My mother makes Char Siew Pao (Chinese Steamed BBQ Roast Pork Buns) from scratch. She knows that I can't do it from scratch so she suggested that I use the Easy To Make Happy Grass Pao Flour. I haven't tried it yet but I will definitely try it one day!
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Phay Ing Landers:
I had a bag of pao flour, Easy To Make Happy Grass Pao Flour, sitting in the pantry, bought in Sept 2010. Last week I caved in to my steamed char siew pao craving! My maiden attempt in making pao was an adventure in every sense of the word as I had not made any pao before and had no inkling of how the end result would be. However, I have eaten countless paos.
I am not the only pao fan in the family. My husband and the boys are a big fan of pao too! Char siew, red bean paste and lotus paste paos are the family’s favorite. The last time we had paos was in 2009 when we visited my parents in Kuching. The local Chinese eateries in Fairmont, WV do not include dim sum in their menus, except potstickers.
Back to my paos making adventure, the Easy To Make Happy Grass Pao Flour is great for first-timers. Everything I needed for the pao dough was there in separate plastic bags: pao flour, instant yeast, sugar and lard.
The whole process took me 2.5 hours, starting from kneading-resting-flattening-rolling-filling-shaping-steaming. Just follow the instructions printed on the package for the dough making. The step-by-step photos on the package helped me to understand the written instructions. I knew I was on the right track when I could smell the familiar pao doughy aroma as I was kneading the dough.
These are the steps I used to make the paos from the divided dough portions. I used a pizza cutter to cut the dough into small portions. I didn’t use any measuring device, instead I just eyeballed the portions and cut.
1. Use the palm to press the divided dough to flatten. Roll the dough into rounds and place 1 tbsp of filling in the center. Shape into pao and seal by pleating the edges. (Make sure the pao is sealed properly, otherwise it will open when it is steamed).
2. Place the pao on a piece of precut small square parchment paper so the pao will not stick to the bottom of the steamer rack. Cover with damp cloth and leave to rest for 40 mins, as instructed by the package.
3. 5-10 mins toward the end of the paos resting time, prepare a steamer pot with water and bring to a rolling boil. Steam the paos over high heat for 10 mins. (The steaming time depends on the size of the pao.)
4. Continue to wrap paos with fillings and steam.
5. Serve the paos warm.
I used the entire bag as I wasn’t sure if the ingredients would keep once opened. I only managed to make 25 small paos (2” in diameter) with 300g of Char Siew. I didn’t want to waste the rest of dough, so I just made plain mantous. That gave me approximate 40 mantous. They tasted heavenly dipped in the char siew gravy.
A decent char siew pao not only depends on the dough’s fluffiness, but it has to be accompanied with tasty and juicy filling. Credits must be given to Lily Ng from Lily’s Wai Shek Hong blog for her Char Siew recipes. She has been very generous to give me her blessings to link her recipes to this write-up. I have been following her food blog for a few years, and her recipes are simple to follow. Most importantly the end results suit my palette.
I used 2 recipes for the paos fillings.
1. Char Siew recipe to make a batch of meat.
2. From the Char siew meat I baked, I followed this recipe to recreate the meat into Oyster Sauce Char Siew to be used for the pao fillings.
Overall I am very satisfied with the paos. After the success of the maiden attempt in making char siew paos, I will try making red bean paste paos next. In fact my boys are very excited and have been asking for it ever since they knew that I could make paos. The red bean paste can be ordered from AsianSupermarket365.
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