Siew Bao (Baked BBQ Pork Buns/烧包)
October 19th, 2009 | Chinese, Chinese Recipes, Malaysian Food, Malaysian Recipes | 46 Comments
I have many readers in Australia, thanks to the growing Malaysian expats there. Earlier this year, I invited the talented A Table for Two to guest post on Rasa Malaysia, and today, I would like to introduce you to yet another uber-talented Malaysian food blogger down under—Ellie of Almost Bourdain. Almost Bourdain is a beautiful blog with excellent food photography and many mouthwatering recipes. Please welcome Almost Bourdain to Rasa Malaysia as she shares the famed Siew Bao (Baked Buns filled with BBQ pork) recipe with us. Oh my, I am drooling at the sight of them!
What better way to thank Rasa Malaysia for inviting me to be her guest on her popular food blog than by making this Siew Bao, a savoury Asian snack made popular by my hometown Seremban, Malaysia.
Seremban is a relatively small town 60km south of Kuala Lumpur. However, it’s well-known among Malaysians for its mouth-watering Siew Bao…(get Almost Bourdain’s Siew Bao recipe after the jump)
Siew Bao or better known as Seremban Siew Bao (芙蓉烧包) is a baked golden crispy bun made of Chinese flaky pastry (酥皮) filled with sticky sweet BBQ pork (char siew), onion and green peas. It’s a delicious tea time snack that is full of contrasting textures and flavours so often found in Asian food.
Ingredients:
Pastry
Water Dough (水皮)
200 g all-purposed flour, sifted
100 g water
50 g shortening or lard
50 g icing sugar
Oil Dough (油皮)
200 g all-purpose flour, sifted
100 g shortening or lard
Filling
300 g BBQ pork (Char Siew), diced
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/3 cup of green peas
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp water
1/2 tbsp corn flour
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
sesame seeds
Method:
To Make Filling
1. Add oyster sauce, soy sauce, water, corn flour and sugar in a small bowl and stir to mix well.
2. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan. Stir fry BBQ pork, onion and green peas until fragrant. Add the oyster sauce, soy sauce, water, corn flour and sugar mixture and stir well.
To Make Pastry
1. Put all the ingredients of water dough in a food processor and pulse until it forms a soft dough. Cover it in a bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes.
2. Repeat the same with oil dough.
3. Divide the water dough and oil dough into 18 equal portions.
4. Roll out a piece of the water dough into a flat circle.
5. Place a piece of the rounded oil dough in the centre of the flat circle.
6. Gather the outer edges of the water dough circle and wrap up the oil dough ball.
7. Pinch and seal the edges.
8. With the heel of your palm, gently press the dough down to flatten it lightly.
9. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into rectangle shape.
10. Roll up the dough Swiss-roll style.
11. Turn the rolled dough 90 degrees.
12. Repeat steps 9 and 10.
13. The pastry is now ready for filling and shaping.
To Assemble
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree C.
1. With the heel of your palm, gently press the pastry down to flatten it lightly.
2. Roll out the pastry into a flat circle.
3. Place 1 tbsp of filling in the centre.
4. Gather the outer edges of the dough circle and pleat and pinch to seal.
5. Brush egg wash on the surface and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
6. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
Related Recipes:
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You are two talented food bloggers!!! thank you sharing all your delicious recipes… and welcome to Ellie on Rasa Malaysia
@ Dominique: Thanks! It’s my pleasure to share.
Your RSS feed is jacked up. Just letting you know it’s not working like it should.
Ellie, at Almost Bourdain is definitely one of our favorites! Love these savory pastries!
@ Ravenous Couple: Thanks! Ditto. I am a frequent reader of your blog too!
I love siew bao. Thanks for the recipe. We have a different version here in Kuching where the filling is char siew mixed with minced pork. Very delicious.
I am glad that you like the recipe. I haven’t tried the Kuching version but the filling sounds delicious!
Oooh, bao! Never tried the filling with peas, gotta do that. I found that, when exceptionally lazy, frozen bread dough roll work well as a substitute for homemade bao dough. I am embarrassed to admit that I figured this out, but when you’re done making homemade char siu, making the pastry can be daunting, especially if you’re hungry for them NOW.
Can’t wait to try this recipe. Congrats for being chosen by the Saveur Daily Fare column, btw! Well deserved indeed!
