Our Daring Cooks’ December 2011 hostess is Sara from Belly Rumbles! Sara chose awesome Char Sui Bao as our challenge, where we made the buns, Char Sui, and filling from scratch – delicious!
Thanks so much Sara for a great challenge. I’ve seen these sorts of things on some of the shows that I watch, but never really thought about how to go about making them. Basically, char sui is a kind of pork barbecue. Char sui bao is that same barbecue stuffed into a baked or steamed bun. Since I don’t have a steamer basket, I wound up baking mine.
As I got to making these, I realized how really simple and flexible these could be. The filling could be just about anything, really. The char sui filling that we made for the challenge was supposed to have been made with pork tenderloin, but pork chops cost about half as much, so we went with that. The filling turned out a little dry and chunky, but that’s more my fault than anything. Next time, I think I will chop things up a little more, make the sauce for the filling a little thicker, and be sure that the dough for the buns is a little thinner. Also, because these were a little dry for me, I think some sort of dipping sauce would be a nice touch. Here are a couple of pictures of my little creations.
Have you ever tried char sui bao? If not, I hope you take the opportunity. Leave us some comments and let us know what you think. If you need the recipe, just let us know and I’ll get it out to you. Make sure you take a look at our other Daring Kitchen adventures!
I am so glad you had fun with the challenge. You are right, they are very versatile, you can use anything really as the main ingredient for the filling, pork belly is another favourite.
I was thinking about some kind of cheeseburger filling and serving it with a side of ketchup. (Yes, I am very American!)
I agree – it seems like there could be several options on the filling. (I am sure the cheeseburger would go over very well with “young’uns”)
I like the idea of these. How about a sausage mixture, that should be way more moist.
Great job! I think I needed more sauce in the filling, too. And a dipping sauce would be a great addition! Your buns look great!
Your bao look delicious! I loved the filling (could eat it with a spoon) but my baked buns were a bit dry. I’ll try steaming them next time with more filling and less dough.
Thanks. I feel just the way you do about them.
Fantastic effort! These buns are very versatile indeed!
Yummy looking baked bbq buns! And yes I agree the recipe is quite versatile 🙂
You’re right, they are quite versatile. I’ve begun to dream about what else I can put in them!
I totally agree..the buns could be filled with so many things..the possibilites are endless and tempting to discover
I’ve never even heard of these 🙂
never heard of it but it sounds yummy
Delicious! They look so perfect all laid out on the cooling rack like that
I’ve always wanted to make these! It’s a pain to have to go all the way to Chinatown to buy them. 😛
These look REALLY tasty!
I love char sui bao, and always wondered how they were made. I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Cool, I never knew about these before–I have some leftover chicken from yesterday and I’m wondering if I could concoct a shredded BBQ chicken stuffed roll. Yum!
I’ve never heard of these but they are different enough, but not cukoo! I could imagine getting creative, too, but I luv the fancy name! Nice to show up with these as an appetizer, etc.