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Bao
This
is the Tiffwat Kids' absolute favourite main dish that they love to
make. They are so good at it, that they no longer make a mess.
You will need some chinese bamboo steamers for this. They cost about
A$15 each. We have three of them (30 cm diameter) for a load of Bao,
and they just fit. They are a good investment: once you have them, you
can steam all sorts of things, particularly vegetables.
Bamboo steamers: The nearest one got a
bit close to the flame because the frying pan with the water in it
wasn't big enough....
Start off by getting a Pizza dough
going in the breadmaker . Once that is done, you will
have around 45 minutes to make the contents of the Bao, just enough
time if you really
get your skates on!
Bao contents:
These steamed bread rolls get their flavour from their filling. We use
'balls' and some sauce. You can use whatever you want; we have tried
chicken mince, finely sliced onion and lemon for something that was
very nice, and equally very different. Anyway, the balls and sauce
below will always be a winner:
Balls
Ingredients
Balls:
250g
sausagemeat
1 very large
slice of bread
1 egg
Inspiration
for flavouring (Parsley, coriander, cumin)
Ball sauce
One
onion
Tomato Paste
Maybe Soy
Sauce, probably ginger and garlic
Dipping sauce
Soy
sauce
sherry
Method:
Get the oven pre-heating to around 180 degrees
Centrigrade.
We use 250g of sausagemeat, and about one thick slice of bread made
into crumbs. If you chuck in an egg as well, it means that the balls
will stay together. Extra flavouring is also very nice. Once choice is
lots of fresh parsley, chopped up and mixed in. Another very different,
but equally nice
flavour is a ratio of 2 volumes of cumin seeds to 1 volume of coriander
seeds, whizzed or bashed into a powder, and put into the mixture.
Put all these ingredients into a large bowl, and mix them by putting
your hand in, and squeezing it into a fist. All the goo oozes out
between your fingers, and mixes nicely. If you use a food processor,
everything gets chopped into a fine, bland paste: not such a good idea.
Form the balls by rolling a teaspoonfull of the meaty mixture between
your hands into a
ball, and then lay them out on a baking tray, on some kind of
non-stick sheet. You will usually need a couple of baking trays around
10 inches square, to accomodate around 60 balls. The exact number
doesn't matter, because you will have too many. (you can freeze the
extras for next time, or alternatively serve them as they are in a
bowl, along with a dipping sauce
of coconut milk or yogurt mixed with fresh mint or chives or coriander,
or
something else chopped up and
green and tasty).
Cook the balls for around 15 minutes in the oven at 180 Centigrade:
they don't take long,
because they are small.
Ball sauce
You will need a teaspoon of sauce with each ball, to make them moist
and succulent. Finely Chop up some onion, and mix it with some
tomato paste. It wants to be a lot of onion coated in tomato paste,
not lots of tomato paste with a bit of onion floating in it. If
you are in the mood, add finely chopped ginger or garlic, depending on
what cranks your handle: It's all up to your creative mood!
Constructing the Bao:
Line the base of all the steamers, preferably with lettuce leaves,
alternatively cabbage leaves. These just stop the Bao sticking to the
bamboo as they cook, you
won't eat the lining. If you don't line the steamers, the Bao will
stick and disintegrate, and washing up will be very difficult indeed!!
This will have taken about an hour up to now, so the dough has sat and
risen for about 15 minutes, which is just fine.
Make sure that your work surface and your hands are covered with a
light dusting of flour. Divide up the dough into 30 equal portions
(it's best to cut up the dough, rather than to tear it, it's a lot less
messy!), and use a
rolling pin to roll each portion and make a disk the size of the palm
of your hand, or a small saucer. Put a Bao Ball and a teaspoon of ball
sauce
in the middle of the disk, roll the sides up to make a parcel with the
dough as the wrapping. You will need to pinch and twist the top of the
parcel quite
hard to make it stick together. Put ten Bao in each steamer. Five kids,
aged 5 to 9, can build 30 Bao in 15 minutes, if they are all organised
and know what to do!
When it comes to steaming, you probably won't have anything that fits
the steamers perfectly. Use
something that is a bit bigger than the base of the steamers to put the
water in, like a frying pan. Put1 cm of water in
the bottom, and stand the steamers in that, The base of the steamer
is raised, so if you get the depth right, you won't soak the Bao. This
is
the best way, as it
seals the edges of the steamers to stop the steam escaping, (and the
edges of the steamers don't burn either...). Steam the balls for about
15 minutes.
In the meantime, make a dipping sauce with a bit of Soy, and possibly a
bit of any remaining 'inside' sauce that may be left over, and any
other good ideas, like sherry or fish sauce or chilli sauce. Watch out
that it doesn't get too salty with the Soy.
Freshly steamed Bao, and unused Bao
balls on the left. Yum.
Put the
steamers on the table, and use tongs to get the balls out.
It is an absolute guarantee that kids will love them, and maybe even
consider
them slightly exotic (who knows?)
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