After I shared some of these purple sweet potato bao buns with my sisters and parents, they told me that in San Francisco, a dim sum shop sells an orange colored steamed bao bun--it's unfilled and orange from carrot juice. Mmmmm, how intriguing. I decided to try making this naturally orange-colored bao, and thought it would taste awesome if some curry beef were tucked inside these carrot buns.
I basically used the same recipe that I did for this purple sweet potato bao bun, except I swapped out the sweet potatoes with steamed pureed carrots and amped-up the color with a bit of turmeric. Just make sure you drain the collected water in the carrots after steaming or your dough might be too wet. I made this a couple of times already. One time I used grated carrots without steaming and the texture of the dough was a bit drier. I suppose you can also grate the carrots and then steam and drain them before adding to the flour to skip the food processor step while still keeping the dough moist, but I haven't tried that yet.
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| Steam carrots |
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| Puree in food processor |
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| Add all ingredients to bread maker |
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| Use the dough setting to do the mixing, kneading and rising for you. |
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| Cooked beef curry filling |
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| Divide dough into 12 pieces. Flatten each piece and add a heaping spoonful of filling onto the center of each dough. Pinch close. Place seam side down onto cupcake liners. |
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| Let them rest for 15 min |
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| Steam for 10-12 minutes |
After steaming, the yellow orange intensifies a bit and is beautifully appetizing.
Admittedly, my bao filling and shaping skills need improvement; but despite the "rustic" looks, these were quite delicious with the carrot turmeric bun complementing the curried filling perfectly. Hope you give this recipe a try!
Note added Nov 2020: These are also freezer friendly. After steaming, cool them down. Place in a zip lock bag in a single layer (5 or 6 fit in a gallon ziplock bag), and remove out as much air as possible before placing in the freezer. They will be good in the freezer for up to 3 weeks. Any longer and you will start seeing freezer burns on the buns, unless you were able to vacuum seal your bag.
To reheat, you can thaw them out in the fridge a day before, and then microwave each bun under a moist paper towel for 1 to 1.5 minutes until warmed through. Or you can re-steam them for 10 minutes directly from the freezer.
Yields 12 buns
Ingredients for dough:
- 3/4 c pureed steamed carrots (about 3 to 4 carrots or 1 c raw diced carrots)
- 2 c plus 2 T bread flour or all-purpose flour
- 1 T sugar
- 1 t yeast
- 2/3 c water
- 1 T olive oil
- ¼ t baking soda
- ¼ t salt
- ½ t turmeric
Ingredients for filling:
- ½ lb 85% lean ground beef
- ½ t salt
- ½ t sugar
- ½ t garlic powder
- 4 T yellow curry powder
- ¼ c dried chopped onions
- ½ c water
- 2 T cornstarch
Procedures:
1. Peel carrots, and dice them. Steam diced carrots for 20 minutes. Drain off any water that has accumulated during steaming. Allow to cool, and puree in a food processor.
2. If you have a bread maker, add all the dough ingredients to the bread maker and set it to the dough setting so that the bread maker will mix, knead, and rise the dough for you. If you don’t have a bread maker, then mix all the dough ingredients together in a bowl until combined. Then knead the dough for 15 minutes until smooth. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and allow it to rise for 45 minutes, or until approximately double in size.
3. While the dough is rising, make the filling by browning the ground beef in a skillet with the salt, sugar, powdered garlic, and curry powder. When the beef is cooked through, add the chopped onions. Then make a slurry with the water and cornstarch and pour it into the beef mixture and stir until thickened. (Taste the mixture to make sure the salt and curry level is to your satisfaction. If you want more curry powder or salt, go ahead and add it at this point.) Turn off the heat and set aside until the dough is ready.
4. After the dough is done rising, place the dough on a lightly floured surface and divide the dough into 12 equal pieces.
5. Flatten each piece of dough and place a heaping tablespoon of filling in the middle. Pinch the bun closed, and round it out with the palm of your hands. Place the seam side down onto a cupcake liner. Repeat until all 12 pieces of dough are used up.
6. Cover the filled buns with a clean cloth and allow them to rest for 15 minutes.
7. Steam the buns for 12 minutes on medium heat. When the 12 minutes are up, turn off the heat and remove the steamer lid, being careful not to let any water drip onto the buns. Allow the buns to set for 3 minutes in the steamer, then remove from the steamer and enjoy hot or at room temperature. You can also freeze these and steam them to warm up.