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Steamed Pork Buns "Nikuman"

Steamed Pork Buns "Nikuman"

Sergey and I have been on a Japanese cooking kick. This is one of our recent favorites. Because neither of us has what you'd call a sensitive palate, we tripled the shiitake mushrooms and swapped greens out for green onions.

Nutrition: Approx 125 calories per bun. Makes 40 buns.

Tip: We use these bamboo food steamers to steam the buns.

Dough Ingredients

  • 4 and 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp instant dry yeast
  • 2 tbsp + 1 tsp cooking oil
  • 1 1/2 cup water

Filling Ingredients

  • 2 lb ground pork
  • 8 oz green onion
  • 10 dehydrated shiitake mushroom
  • 2 inch or 30g ginger (or 2 tbsp minced or puree ginger)
  • 2.5 tsp sugar
  • 2.5 tsp salt
  • 2.5 tbsp sake
  • 2.5 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2.5 tbsp potato/corn starch
  • 2.5 tbsp roasted sesame oil
  • Ground pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Mix dough ingredients, knead for 10-15 minutes until dough is smooth and silky. If the dough is too rough, cautiously add drops of oil and splashes of water and knead. Repeat until dough has silky consistency.
  2. Cover dough with plastic wrap, put in proofer until it doubles in size (30-60 min).
  3. Peel and grate ginger if fresh.
  4. Prepare mushrooms: Soak mushrooms in ½ cup water. Put something heavy on them so they are submerged and set aside for 15 minutes. After, squeeze moisture out, discard stems, and mince fine.
  5. Mix together all filling ingredients.
  6. Cut dough in half > cut dough in half again > roll halves into logs > cut logs into 5 pieces each > cut each piece in half. You will end up with 40 little balls of dough.
  7. Form each piece into a ball and roll flat. Fill with approx. 1 ½ tbsp of filling.
  8. Close by pleating edges and pinch/twist together at the top. Let them rest for 20 minutes.
  9. Fill a wok with water and bring to a boil. Place the buns on individual parchment paper pieces, load them into the steamer racks with enough distance to grow, and steam on high heat for 15 minutes.
  10. Form any remainder meat into patties and cook on medium stove heat in a pan, flipping as needed. Cook with sake if desired. Impromptu hambagu!

Adapted from justonecookbook.com