Bánh Bao: Vietnamese Steamed Pork Buns with Egg and Mushroom

A Breakfast Feast When You Lift the Lid of the Steamer

Picture a Vietnamese storefront where white buns are lifted from a metal warming case or a bamboo steamer. They are hot in the hand, and when you break one open, the aromas of pork, mushroom, egg and sweet Chinese sausage come out of the steam. Bánh bao is a quite dependable steamed dish that works for breakfast or a midday snack.

Bánh bao is a dish where Chinese bao culture and Vietnamese filling sensibility overlap. The standard fillings are ground pork, onion, shiitake, wood ear, quail egg and lạp xưởng (Chinese sausage). The shape is close to a Chinese-style pork bun, but the impression changes with its slightly sweet white dough, the presence of egg and the aroma of fish sauce.

What you hesitate over cooking abroad is how far to chase the authentic ingredients. Lap xuong, if you have it, brings it much closer to the local dish at once, but you can make it without forcing yourself to gather it at the start. What to protect are four things: a fluffy white dough, a pork filling that is not too wet, an egg in the center, and not opening the lid suddenly when the steaming is done.

Even among Vietnamese steamed foods, it goes in a different direction from the small-dish bánh bèo (in Japanese), eaten lightly. If bánh bèo is a small-dish dish of rice flour and nuoc cham, bánh bao is a bun that satisfies in one piece. It is strongest not as a dinner main but in the morning, at midday and at an afternoon snack.

The Local Character Shows in the Filling's Construction, Not the White Skin

The white skin of bánh bao is made from cake flour, bread flour, sugar, oil, yeast and baking powder. It is slightly sweeter than a fully Chinese bao, and the ideal is a lightness where it splits softly when steamed. Using a little milk makes it moist even in a home kitchen, and lets you prioritize ease of eating over whiteness.

Finishing the filling with pork alone moves it toward a Chinese-style pork bun. Adding shiitake, wood ear and onion finely, boosting savor with fish sauce and oyster sauce, and putting a quail egg in the center changes how it looks when cut. A small slice of lap xuong is enough. Once the sweet fat goes in, the whole meat filling comes closer to the aroma of a Vietnamese street stall.

The priority order for shopping to approach the local taste is the steaming equipment, fish sauce, wood ear, then lap xuong. A weak steamer makes the skin watery, and without fish sauce the aroma of the filling goes flat. Lap xuong is the final push, so if you can't find it, don't force yourself to make your own and concentrate on managing the filling's moisture.

Ingredients (Makes 8)

This makes eight bánh bao of 8 to 9 cm across. Two per person serves 4; as a breakfast or snack it serves 8. Because the filling is chilled before wrapping, allow about two and a half hours from the start of work to eating.

What's Worth Buying Extra

The meat, onion and eggs are fine from a nearby supermarket. What is worth seeking out is a bamboo steamer, fish sauce and a probe thermometer. Bánh bao is cooked by steam, not browned in oil, so the difference in equipment and fish sauce shows directly in the result.

A bamboo steamer has the advantage that water drops are less likely to fall, so the surface of the bun doesn't turn sticky. You can make it with a metal steamer, but wrap the lid in a cloth to deal with the drops.

Fish sauce goes into both the filling and the dipping sauce. The quantity is small, but it pulls the aroma of pork and mushroom toward Vietnam, so using a little fish sauce gives a clearer result than replacing it with light soy sauce alone.

With a recipe that wraps raw pork, judging doneness can be a little worrying. With a probe thermometer you can measure one bun without cutting it and confirm 75°C or higher.

Method: Let the Dough Rise, Wrap and Steam

Make the dough first, and make the filling while it proofs. The filling is easier to wrap cold, so after mixing the meat put it in the refrigerator. Once steaming starts, don't open the lid repeatedly, and finally turn off the heat and rest it, which is the trick to keeping it from deflating.

Replacing Ingredients You Hesitate Over in Your Own Kitchen

If you can't find lap xuong, think about how to make up the sweet aroma and the fat. Cutting 40 g bacon in strips and adding 2 g more sugar brings it in a similar direction. If you use a strongly smoked bacon it turns Western, so choose one with a mild saltiness. If you use roast pork (char siu), reduce the ground pork by 40 g so the total amount of filling doesn't increase.

Wood ear is an ingredient for texture. If you dislike it you can leave it out, but in that case add 20 g more rehydrated dried shiitake and reduce the onion by 20 g. Increasing watery vegetables loosens the juices while steaming and makes the bottom wet.