Yup. Peas are a must have ingredient in Seremban version of Siew Bao. I totally understand about using frozen bread dough. I use frozen puff pastry and shortcrust pastry all the time. They taste equally good! And thanks! I was very excited about the Saveur column too.
Thanks again for inviting me to be your guest blogger. Such an honour!!
I saw http://jeroxie.com/addiction/ do this before and I learned what it was called. I came here knowing what it was(finally!) but I have yet to make it. Though I think both this version by Almost Bourdain and Jeroxie’s look fabulous, seeing this one is definitely convincing me to get the ingredients and give it a go :)
Siew Bao is absolutely delicious and not hard to make. It’s definitely worth a try.
Ellie, I didn’t know you were from Seremban! What a cool post :) The siew bao are indeed mouthwatering!! And how lovely of Rasa Malaysia to showcase your talent :)
Ju, Thanks!! I am forever grateful to Rasa Malaysia for giving me this opportunity to guest post.
@ The Little Teochew: Ju, Thanks!! I am forever grateful to Rasa Malaysia for giving me this opportunity to guest post.
They look great! I love that they are baked – I am not so much into the texture of steamed buns.
@ Natashya: Thanks! I am glad that you love baked buns. It does give you a different texture from the steamed ones.
oh yum!! I should try this soon. I love siew paus..
Hi Swee San, Try it! I am sure yours will turn out very well with your excellent baking skill!
Hi Ellie/Bee
Such a beautiful post deserves two comments – one in your site and one here! Great job!
Trissa
Hi Trissa, Thanks!!
wow looks so good. i guess living in KL is really spoilt by getting them all ready made for us :p
Hi babe_kl: I know… so jealous of you folks who live in Malaysia. We have to bake them ourselves.
Siew Bao is definitely something I won’t miss buying/eating when I see them. However, now that I am miles away from Malaysia, it’s not easy at all to get hold of these yummy little baos!! Thanks for reminding me this great little Siew Bao that I love and the only way to taste them is to bake them at home! ;)
Hi mycookinghut: I share the same sentiment.
Oh wow these are so pretty, and sound delicious!
Hi Alta, Thanks!!
These look delicious! I love the golden brown color. I just imagine biting into one… Gorgeous!
Hi Tokyo Terrace: Thanks! Imagine biting into the crispy pastry with char siew filling and sticky sweet sauce… heavenly!
Genius is what these are. I am so going to brush up on my pastry skills just to make these:-)
@ wizzythestick: Thanks!!
This is a perfect example of the sum being greater than the parts. I enjoy both of your blogs very much but it’s even cooler to see you two collaborate. Beautiful recipe!
@ Jackie: Lol!! Thanks!!
This is very interesting. It looks like a combination of hopia and siopao in Philippines. Got to try this.
@ momgateway: Haven’t tried hopia and siopao in Philippines. I am sure they are as delicious as this siew bao.
I have never seen a dish like that before, it looks absolutely amazing!
Thanks so much for sharing the recipe, and the pictures are beautiful
@ Jen: Thanks! Hope it’s tempting enough for you to make them.
woah…i love siew baos….they are absolutely tempting!!
thanks for sharing ~~
i made the cashew chicken for my guest and they loved it. i wanted to make Kuih Kosui but im having a hard time looking for tapioca flour in the philippines, is there a substitute for tapioca flour that i can use?
Thank you SO much for posting a recipe for one of my favourite malaysian yummies!!
omg !!!! not seen a siew bao for nearly 10yrs since living in uk…gosh overjoyed to come across the recipe…thks for sharing n i cant wait to try making them….
…btw, can i substitute the shortening or lard wit butter ????
thks !!
Im wondering if I could use this though with the Red bean filling.
I am sure you can!
hehe,I like siew bao, pls teach us to cooking Bak-Kut-Teh next time
hii!
Is there any substitute i can use for the recipe if i dont want to use shortening?!!
Same question, is ir possible to substitute shorterning with something else? Margarine? Butter?
Love siew baos!!!! A must have whenever I go back to Malaysia! Can’t wait to try this out!!! Thanks for sharing this with us Ellie!! And since you are in sydney Ellie, can you tell me where do you go to get shortening? I must admit I havent come across it over here!