Steamed Meat Bun

The ubiquitous dim sum favorite– steamed meat bun. I must be going crazy for even attempting this. Sure, I need to find something to improve my pau pleating skill but to do that. Maybe I am feeling daring yesterday plus I bought a bag of pau flour mix at the Asian grocery store a while ago.
I have to admit, the pre-mix flour does make my job a lot easier. The taste was nice but my pleating skill is bad. Real bad. Should practice more, which means more pau making coming.

It all begin with the barbeque meat. If you have yet to try your hand on making your own chinese style barbeque meat, click here
Anyhow, the process to making these pau are pretty simple, I have to say with the use of pre-mix flour. The shortcut aside, it is a lot cheaper buying the pre-mix pau flour as compared to making your own as the Hong Kong style pau flour can be expensive and hard to find.

Step 1: Making your meat filing. You should have some barbequed meat or char siew on hand, all diced up. Have all the ingredients ready and set it aside.

Step 2: Combine 1 cup of sugar to the pre-mix pau flour and milk. Start with 3/4 cup of milk to a bag of pre-mix flour and add more should the dough is dry

Step 3: You should get a dough that looks like this after 10 minutes of kneading. Let rest 15 minutes and knead again for 5 minutes after. Divide dough into 24 pieces.

Step 4: While waiting for the dough to rise, prepare the filing.
Step 5: Then come the pleating and folding part which I am not good at still. Will post some pics on that step once I have truly master the art of pau pleating. Meanwhile, please refer to Aunt Lily's pau pleating techniques
Step 6: Heat water with a teaspoon of vinegar. Steam pau over high heat for 15 minutes. Serve warm

Steamed Meat Bun aka Char Siew Pau (Adapted from Lily Wai Sek Hong)
For Pau Dough
-Follow package directions
For Filing
1 1/2 cup char siew (barbeque meat of your choice), diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
3 sprigs of coriander leaves, chopped fine
Seasoning
1 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp oil
3 tsp soy sauce
4 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp water
1/2 tsp black pepper
Directions
1. Mix pau dough together. Follow instructions on package.
2. While dough is resting, make filing for pau. Heat up a pan over low heat. Mix oil and flour together and cook till flour turned golden in color.
3. Add in garlic. Stir fry for a minute till aromatic. Stir in meat and seasoning. Cook till sauce is thickened, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.
4. Divide dough into 24 pieces. Working with the first piece of dough, roll it out to 3-inch diameter. Place a teaspoon of filing onto the center of dough. Pleat edges to seal. Place on a square of wax paper. Continue with the rest of the dough till all meat filing is used.
5. Heat a pot of water with a teaspoon of vinegar. Steam pau for 15 minutes. Serve warm.