I love Chinese food; actually, I love all kinds of Asian food and miss a lot of dishes because they aren’t gluten-free. One of the dishes I miss most is part of Chinese Dim Sum, steamed pork buns or char sui bao.
Growing up in Iselin, NJ, we had many different ethnic food shops right around the corner from our house. There was an Italian shop called Mistretta’s. There was also Stanleys Polish Meat Market and Ding-How, a Chinese Market.
On Saturday mornings, Ding How would carry those delicious steamed pork buns char sui bao. The steamed buns were soft and sweet. The buns were stuffed with char siu pork, which is pork coated with that shiny, lacquered red sauce you find on ribs on a pu-pu platter.
After we moved to Vermont, we missed our Saturday morning steamed pork buns but could still find them in Albany, NY, if we wanted them. Then we went gluten-free, and we had to scratch another much-loved food off of your favorites list. 🙁
It took me seven years to develop my gluten-free spätzle recipe; it bugged me for years that I couldn’t nail it, then when I did, I was like, “fuck yeah!”
I’ve been working on a handful of other recipes that I am trying to convert to gluten-free versions. Most of the dishes I am trying to replicate are tricky. I always think I am not a patient person, but when replicating food recipes, I stick with it until I get it right.
A couple of months ago when we ate at our favorite Chinese restaurant Ala Shanghai in Albany, NY, a place that serves more gluten-free Chinese food than other places we have found so far. When we were having dinner there, we watched the waiter carve a Peking duck right at the people’s tables. It was pretty fantastic to watch how skilled the waiter was with his knife work. It was like watching dinner theater.
Next, we saw him take out soft bao buns, which are unstuffed steamed buns. He then added the Peking duck and pickled vegetables to the buns. The bao sandwiches had both of us drooling as we watched the waiter put the platter on the diner’s table. I asked how it was, and the people said they drive from far away a couple of times a year to have the Peking duck bao buns. Damn, they must really be good.
I found a recipe for Peking pork which is thinly sliced pork that has been marinated then stir-fried. The pieces of pork are added to the Peking sauce that they use for duck, making it Peking pork. Pretty clever and not hard to make. Then comes the steamed bao buns, the hard part.
It’s hard to find a reliable recipe for most gluten-free Chinese dishes; the steamed bun recipes all seemed fussy, requiring lots of ingredients I don’t keep on hand, such as isolated whey protein, expanded tapioca flour, and glutinous rice flour.
Yesterday, I tried a bao bun recipe with things in my pantry. The recipe seemed straightforward but failed. When I kneaded the dough before the proofing; I had zero chance of the recipe working. I said it out loud to Marty, then hours later, when it did fail, I said I knew it! I hate throwing away ingredients, but it’s necessary when figuring out recipes.
Today, I am trying again. The ingredients are different ones that I used yesterday, still ones that I had in my pantry. Twice I have heated the milk in the recipe too much. Adding yeast to liquids above 110 degrees kills the yeast, which happened with the first round. I started again, and the milk was too hot again, so I cooled the milk down in an ice bath before adding the yeast. I am so aggravated with myself for already screwing up the recipe.
When I added the wet ingredients to the dry, I noticed way too much liquid in the recipe. I thought this when I measured the ingredients but wanted to wait and see what would happen. I was right. I kept adding more tapioca flour until the dough came together; beforehand, the dough was more like cake batter. This was when I started cursing the recipe writer.
After adding more tapioca to form a dough, I began to knead it for 10 minutes like the recipe said to do. I had to keep adding more tapioca flour to keep the dough from sticking to the benchtop. After the dough seemed smooth, I put it into a greased bowl and covered it with plastic wrap. I set a 90-minute timer and waited; figuring I had a 50/50 shot of failure or success.
The dough doubled in size and had a smooth, shiny sheen to it. I followed the directions, kneaded the dough for 3 more minutes, and divided it into small balls. I placed them on greased pieces of kitchen wrap. I let them rise again for 30 minutes. I turned on the Chinese steamer with the filled with buns.
Now was the moment of truth, will they or won’t they come out as expected? They did! Sweet victory…I gotta write this shit down, I thought.
I made the Peking pork which was easy and came out exactly as I wanted it to. I am not sure why it’s called Peking pork; it is char sui pork, but whatever, it’s delicious and didn’t matter what the hell it was called.
I quick-pickled some carrots & red onions to go along with my already pickled daikon radishes I keep in the refrigerator. We sliced the bao buns then stuffed the pork and pickled veggies creating a soft bao taco, if you will. The first taste? Holy crap! They tasted exactly like the char sui bao buns we remembered!
It seems like even though it isn’t even winter yet, I have been cooking up a storm. As a hobby, it keeps me busy after production, and my kitchen is my zen, happy place. The result happens to be some great meals which I guess is a better hobby than sitting and doing jigsaw puzzles all day. Lol! 😜
On to the next recipe to replicate!
Julz, I’ve tried two times to donate to your site and have been kicked to the curb. Here’s my email: camille.jacobs@verani.com
Please send me your mailing address and I’ll send you my heartfelt and grateful donation via snail mail. 🐌 You’re the best and I very much appreciate your recipes which have made my gf life so much better! Pizza! Spaetzle! and so much more. 💖