They should stay warm like this for ~10 minutes. Keep them in the bamboo steamer with lid closed. You can reheat the bao straight from frozen, just pop a few into your steamer and steam for 5-8 minutes until hot in the middle. Label and date them for future reference. Freeze the buns for 1-2 hours on the tray then tip them into a resealable bag. Then line them up on a baking tray – I like to leave the little parchment square on the bottom of each bun so I can use it when I reheat them later. To do this, steam all of the bao as instructed. When I make bao I usually make a large batch so I can freeze most of them for easy dinners later on. Can you freeze bao and can you reheat frozen ones? I use a pair of kitchen tongs to remove each layer of the bamboo steamer from the pan so I don’t get burnt by the steam. Let the buns steam for 5-6 minutes – do not remove the lid during this time as the trapped steam inside is cooking the buns! Place into the pan of water and turn the heat down so the water is simmering. Bring the water to a boil over a medium heat, fill the steamer with your buns (they expand quite a bit when steaming so leave some room around them) then cover with the lid. The most important thing is that the water level doesn’t rise above the base of the steamer as you don’t want the water to come into direct contact with whatever is in the steamer. Pour water into the pan, I usually do a ~1-inch depth and top up the water as needed while steaming so it doesn’t run dry. If you don’t have a bamboo steamer you can use a metal one, you just can’t fit as many buns into them as you can with a bamboo one (as they are stackable).įor bamboo steamers: place the steamer into a wide saucepan or pot that it can fit snugly in. You can get them online or usually at larger Korean/Chinese/Japanese food shops. I have a 2-layer bamboo steamer I got from a Korean supermarket when I lived in Leeds. If you want to make them yourself though, read on. They have a variety of names I’ve come across: ‘gua bao’, ‘double slice bun’, ‘Hirata bun’ or ‘Taiwan burger bun’. I buy packs of frozen bao from the big chest freezers in my local Chinese food shop. I have to say, as much as I love making things from scratch, sometimes I just want a super easy dinner and frozen bao are a godsend for that. I think a good formula for vegetarian fillings is: grilled/deep fried vegetables (or tofu/seitan) + something crunchy (lettuce, carrot ribbons, shredded cabbage) + sauce + pickles (kimchi, red onion/radish, kraut). However their popularity in the West has spread with the redundant name bao buns, so here we are! The usual filling is glazed pork belly but you can basically fill them with whatever you want. They’re usually called gua bao but are also sometimes known as Taiwanese hamburgers. Really, calling these bao buns is incorrect (bao means bun, so it’s like saying ‘bun bun’). Tried this recipe? Let me know how it went! Mention or tag #topwithcinnamon! What is a bao bun? Recipe adapted from School of Wok – Jeremy Pang
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