Friday Staff Meal!

Friday being the day we usually do staff meal, I decided that I wanted to make steamed buns. Two days ago Ben and I were in NYC for the ICC event (International Chefs Congress). One of our stops to eat was at Momofuku Saam bar and you can't go there without eating their steam buns. Today I wanted the rest of the team to be able to try them. Huy (our developer based in LA) and Riley help me put together this meal for the team.

Momofuku steamed buns

Active dry yeast - 12.5g

Water (just above room temp) - 340g

Bread flour - 720g

Sugar - 60g

Non-fat dry milk powder - 15g

Salt - 8.6g

Baking powder - 3.5g

Baking soda - 3.5g

Pork fat - 70g

1. Combine yeast and water in a stand mixer bowl.

2. Sift flour and combine all dry ingredients, then add to the mixing bowl.

3. With a dough hook on the lowest speed start mixing and slowly add the pork fat. If you don't have pork fat just add oil or any other animal fat.

4. Continue mixing on the lowest speed for 8 minutes.

5. Wrap the bowl and proof until double in size. (about 1 hour)

6. Punch dough down and transfer to a working station. Portion the dough into 25 g pieces. Cover and allow the dough to proof again for 30 minutes.

7. Using a rolling pin (or simply your hands) roll the dough into a oval that is 5x4".

8. Lightly grease the the middle of the bun with oil (to prevent sticking), place the bun closed on greased parchment paper, cover and let proof for 15-20 minutes.

9. Steam over boiling water for 3-4 minutes.

10. Enjoy!

- For more information on this recipe see David Chang and Peter Meehan's book, Momofuku or post your questions here and I will answer them.

Huy's "Nuoc cham" sauce

Lime juice - 160 g

Sugar - 160 g

Water - 160 g

Fish sauce (three crab) - 160 g

Sambal - 110 g

- Combine and drench everything with it.

Duck eggs

Cook at 64 °C for 90 minutes

Picked Veggies (for the crunch factor)

Compressed Persian cucumbers and carrot in ChefSteps pickling brine used in this recipe.

http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/pickled-onions

Vietnamese caramelized pork belly "Thit Kho"

Shallots, minced - 85 g

Garlic, minced - 33 g

Pork belly - 1500 g

Coconut water - 510 g

Fish sauce - 85 g

Black pepper, coursed ground - 2 g

Scallion - a/n

1. Slice slab of pork belly in half and sear all side in a pressure cooker with cooking oil.

2. Once caramelized, remove the belly and add shallot and garlic and sweat.

3. Add the coconut water and scrape the bottom of the pot to deglaze.

4. Add pork belly back to the pressure cooker and cook at 2 bar (30 psi) for 90 minutes.

5. Once the pressure cooker has depressurized, open and remove the pork belly and reduce the liquid by half.

6. Slice the pork belly into 1-2" cubes and add back to the sauce once reduced.

7. Season with black pepper and add scallion to garnish.

8. Serve with rice.

Optional: Once the pork belly is sliced into cubes, toss in cornstarch and deep fry at 400 °F until golden brown and crispy. This will add more texture to the pork and will thicken the sauce even more when combined.

Other things we serve with were, deep-fried chicken hearts, brown miso-mayo, kimchi, gochujang.

Deep-fried chicken hearts with pickled garlic, onions, scallions and Nuoc cham.

Huys bowl!

The vultures

Duck breast cooked at 60 °C for 60 minutes then Huy pan seared the skin to crispin is up. Then it was thinly sliced and served in the buns.

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into our day here at Chefsteps and make your own steamed buns soon!

- Nick

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Comments

A_L_Esterling_35269

How did I miss this? It looks so amazing! Kudos Nick, Riley, and Huy!

Patrik_Racz_19800

awesome dude, what is the frying temperate for the chicken hearts and for how long?

Nicholas_Gavin_68199

I believe it was around 425 °F for 1 minute.

Nicholas_Gavin_68199

If you coat them with cornstarch before they will take about 1:30-2 minutes to develop a golden brown color.

merridith

Sound yummy. I was just at the noodle bar last week and had the pork buns. I love this kind of thing. What pressure cooker goes to 2 bar? Normal ones that we have at home, at best, go to 1 bar (15 psi). Am I missing something or is some kind of industrial thing that you use?

Nicholas_Gavin_68199

I was using a 6 qt Kuhn Rikon. If your pressure cooker only goes to 1 bar it will work just fine. It may take 30 or 40 extra minutes.

http://www.amazon.com/Kuhn-Rikon-Stainless-Steel-Pressure-Cooker/dp/B00009A9XU/ref=sr_1_1?s=kitchen&srs=2595054011&ie=UTF8&qid=1414812508&sr=1-1&keywords=kuhn+rikon

michaelnatkin

It. Was. So. Good. I came back from basketball and pounded all that good green curry king oyster mushrooms and put some on the buns and stuff. Damn.

Tim_Salazar_36007

So good, guys. Rice, eggs, meat are my comfort food, next time I make longsilog. Thanks for the grub.

Glen_Hong_74840

Hi - What does the Non-fat dry milk powder do? Have the rest of the ingredients and will make it without it and I was going to substitute a little water with the milk. However, I was curious to know what the milk powder was in there for?

tshewman

It's breakfast here, ya'll should deliver. ;-) looks fantastic! Thanks for sharing more than just the pictures!!

Brandon_Byrd_40557

I was confused by this as well. The Kuhn Rikons have a maximum pressure of 1.2 bar before they vent. It's confusing because they use horizontal "bars" on their pressure gauge. The first bar corresponds to 5.8psi and the second with 11.6 psi. If you go full bore and the valve starts to vent, you've gone up to 17.4 psi. It sounds like you're probably cooking at around 15psi (or full pressure on most non-electric home pressure cookers).

borgech

I didn't see green curry oyster mushrooms in the post, but did they make this? Sounds like something I would really like. Can you elaborate?

Jack_Mayer_85396

OMG, that looks amazing! Thanks for sharing the pictures and the methods!

DutchessPDX_22733

Love these buns! I usually do some sous vide pork belly and a little sriratcha mayo.

Brendan_Lee_56950

I think by bars they mean until the spring shows the second bar on the cooker and not referring to psi

michaelnatkin

We'll have to ask Nick; I know he deep fried the mushrooms and then added them to the sauce, but I don't know anything about how he made the sauce.

suchon.adam

Hi, how do you cook large quantities of basmati rice? I'm pretty much using Gordon Ramsay's method (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf75I9LKhvg ) and in small quantities it produces some very good, consistent results. But I was wandering how to cook rice for let's say 80 people. Would it be better put it in the oven, or would it work on the stove given I have a really big pot? In the oven what temp is ideal Covered/uncovered or just covered with cartouche? Hmm so many questions and so many answers, this could make a class of it's own!

Marco_91709

I see even your forum is awesome

Mike_Bartlett_95656

Most people would just use a really large rice cooker, there are industrial sized ones that are available almost anywhere. That way it'll cook the rice to what you want and keep it warm as well for service.

rand_128408

Can I freeze the dough and then steam them as needed?

brandonchen.cki

the momofuko recipes says the already steamed buns can be frozen indefinitely then resteamed for 2-3 min. not sure about the dough though

Almira_353917

I was wondering the same thing.

Tin_609873

Love Vietnamese food !!!

Kathi_McCarron_368719

me too about the powdered milk. is there a cookbook reference? I would like to make more yeast breads with powdered milk

thank you.