I've seen these Shanghai crispy bottom buns all over Instagram and I wanted to give them a go. I used Red House Spice's recipe but created my own vegetarian version using wild mushrooms. I served it with a sesame slaw, taking inspo from Pachamama's sesame cabbage. Hope you enjoy!
Don't worry about making the buns look perfect as they are getting fried any way. I found shaping the buns very difficult but don't let this deter you - they are delicious and well worth it. Red House Spice shares a video on her instagram which is very useful!
Ingredients
Bun recipe here, ingredients also listed below – Pan fried pork buns
Buns:
250 g Plain purpose flour, about 2 cups
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp dried instant yeast
140 ml lukewarm water, about 9 tbsp
Filling:
120g shitake mushrooms
120g wild mushrooms (I got speciality ones from Sainsburys)
2 medium carrots, cubed
Thumb sized piece of Ginger, grated
3 tbsp Soy sauce
1 tsp miso paste
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
1/4 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp ground cloves
Good pinch of pepper (I used black and pink peppercorns, if you have Sichuan pepper 100% use this)
Cabbage:
½ sweetheart cabbage, finely sliced
Edamame beans (if frozen these will need to be cooked ahead of time, I used precooked ones from the salad section)
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp tahini
1 tsp sesame oil
Juice of ½ a lime
100ml water
Drop of agave syrup/honey (optional, I found mine was quite bitter and salty so used to balance out)
Dipping sauce:
3 tbsp Soy sauce
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
½ red chilli, thinly sliced
1 tsp sesame oil
1 spring onion
Method
1. Use Red House Spices method for the dough.
2. Dice the carrots. Chop mushrooms into small pieces. Place in pan with vegetable oil and fry until mushrooms have shrunk and carrots are soft. Medium heat so mushrooms don’t take on any additional colour.
3. Add in miso, soy sauce, rice wine and ginger (grated) – stir until fragrant. Add ground cloves, chilli powder and pepper. Stir for another 2-3 mins. Taste and add more salt, spice etc as needed. (I found adding salt was better than soy sauce here, helps mushrooms sweat too). Turn off heat and set aside.
4. Chop the cabbage and cover with salt. Leave for 10 mins. Once the cabbage has absorbed the salt, squeeze out all the moisture and discard of the water. Mix tahini, sesame oil, lime, water and agave syrup – shake in a empty jar or whisk together. Pour over cabbage and add edamame.
5. Make dipping sauce by combining soy sauce, rice wine, red chilli, sesame oil and spring onion.
6. When the dough is rolled and ready to fill, follow Red House Spices method for creating the dumpling.
7. Fry the buns (Red House Spices method below):
Heat up oil in a frying pan over a high heat. Place in the buns (see note 4 & 5).
When the bottom part becomes golden brown, pour in water then cover with a lid.
Uncover when the water evaporates completely. Sprinkle sesame seeds and spring onion over.
Cook another 30 seconds or so to crisp up.
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