There are many different types of steamed buns around the world, and for us Filipinos, we love our siopao (shoh-pow). In this recipe, we will be making a corned beef filling and a vegan shiitake mushroom filling. 🙂 This recipe uses a steamer, and I recommend using your KitchenAid for this!
Ingredients:
- 2 ½ cups flour
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp instant yeast
- ¾ – 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 medium onion
- Delimondo corned beef
- 2 handfuls of dried shiitake mushrooms
- 1 medium carrot
- ¼ cabbage
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 tbsp black bean garlic sauce
- Ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp agave syrup/sweetener
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- Optional: banana leaves
Directions:
- In your KitchenAid, mix together the flour, sugar, and salt. Once well mixed, add the instant yeast and let the ingredients mix together.
- As the KitchenAid is mixing, slowly pour in around ¾ – 1 cup of water, just until all the flour is picked up. Then, add 1 tbsp of oil. Knead this on medium speed for about 7-10 minutes, checking periodically until the dough is smooth and stretches a bit before breaking. Cover the dough and let it rise until it doubles in size.
- To make the corned beef filling, chop up a whole medium onion (I like my corned beef with a lot of onions, but you can cut back as you prefer.). Take a large cast-iron skillet and place it over medium-low heat. Open up the can of Delimondo corned beef and scrape some of the fat from the can and use it to saute the onions until they’re translucent. Afterward, add the rest of the corned beef and cook and stir that for a couple of minutes. Set aside.
- Take your dried shiitake mushrooms and soak it in a covered bowl of boiling water for about 15 minutes to soften. Chop up some carrots and cabbage and set aside in a separate bowl. Once the mushrooms are fully hydrated, chop those up as well. Set aside.
- Take another large pan and pour in about 2 tbsp of oil. Dump in all of the chopped veggies and shiitake mushrooms and saute it for about 5 minutes on medium-low heat. Then, pour in the black bean sauce and stir it into the ingredients. Season this with some black pepper, and then cover the pan with a lid to cook for about 3 minutes on medium-low heat.
- Uncover the pan and add 2 tbsp of sweetener (I use agave syrup) and about a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Cook this mixture for about 3 more minutes until all the vegetables are soft and tender. Set aside.
- Bring back out the dough that has doubled in size and divide it into 12 even pieces. Take one piece and flatten it into a circle. Use a rolling pin to further flatten out the edges of the dough. Scoop about a tablespoon of shiitake filling onto the thicker center of the dough, and close the dough by pinching the edges shut, making sure no filling spills out. Flip over the bun and roll it around to give it a more ball shape. Repeat this step for the rest of the dough pieces.
- Let the buns rest for about 20-25 minutes to let them puff up a bit. Take out your steamer and fill the bottom pot with about 6 cups of water and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, turn down the heat to low. Line the bottom of the steamer with parchment paper, or even better for more Filipino-flavoring, line it with banana leaves.
- Place some buns into the steamer, spacing them about 1-2 inches apart since they will get bigger. Before you close the steamer with a lid, cover it with a towel first to prevent condensation from dripping onto the buns, and then cover the towel with the steamer lid. Steam these buns for 7 minutes on low heat. Once 7 minutes have passed, turn off the heat and make sure to keep on the lid for another 5 minutes. Repeat this step until you have steamed all your siapao buns.
Now you’re done! This siopao tastes so good, and what’s better is that they’re portable, so you can take siopao anywhere. What’s EVEN better is that you got the vegan filling to share this siopao with your vegan friends!😁