Pau can be eaten at breakfast or at any time. Pau is filled with food items ranging from meat to vegetables to sweet bean paste and that is served as Dim Sum in Chinese restaurant.
I adapted the skin recipe from Cheah of No Frills Recipes. The pau skin is soft and fluffy that I really loved it very much and I will definitely like to make this again with other fillings too. Thanks Cheah :)
Prepare Chicken filling
500g Chicken thigh without bone & skin ~ cut to strips
2 tbsp Oyster sauce
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Corn flour
1 tsp Light soy sauce
1 tbsp Dark soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp Sugar
1 tbsp Sesame oil
1 tbsp Cooking wine
1 tbsp Ginger juice
5 tbsp Plain water
4 Hard boiled eggs - cut to quarter or 16 Quail eggs (hard boiled)
1-2 stalks Spring onion - cut to 1" length & some chopped coriander leaves
Marinade the chicken filling for few hours or overnight before wrapping.
- 500 gm Pau flour/Hong Kong flour
- 2.1/2 flat tsp yeast
- 100 ml lukewarm water
- 125 gm caster sugar
- 5 tsp shortening (I used mooncake shortening)
- 2.1/8 flat tsp DA baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 100ml water + 1 tsp (I used fresh milk)
Preparation
(A)
- Mix dried yeast with lukewarm water, stir.
- Add in 130 gm sifted pau flour, mix well and roughly form into a ball of dough. Set aside for 15 mins.
(B)
- Mix the balance 370 gm sifted pau flour with the baking powder, sugar and salt.
- Pour (B) into (A).
- Add in shortening and water sparingly, knead till dough doesn't stick onto the hands.
- Cover dough with a wet cloth, place in a warm place and let dough prove till double in bulk, around 1 hr to 1.1/2 hr.
- Knock dough to expel some air, knead for some time. Roll out onto a floured board. Weigh out 50 gm dough, roughly form into a ball. While you are working with a ball of dough, cover the rest with a damp cloth to prevent them from being exposed to air and getting flaky. Makes 18 pau.
- Roll out the ball of dough lightly and cup it into the palm of your hand and spoon in some filling. Pleat up the sides of the pau. Put the pau on a piece of greaseproof paper and place them on the steamer rack.
- Set them aside for another 15 mins, and meanwhile prepare the steamer with water.
- Steam pau under rapidly boiling water for 10-12 mins.
- Quickly and carefully remove the steamer cover so that condensed steam will not drip onto the pau.
- Remove the pau from the steamer rack and serve hot.
The drinking of Chinese tea is as important to Dim Sum as the food which is said to aid in digestion.
I bought this beautiful and unique Zi Sha Hu or teapot set (紫砂壶） from JiangShu China when I was China for holiday few years ago. The teapot resembles a lotus flower with movable lotus seeds on the tea cap even the frog eyes are movable.
"One of the best and most renowned materials that teapots in China are made from is called Zi Sha. The most famous source of ZiSha is YiXing city in JiangSu province. There are numerous designs, all of which have many different levels of quality and prices vary tremendously depending on the person who made it.
Labels: Dian Xin 点心
