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The Daring Cooks Challenge: Char Sui Bao

December 14, 2011 By Brian 19 Comments

Our Daring Cooks’ December 2011 hostess is Sara from Belly Rumbles! Sara chose awesome Char Sui Bao as our challenge, where we made the buns, Char Sui, and filling from scratch – delicious!

Thanks so much Sara for a great challenge.  I’ve seen these sorts of things on some of the shows that I watch, but never really thought about how to go about making them.  Basically, char sui is a kind of pork barbecue.  Char sui bao is that same barbecue stuffed into a baked or steamed bun.  Since I don’t have a steamer basket, I wound up baking mine.

As I got to making these, I realized how really simple and flexible these could be.  The filling could be just about anything, really.  The char sui filling that we made for the challenge was supposed to have been made with pork tenderloin, but pork chops cost about half as much, so we went with that.  The filling turned out a little dry and chunky, but that’s more my fault than anything.  Next time, I think I will chop things up a little more, make the sauce for the filling a little thicker, and be sure that the dough for the buns is a little thinner.  Also, because these were a little dry for me, I think some sort of dipping sauce would be a nice touch.  Here are a couple of pictures of my little creations.

Have you ever tried char sui bao?  If not, I hope you take the opportunity.  Leave us some comments and let us know what you think.  If you need the recipe, just let us know and I’ll get it out to you.  Make sure you take a look at our other Daring Kitchen adventures!

Filed Under: Daring Kitchen, Simply Food Tagged With: Cantonese, Cantonese BBQ pork, Cantonese BBQ pork buns, challenge, char sui, char sui bao, cooking, daring cook, daring kitchen, dinner, pork, pork barbecue, pork bbq, pork buns

Comments

  1. Sara (Belly Rumbles) says

    December 14, 2011 at 7:36 am

    I am so glad you had fun with the challenge. You are right, they are very versatile, you can use anything really as the main ingredient for the filling, pork belly is another favourite.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      December 14, 2011 at 8:09 am

      I was thinking about some kind of cheeseburger filling and serving it with a side of ketchup. (Yes, I am very American!)

      Reply
  2. Cher says

    December 14, 2011 at 10:46 am

    I agree – it seems like there could be several options on the filling. (I am sure the cheeseburger would go over very well with “young’uns”)

    Reply
  3. Melinda says

    December 14, 2011 at 11:33 am

    I like the idea of these. How about a sausage mixture, that should be way more moist.

    Reply
  4. Jenni says

    December 14, 2011 at 11:54 am

    Great job! I think I needed more sauce in the filling, too. And a dipping sauce would be a great addition! Your buns look great!

    Reply
  5. SeattleDee says

    December 14, 2011 at 5:59 pm

    Your bao look delicious! I loved the filling (could eat it with a spoon) but my baked buns were a bit dry. I’ll try steaming them next time with more filling and less dough.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      December 14, 2011 at 6:40 pm

      Thanks. I feel just the way you do about them.

      Reply
  6. Nish says

    December 14, 2011 at 9:08 pm

    Fantastic effort! These buns are very versatile indeed!

    Reply
  7. chef_d says

    December 14, 2011 at 9:47 pm

    Yummy looking baked bbq buns! And yes I agree the recipe is quite versatile 🙂

    Reply
  8. Ness [Six One and Then Some] says

    December 15, 2011 at 12:43 am

    You’re right, they are quite versatile. I’ve begun to dream about what else I can put in them!

    Reply
  9. [email protected] in disguise says

    December 15, 2011 at 3:27 am

    I totally agree..the buns could be filled with so many things..the possibilites are endless and tempting to discover

    Reply
  10. BusyWorkingMama says

    December 15, 2011 at 8:50 am

    I’ve never even heard of these 🙂

    Reply
  11. Lisa @ Oh Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy says

    December 15, 2011 at 11:21 am

    never heard of it but it sounds yummy

    Reply
  12. Makey-Cakey says

    December 15, 2011 at 5:04 pm

    Delicious! They look so perfect all laid out on the cooling rack like that

    Reply
  13. Karen of 3G2S says

    December 18, 2011 at 11:16 am

    I’ve always wanted to make these! It’s a pain to have to go all the way to Chinatown to buy them. 😛

    Reply
  14. Lindsay says

    December 19, 2011 at 3:54 pm

    These look REALLY tasty!

    Reply
  15. T.H. says

    August 31, 2012 at 4:09 pm

    I love char sui bao, and always wondered how they were made. I can’t wait to try this recipe!

    Reply
  16. Miranda M says

    September 18, 2012 at 8:21 pm

    Cool, I never knew about these before–I have some leftover chicken from yesterday and I’m wondering if I could concoct a shredded BBQ chicken stuffed roll. Yum!

    Reply
  17. Rosie says

    March 6, 2013 at 12:02 pm

    I’ve never heard of these but they are different enough, but not cukoo! I could imagine getting creative, too, but I luv the fancy name! Nice to show up with these as an appetizer, etc.

    Reply

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