If you avoid dairy, replace the 170 ml milk with the same amount of lukewarm water. The dough becomes a little plainer and tends to firm up when cold, so add 5 ml more rice bran oil. It also works with soy milk, but the aroma of beans comes out, so the taste becomes a gentle home-style one rather than the white bun of a Vietnamese street stall.

If you have no bamboo steamer, set a rack in a deep pot and wrap the lid in a cloth. Tie the ends of the cloth up on top so they don't touch the flame, and arrange the buns apart from one another. Packed in a small pot, the swelling dough sticks together and tears when you pull it apart. If you can't fit all 8 at once, it looks better to do it in two batches of 4.

What Goes Wrong, Storage and Composing the Table

To store, steam them, let them cool completely and then wrap. Refrigerated airtight, 2 days; frozen, each wrapped in plastic wrap, 2 weeks. Frozen ones are not thawed; steam in a bamboo steamer or steamer over medium heat for 12 to 15 minutes. In a microwave, wrap in damp paper towels and heat at 600 W for 1 minute 20 seconds per bun, adding 20 seconds at a time if needed. The fluffiness of the skin is better with steaming again, however.

At the table, serving hot bánh bao with a nuoc cham-style sauce, cucumber, cilantro and mint cuts the heaviness. If you add a soup, a lighter soup suits breakfast better than a beef stew such as bò kho (in Japanese). If you add something fried, chả giò, and seen through the link of bread culture, bánh mì is also a close way in.

Its Place in Vietnamese Cooking

Within Vietnamese cooking, where rice noodles and rice-flour dishes stand out, bánh bao is a dish with a strong presence of wheat flour. Epicurious presents a Vietnamese version of Chinese bao that wraps a vegetable and pork filling and a hard-boiled egg. That is exactly what makes it an interesting breakfast choice, different from pho and bún.

Also made from flour, cơm lam (in Japanese) is a highland dish of sticky rice steam-roasted in bamboo, while bánh bao is a dish that is warm and portable at city storefronts and in homes. They share cooking by steam, but the occasions on which they are eaten are quite different.

To widen the range of wrapped and steamed dishes, comparing with Central Asia's manti makes it clear. Manti are steamed dumplings that enjoy a thin skin and meat juices, while bánh bao is a steamed bun that holds its filling in a fermented dough. Both are steamed dishes, but they differ in the thickness of the dough, the fermentation and the time of day they are eaten.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it still bánh bao without lap xuong?

Yes. But the sweet fatty aroma is lost, so adding 40 g bacon and 2 g sugar, or more dried shiitake to build the savor, reduces the sense that something is missing. Even if you omit lap xuong, include the quail egg to keep the look of bánh bao when cut.

How do I make the dough white?

The basics are to use more cake flour and to treat it as steamed food that takes no strong browning. Avoid dark sugar and whole-grain flour. There is also a method of adding a little vinegar to the steaming water, but at home, prioritizing steady steam and a resting method that keeps it from deflating gives a better texture than whiteness.

What is the most important caution when making it without a bamboo steamer?

The drops from the lid. If you use a metal pot lid as it is, drops fall on the skin and make the surface sticky. Wrap the lid in a cloth and tie the ends of the cloth up so they don't touch the flame. Also important is not packing the buns too tightly on the rack.

Can I cook the filling first?

You can, but the meat tends to harden and hold together less when wrapped. If you wrap a raw meat mixture, confirm a core temperature of 75°C or higher after steaming. If safety worries you, use a probe thermometer, and if pink remains, steam longer over medium heat.

For freezing, raw or steamed?

Freezing after steaming is steadier. Frozen raw, the dough over-ferments or releases water while thawing and the skin tends to turn rough. Steam, cool, wrap each one and freeze, then re-steam when eating.

Summary

Bánh bao looks like a dish about making a clean white skin, but the real crux is the moisture of the filling, the wrapping and steady steam. Mix pork and mushroom finely, put the egg in the center, and wrap it generously in fermented dough. Build strong steam, then steam over medium heat, and finally set the lid ajar and rest. Keep to this order, and even a home kitchen can approach the warmth of a Vietnamese breakfast.

For the first batch, rather than assembling lap xuong and wood ear perfectly, make sure the water drops on the steamer are handled and the filling is cooked through. Once that is steady, you can add the local character little by little: put in lap xuong, choose nuoc mam, make the dipping sauce spicy.

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