Buns Buns Buns

Everyone knows that Asians eat a lot of rice. In Chinese, "Let's eat." is the same as "eat rice" that's how fundamental rice is in Chinese cuisine. But in the north, we eat just as much flour-based food as rice, such as dumplings, wontons, noodles, pancakes, the list goes on. Of course, there are also buns, red bean paste buns, sesame paste buns, pork buns, and so on. Basically, the dough is the same, and you can fill with whatever you desire, be that pork and cabbage, or all veggie, or sweet bean paste. If you don't feel like adding anything to the dough, that's OK too, that's called Chinese bread (Mantou).

Red Bean Paste Buns
Makes 12

2 cup flour (240g) + more for dusting the working surface
pinch of salt
1 tbsp + 1 tsp sugar
1 tsp dry active yeast
120g warm water (around 100F)
1 1/2 cup of red bean paste (recipe below, or whatever filling you'd like)

It's important that the water isn't above 110 degrees, or the yeast would die. Yeast loves sugar, so that helps to get things going.

Mix the flour, salt and 1 tbsp sugar in a large bowl, set aside.

Mix yeast with 1 tsp sugar. Add the warm water to the yeast, soak for 5-10 minutes, sprinkle over the flour mixture.

Knead the dough for a few minutes into a somewhat smooth ball, cover with a damp towel. Leave in a warm spot to rest till it doubles in size, may take 40-60 minutes depending on the temperature. Punch it down, knead a few more times, let it rest again for about 30 minutes till it's back to the double size.

Dust the working surface with some flour. Separate the dough into 12 equal size pieces. (Work a few at a time, put the unused ones back in the bowl under the damp towel.) Roll into circles about 1/8" thick, 3-4" in diameter. (Edges should be a little thinner, but not the center.) Fill with the about 2 tbsp of filling, pinch the edges together. Flip it over, so the folds are on the bottom, cup the bun at the bottom with the side of both hands, rotate the bun to make it perfect round. (Alternatively, pinch the edges a little at a time as you turn the bun to create a twisted look on top. This is often done for meat/veggie-filled buns, whereas the folds-on-the-bottom style is normally for sweet buns.) Let the buns rest for 15 minutes.

Steam for 15 minutes.

It's very important that the flour to water weight ratio is 2:1. If you use too much flour, the buns wouldn't be fluffy. If you use too much water that the dough is too sticky to handle, the buns will practically melt. (I'm not kidding!)

Adding a little bit of white vinegar or lemon juice to the steam water will make the buns whiter.

Red Bean Paste
Makes 2 and 1/2 cups

1 cup red beans
3/4 cup sugar

Soak the red beans overnight.

Cover with water by about an inch, bring to boil. Turn down the heat, and simmer for an hour.

Mash the beans to the texture you like. (If you like it super smooth and creamy, you can puree then strain it. I like them with some small bean bits, so mashing with a spoon for a few minutes is sufficient.)

Add the beans, along with water into a non stick pan over medium heat for 20-30 minutes till the water is mostly gone. Stirring frequently. Add the sugar, mix and stir for another 10 minutes or so.

I often found the store bought red bean paste too sweet. You can control the sweetness of this home made version. Yay!

Asian red beans are a bit smaller than the red beans you find at other grocery stores. (The ones on the right are the regular red beans.) Sure, you can make a red bean paste out of the other kind, it just tastes slightly different.