Cook-off. David v Em. Chinese Steamed Buns.

It was Sunday night cook-off with between Em and I. We both agreed we wanted to make Chinese steamed buns this weekend. I had my recipe and Em had her grandmother’s recipe. Seeing as Em is as Chinese as you can get, I was somewhat worried that I won’t be able to match up against her superior buns with my western style ones. Having compared the two recipes, there wasn’t much difference in the dough, although the method wasn’t that similar. The filling was completely different with Em opting for a beef and spring onion filling, while I went for a prawn filling. Both of us flavored the fillings, Em opting for ginger, soy, and seasoning, while I went went with the same but added some oyster sauce and sesame oil.

Well, they say a picture tells a thousand words, so I guess photos and descriptions would be better from this point forward. Click here to see the rest of the action;  

David’s Chinese Steamed Buns	Em’s Chinese Steamed Buns
I mixed the yeast with some sugar, salt, and warm water and let it sit for 10 minutes.	Em added her dry ingredients together with the flour. I was a little worried her yeast would not become active.
I added my wet ingredients to the flour and kneaded it until it became smooth.	Em added her wet ingredients next. As you can see she made a well in the middle of her floor, but the dam levees broke!
Also the fresh ingredients I added to my filling.	Em and her spring onion.
I also added some fresh shrimp that I bought from the supermarket and fried it with my filling. Some oyster sauce gave it a nice smell.	Em went a little more simple and instead added some seasonings and oil to her beef. She decided not to cook it and instead let it cook whilst the bun itself cooked.

The dough after sitting for about 30 minutes. My dough is on the left, nicely risen, while Em’s is on the right looking a little inflated. (At this point we decided to join forces and just get dinner finished)

We cut the (my) dough and while I rolled them out, Em filled them with each of the fillings.

We made quite a few buns. My attempts at making the buns weren’t all that impressive, so Em took over and made them look very professional.

Cooked for 15-20 minutes in a steamer, or in our case, our dumpling thing-a-ma-jig.

In the end, fresh, beautiful, fluffy, Chinese steamed buns.

So whose tasted better? Well lets just say we’re both happy to have two different kinds of bun. My buns came out nice and soft in the middle and tasted more ‘western’ while Em’s beef filling, to my surprise, cooked beautifully and were full of flavour.

The lesson learnt; while we can both make nice steamed buns individually, together we can enjoy the best of both worlds.

1 Comment

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  By Stafford, 30/6/2008 - Monday @ 5:03 pm

  You have nice buns.

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