Pork and Napa Cabbage Baozi

Ingredients

• 500g plain flour
• 6g instant yeast
• 25g caster sugar
• 5g salt
• 260ml lukewarm water
• 1 tbsp neutral oil
• 400g minced pork (about 25% fat)
• 450g napa cabbage, finely chopped
• 1 tsp salt (for the cabbage)
• 4 spring onions, finely sliced
• 1 tbsp minced ginger
• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp sugar
• 100ml cold chicken stock

Before you cook

• Whisk the flour, yeast, sugar and 5g salt together in a large bowl.
• Add the lukewarm water and the tablespoon of oil, then knead for 12 minutes until the dough is smooth and springy.
• Cover the dough and leave it somewhere warm until doubled, about 1 hour.
• Salt the chopped cabbage, leave it 15 minutes, then squeeze it dry in a cloth.
• Cut 24 squares of baking paper about 7cm across.

Steps

1. Put the pork in a bowl with the soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine, ginger, white pepper and sugar.
2. Stir hard in one direction for 3 minutes until the mixture becomes tacky.
3. Add the cold stock in three additions, stirring in the same direction until it is fully absorbed.
4. Fold in the sesame oil, squeezed cabbage and spring onions, then chill the filling for 20 minutes.
5. Knock the air out of the risen dough and knead it briefly on the bench.
6. Roll the dough into a rope and cut it into 24 equal pieces.
7. Roll each piece into a disc about 9cm across, leaving the middle thicker than the edges.
8. Cup a disc in one hand and spoon in a heaped tablespoon of filling.
9. Pleat the edge round with your thumb and forefinger, turning the bun as you go, then pinch the pleats together at the top.
10. Set each finished bun on a paper square.
11. Arrange the buns in steamer baskets, leaving 3cm between them.
12. Cover the baskets and let the buns prove for 25 minutes, until they look puffy and feel light.
13. Set the steamers over a pan of cold water and bring it to a boil from cold.
14. Steam the buns for 15 minutes once the water is boiling.
15. Turn off the heat and wait 5 minutes before lifting the lid, so the buns do not collapse.
16. Serve them hot, with black vinegar for dipping if you like.