Welcome to Asian Week!

Welcome to Asian Week on the Cooking Dunkin Style Blog!

Today I bring you Hum Bao, or Banh Baoa (the proper Viet name for it), a wonderful Asian appetizer which you can fill with just about anything you wish. I am a traditionalist and use what I am used to eating, hard boiled egg, Chinese sausage, regular sausage, and peas!

My favorite website, FoodofVietnam.com has this to say about it "Banh bao (bánh bao in Vietnamese) is a ball shaped dumpling with pork meat, onions, eggs, mushrooms and vegetables inside. The steamed bun often has ground pork, Chinese sausage and a portion of a hard boiled egg inside. This delicacy originated with the baozi from China but was adapted by the Vietnamese and is also available in most other countries with Vietnamese populations.

I had always wanted to learn this recipe/method from my Vietnamese family but it never worked out, so I finally taught myself. These are a bit labor intensive, but I assure you, they are worth the effort! You will need to visit a Vietnamese store to get the Chinese Sausage and the Flour Mixture.

2 hard boiled eggs, diced

2 links Chinese sausage (they are long, thin and will be in the frozen meat aisle), diced small

1/2 lb of regular sausage

1/2 onion

2 cloves of garlic minced

3 green onions, ends removed and chopped

1/4 to 1/2 bag of frozen peas

salt and white pepper

Low Sodium soy Sauce

1 package Bahn Bao Mixed Flour, I have used the D&D Gold brand with great success. Tell your Storekeeper what you are making and they will direct you to the dough mix

In a non stick pan, saute your sausage, add your onion and garlic about half way thru cooking, continue to cook until no longer pink

Drain excess grease and remove to a bowl and add your diced Chinese Sausage

Add in your peas, green onions, dash of salt and pepper

Add in 2 to 3 tbl of Oyster Sauce several dashes of low sodium Soy Sauce, and mix well, set aside

Follow the directions on the flour package, kneading and resting and kneading again

Roll into one long log, cut in half and each half cut into 3rds, you want 12 equal pieces of dough (I weigh them with my food scale)

Roll each one out into a circle about 3 inches by 3 inches

Now is the hard part, place the circle into the palm of your hand, add a heaping tablespoon of the filling mixture and a piece of hard boiled egg, and carefully bring the edges together at the top and pinch to close

You will have to work the dough a bit to get it to stretch up and around the filling and seal at the top. Don't worry if it does not seal all the way, they normally will break open when steaming anyway

Steam in a double boiler for 20 minutes (only steam about 4 at a time as they EXPAND quite a bit during the steaming process)

Serve with Soy and Sweet Chili Sauce