In the Kitchen Making Cantonese Steamed Meat Pau / Bao

BY CK Lam

PHOTO STORIES

A weekend in the kitchen making Cantonese steamed pau under the supervision of my mother-in-law is fun and challenging. It is not easy and lots of practice is needed particularly in picking up the edges and wrapping the filling.

For homemade pau, it is always rewarding with endless choices of sweet and savory meat filling. Savory ones include barbecue-flavored char siew pau 叉燒包, lap cheong pau 臘腸包 and sang yoke pau 生肉包. Our recipe calls for chicken, Chinese sausages, black mushrooms and hard-boiled egg.

Flavor is good but the texture so far is not as fluffy compared to those sold outside. And the pau tends to sink a bit after steaming, which had it looking a bit flat. Will try to do better…

Recipe calls for Hong Kong flour

Kneading with the hand

Sir-fried the ingredients and let to cool

Steaming hot pau out of the steamer