The Breakfast Bible by Seb Emina & Cara Shores

Author:Seb Emina & Cara Shores
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2007-07-06T16:00:00+00:00

BAOZI

The Chinese warlord Zhuge Liang is tramping with his army through the mountains, somewhere in the third century AD. Having just conquered all of Sichuan, they reach a torrid-looking river when suddenly the wind whips up, the rain pours and the sky darkens. The river demon, say the locals, is causing havoc and the sacrifice of a human head will be required to find a way across. Zhuge, tired of all the head-rolling he has already done to subdue Sichuan, settles on a culinary solution. He creates a head-shaped dough bun that, thrown into the river, somehow mollifies the fiend. Implausibly, the ‘barbarian’s head’ or mantou bun is born and subsequently becomes very popular. The idea of popping a filling in the middle catches on, and the name baozi is coined – bao means ‘to wrap’.

Ubiquitous across Asia, baozi (China), mandu (Korea), nikuman (Japan), bánh bao (Vietnam) or siopao (Philippines) can have as many fillings as there are names, from minced pork and char siu (see p.115) to sweet azuki bean or lotus paste. Some are even filled with a steaming hot soup that must be sucked from a small hole bitten into the top.

They are surprisingly easy to make, giving you maximum control over how you fill your ‘barbarian’s head’. Use a bamboo steamer if you have one.

Makes 8

For the dough

300g strong white bread flour

1 teaspoon dried instant yeast

Pinch of salt

1 ½ tablespoons caster sugar

180ml warm water

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Filling of choice (see opposite)

Sieve the flour into a bowl, and add the dried yeast and salt. Dissolve the sugar in the warm water, and stir in the oil. Make a well in the centre of the flour, and mix in the sugary, oily water. It should come together into a sticky dough.

Turn the dough out on to an oiled work surface and knead until smooth and elastic; this should take 10–15 minutes. Roll out the dough into a sausage shape about 5cm in diameter, and cut into eight rounds. Sit the little loaves on a sheet of baking paper (not on the cut sides) and leave to prove for about 20 minutes. They’ll puff up slightly, and air bubbles should be visible on the cut sides. You can then either steam them as they are, for fluffy slightly sweet rolls, or add a filling.

To fill, roll each piece of dough into a round about 15cm in diameter. Make a circle with the index finger and thumb of one of your hands and lay the dough on top. Create an indent in the round’s centre, pushing it down gently through the circle, being careful not to stretch the dough too much. You should now have an upside-down bowler hat in your open fist. Into the indent add a dessertspoon of your filling, then bring the edges up around the filling to wrap the contents and twist the edges together to seal.

Sit each filled bun on its own lightly oiled square of baking paper, and leave for 20 minutes. Arrange your bamboo steamer over a rapidly boiling pot of water, and add the buns on their squares of paper.

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