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I love going out for Yum Cha, its's such a nice little way to eat lunch on a weekend. China Town in Melbourne has a whole street full of wonderful chinese restaurants and cafes. A series of little trollies are pushed around and you can select the wares from the many baby steamer baskets piled high filled with goodies including steamed dumplings and buns.
I don't think I have cooked anything from Jamie's Kitchen by Jamie Oliver, until now, although I do love to browse through it from time to time.
But with the Belleau Kitchen challenge this month it was destined for my kitchen.
Ingredients
Filling (can be made in advance)
Olive oil
500g pork mince for ease
sea salt and ground black pepper
1 tablespoon five spice
3 cloves of garlic peeled and sliced
1 inch (2.5cm) fresh ginger peeled and sliced
2 dried chilies, crumbed (I used flakes)
1 wine glass of fresh orange juice
6 tablespoons hoi-sin sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce
Optional - 1 handful of fresh lime leaves (my poor new little tree took a bit of a hit here)
Buns
1x7g sachet of dried yeast
200ml tepid water
250g plain flour
100g cornflour
1 teaspoon salt
50g butter
To Serve
soy sauce
sweet chilli sauce
How to put this together.....
Filling
- Heat a large frying pan, add a splash of olive oil.
- Add the pork mince, season with salt pepper and five spice.
- brown the meat and add garlic, ginger and chillies and continue to fry for a minute.
- Add orange juice and reduce by half
- pour the mixture into a bowl and leave to cool
Buns
- Empty yeast into a second bowl and add half the tepid water
- in another bowl sieve the flours and salt and rub in the butter
- When the yeast has bubbled up, pour in the rest of the water, then add flour and butter
- Mix to form a soft dough
- Leave to prove in a warm place, covered with cling film, until it has doubled in size, then break it into pieces about the size of a walnut and shape into little round balls.
Take one of the risen dough balls and flatten it out on the palm of your hand until it measures 21/2 in in diameter. Press it down in the middle and put a desert spoon of pork mix in the middle.
Wrap the sides of the dough up around the filling, pinch and seal it up and place sealed side down on the line leaves in the steamer.
Place on lime leaves in the steamer basket - this may have been more aromatic if placed in the boiling water under the bamboo steamer instead of under the buns.
Leave a gap if possible between buns so they can rise. Allow to sit and prove for 5 minutes before you steam them. Put the lid on and steam over a pan of boiling water for about 10 minutes until the buns are cooked and the filling is hot (cut one open to check). Serve with little bowls of soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce to dip the buns in. I also steamed some green beans, brocolli and sprinkled with spring onions as an accompaniment. These buns could be made even smaller and would be ideal for finger food.
Entering this in the Random Recipes Challenge for April at Belleau Kitchen.