Deep Fried Banh Bao @ Vietnamese Wrapping Cake 越南炸包子

A friend's wife made us some deep fried baozi for tea break last week, just before my camping trip. Thank you Chan & Diane for your lovely buns.(Everyone loves it!) It was so delicious and has successfully inspired me to start this little project soon after. Banh bao is actually quite similar to the common old fashion Chinese meaty steamed bun, where you will have juicy flavoured meat, hard boiled egg or may be some preserved veggie & Chinese sausage.inside it. However, to make it simple I decided to use leftover cooked meat for the fillings, which is just perfect to help you clearing off everything. Isn't that sounds great !

And of course, you need about 7 hard boiled eggs ready before starting up this little project.

Ingredients for meat fillings :
400-500gm  any minced meat as desired, chopped into chunks
3 large onion, sliced
3 green chilies, seeded and chopped into chunks
4 TB  curry powder
1/2 TB  red chili powder
2-1/2 TB  light soy sauce (or to your taste)
1-1/2 TB  sugar (I prefer sweet base)
pepper to taste

* thickening : 2/3 cup water mixed with 1 tspn tapioca starch or corn starch
(you will need more liquid for cooked meat compare to fresh juicy meat, kindly adjust according to the ingredients used)

Method :
(1) preheat frying pan with 1/2 cup cooking oil then stir in onion and saute till fragrant.
(2) add in meat, sugar, pepper powder and green chili, continue saute till brown & fragrant.
(3) now, add in red chili powder, curry powder & soy sauce and continue cooking over medium heat till fragrant.
(4) once its ready, stir in thickening and immediately switch off the heat. Continue stirring till became sticky gravy. Then leave cool completely before used.

Ingredients for bao dough :
500gm  all purpose flour
2 tspn  yeast
2 TB  sugar
260ml  water
2 TB  shortening

Method :
(1) combine flour, yeast, sugar and water into a big mixing bowl then stir to form soft dough.
(2) add in shortening and continue kneading till smooth, then let to rest for an hour or till double in size.
(3) now, punch to release air and knead to smooth.
(4) place dough to working table and divide into 14 portions, about 59gm each.
(5) flatten each to fill in meat filling and half hard boiled eggs, then wrap to seal carefully.
(6) preheat frying pot or wok with enough cooking oil to cover the bun when frying.
(7) once its ready, place in buns one or two at a time and fry with low heat. Discharged buns from hot oil immediately once it turns golden brown.
(8) repeat till everything completed.

These deep fried buns are really scrumptious especially when its still warm.

Now, what we have here is a crispy dough skin bao with delicious & moist meaty sweet curry flavour fillings in between. I polish off two straight away. LOL.... Simply irresistible ! Hope you will like it too.