung Malim toll exit and head to this shop  for the curry chicken pau.  You can hop over to this site for more goodies from Yik Mun. Coming back to my curry chicken pau .... no they're not Hainanese pau, just simple pau from my humble kitchen, yummy too but then not so uniform in shape as they're handmade.   I must truly admit that I still have a long way to go to master the art of pau pleating!

As there were some cream corn left from making the muffins, I was toying with the idea of what else to make out of it ..... finally jumped upon the idea of making these sweet 'Lye Yau Pau' or Cream Custard Pau.  As this was my first attempt,  I kept my fingers crossed that they'll turn out well.  I followed the recipe for custard filling from Kristy's blog but tweaked it a bit.  Thanks, Kristy for sharing!

I have been itching to try out a Pau recipe and vaguely remember that I did make it once, long, long ago.  So I  got hold of my old file of recipes and finally managed to retrieve it.  I did it recently and must say that I'm satisfied with the result.  The texture of the Pau was soft and a bit chewy, wholesome and filling too.  Naturally, they didn't look so nice and round like the ones sold in the dim sum restaurants, but nonetheless I think homemade ones can be just as delectable as well.