I love to visit Japan.
When I am there, everything is an adventure. Communicating, navigating an unfamiliar environment,
experiencing a new culture and especially tasting new and delicious foods are
great fun for me. The first time I
visited Japan, my mother-in-law worried about what Japanese food I would enjoy
eating. She went to the store and
brought back a little box filled with nikuman. You may have seen them if you have ever visited a dim sum
restaurant. They are steamed buns
usually filled with meat, sweet beans or custard. Variations of them are found all over Asia. Needless to say, I fell in love with
the taste of the little buns and they are a treat I search out on all of my
visits to Japan.
Nikuman are a little hard to find in the U.S. Therefore, over the years I have always
been keeping an eye out for a place to purchase them. Many years ago, I experimented with recipes to make
nikuman. However, making them
seemed to take more time than I had to spend in the kitchen. Since I have been associated with Shelf
Reliance Thrive Foods, I have been experimenting and have found a delicious and
time saving method to make them out of my food storage ingredients. They are versatile and can be filled with
sweet or savory fillings. They are great for lunch or a quick snack. Try packing them in a lunchbox. Make up a batch and freeze the
leftovers for use in the future.
The following recipes using food storage ingredients make it possible to
cut the preparation time by a significant amount without taking away from the
taste.
First, I will give the recipe for the bread part of the
Nikuman. I adapted this recipe
from one given for Nikuman (Baozi) taken from http://norecipes.com. All of the ingredients with the exception
of cake flour are normally found in most pantries. All-purpose flour can be used but the result is a little bit
heavier bread.
Nikuman or Steamed Buns
Ingredients
18 oz. cake flour
(all purpose is ok but finished product is heavier, also use a little
less)
3.5 oz sugar
2 tsp. yeast
1.5 tsp. baking powder
2 T. vegetable oil
1 C. water, luke warm
Instructions
- Mix sugar, yeast, oil and luke warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes until the mixture becomes bubbly or frothy. Add cake flour and baking powder, then turn on stand mixer. Mix for at least 5 minutes. Dough should pull away from the bowl and form a ball.
- Place ball of dough into a greased bowl and cover. Place in a warm place and let rise for 1 hour.
- Punch down the dough and roll it into a log. Cut the log into 16 even pieces and form each piece into a ball. Cover with a damp towel to keep them from drying out. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
- Roll out each piece of dough until it is thin and round. Spoon about 2 T. filling onto the center of the dough. Pleat the edges together, bringing them together to close the opening. Squeeze the dough together closing the hole in the bun. Place bun on 3” x 3” piece of parchment or waxed paper.
- Steam in steamer for 10 minutes. Let cool slightly and serve.
Now for the fillings, the first is savory and the second for
your sweet tooth.
Chicken Filling for
Steamed Buns
Note: This Filling also makes wonderful
lettuce wraps.
Ingredients
1 T. oil
1 ½ C. freeze-dried chopped chicken
2/3 C freeze-dried mushrooms, rehydrated and minced
3 T. freeze-dried onion, rehydrated
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 C. water chestnuts, minced
1 C. water chestnuts, minced
4 T. soy sauce
4 T. brown sugar
1 tsp. rice wine vinegar
3 tsp. water
1 tsp. cornstarch
Instructions
- Rehydrate chicken, mushrooms and onions in water for 10 minutes and drain well.
- Add oil to frying pan and stir-fry chicken, mushrooms, onions and garlic until warmed through.
- Mix soy sauce, brown sugar, rice wine vinegar, water and cornstarch toge3ther and add to chicken mixture in the frying pan. Heat until sauce thickens.
Pastry Cream From Food
Storage
This may not be quite as rich as regular pastry cream, but
it is delicious, quick and easy.
4 T. instant milk powder
2 C. water
¼ C. white sugar
2 T. whole egg powder
4 T. water
¼ C. cornstarch
1/3 C. sugar
2 T. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
- In a heavy saucepan, stir together the instant milk powder, C. water and ¼ C. sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
- In a medium bowl, mix together whole egg powder, remaining 1/3 C. sugar and cornstarch. Wisk in 4 T. water until all are mixed well.
- When the milk mixture comes to a boil, slowly drizzle small spoonfuls into the egg mixture while whisking. Be sure to whisk constantly to prevent the egg from curdling and be careful not to scorch the milk mixture. Do this until about half of the milk mixture has been whisked into the egg mixture.
- Then, while whisking, return all of the egg and milk mixture back into the saucepan and slowly bring back to a boil. Mixture will thicken. Remove from the heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Mix well. Pour mixture into a heatproof container and cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming on the to p of the mixture. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Give these recipes a try. I am sure your family will enjoy them. You may already have all of the
ingredients in you food storage pantry.
If not, these ingredients are great to have on hand. They are convenient, versatile and make
preparation fast and easy. They
also have a long shelf life. All
of these ingredients and many more can be purchased through my Shelf Reliance
website. Just click the link below
to go directly to my website where you can purchase a wide variety of Shelf
Reliance Products that will be shipped directly to you.
