Taste Buds: Bao Bao Buns and Dumpling Soup

I feel like I should wear this as a necklace. Okay, um, what are we making first? You ready for it, Taste Buds? Let's go. Taste Buds, I am here at the Kingfield Farmer's Market. I've already gotten some flowers, but I'm here today specifically to find my friend Ed from Bao Bao Buns. He makes the most delicious bao. It is a dumpling that has pork inside, and you put a little bit of chili crisp on that, and it is amazing. amazing also if you've never been with me to a farmer's market i talk to everyone i touch everything i love a farmer's market i mean i want to buy salmon just to support your cute family oh you do this with your dad i love your salmon it's delicious hi give me a high five all right i like your little cabbages this whole concept is amazing i make sandwich breads and cinnamon breads and the the marketing is really good too. Okay, taste buds, when you go to a farmer's market, you want to take all the samples you can because how are you going to know if you're going to love this peach mustard unless you try a sample? So good. Yum. I'm very excited about this bag. I did not know I was going to come to the farmer's market today and buy a sourdough bag, but I'm so glad I did. Okay, my bag is getting full. I bought a million things, thought I was just going to be getting Bao Buns. I am here with Ed and he is from Bao Bao Buns and we are going to film with you in your commissary kitchen but we wanted to see you out in the wild. So will you make me one of your delicious pork buns? Okay. I'm being warned about the level of heat that's going to be coming off of this. You guys can probably see the smoke. It's kind of like pocket. You need to wait a minute. So good. Stephanie's dancing. It's juicy. It's spicy in a like not too spicy way. It's delicious. I've got a customer for you. You found me standing in line. You are a tastebud. Yes. How long have you been a tastebud? Four years. Four years? Yeah. So you're an original bud. Yes. I love your show. Thank you. Yes. You're going to get the delicious bao buns that Ed's going to make for you. They're so good. Oh, yeah. We're going to meet you in your kitchen. Meanwhile, back at Kingfield Farmer's Market. So good. Tastebuds. We're here with Ed Zhang from Bao Bao Buns. met him at the farmers market but here is where the Bao Bao Buns mastery happens right can we talk about the difference between like a bao bun a soup bun yeah is it a dumpling is it a bun how are they different they're basically the same kind of concept right the same as dumplings but then there are some differences bao buns are yeasted and then they do leaven up so when you're eating and biting into it they do look fluffier yeah and they are bigger than because of that. Yup, they're bigger because of that. So how did you learn how to make bao buns? Growing up my mom had her own company and then bao buns was one of those things that's always in the freezer just in case mom gets busy and then you know I just take it out. Working moms, yeah. I can warm it up and then that's really easy to eat. My grandma taught me how to make it, my mom taught me how to make it, well not so much, my mom doesn't cook that much, but my grandma taught me how to make it and then ever since then we're just like all right this is a comfort food you know everybody have their comfort food but yeah so are we gonna make a crazy one today or traditional we're just gonna pick out some some ingredients and you can choose what you want to use those are some asian zucchinis they're so cute i know right some jalapenos i don't know what your spice tolerance is good yeah we got some asian eggplants ginger mushroom i do have some scallions here i I really love these Japanese eggplants. Okay, this looks good. Yeah, we have a napa cabbage and we got some green onions. So now we're gonna, you know, you pick out what you want to use. No, I don't know. I have no idea. You pick out what you want to use. Can we use it all or is it too much? No, we can use it all. Can we talk about your knife sheath? I feel like it's very Lord of the Rings. It is. Like you could have it in your waistband. Are you ready? Yep. It is a traditional Japanese steel carbon knife. So it is very brittle and then, you know, so like always a good practice. Yeah, because I have a Japanese knife and it has all these divots in it. Yeah. Because I'm not good with knives. Okay. Ed, you are assuming a lot about my skills. Well, you know, you do have a cookbook, so. I mean, cooking Midwest food, it's pretty easy. Okay, so we're just gonna get a little knob of ginger going. I always freeze my ginger too, just because it lasts longer and then I just grate it frozen. I think our best practice for any filling, doesn't matter if it's dumpling or baos or anything else, is you're trying to punch the maximum amount of flavor. Yes. So we're trying to make sure just everything is all diced and very like thinly sliced. Your knife skills are really beautiful. Oh, thank you. I'm jealous. I took a class even. They're a little better, and I think I just need to practice. So basically these are now julienned, and then we just want to flip them over and then chop them one more time so they're like in just little tiny chunks. Are you gonna peel your eggplant? So eggplant, you can peel it, or you can just leave it whole. And today I think I'm just gonna leave it as is. And the Japanese eggplants, the skins are so tender. It is very tender. Plus, once you put it in the steamer, you can barely taste it. What's the worst bun you've ever made? Something that just was like, did not work. Peanut butter and jelly? Peanut butter and jelly would actually be really, really good. It would actually work, I think. We've done some wacky ones. We've done a cinnamon bun bun. Okay, but that sounds like it could be good. Oh, it's good. But like, you know, it's just outside of the box and it's just kind of wacky. Yeah. The thing that is surprising me is how everything is the exact same size. I know you said that was important. Yeah. I don't know that I believed you until I'm seeing it now. Just the amount of prep and getting everything the same size. To get people the best bite, your focus is gonna be, I want everything in this one bite so people can experience what I want them to experience. Now we're just gonna have some jalapenos. Do we wanna try? You know, some are hot. Do we wanna try, see how spicy they are? Well, do you always do that? Because some aren't that hot and then others will burn your face off. You wanna share one with me? Yeah. That one's not hot. Yeah, like it's almost like green pepper not hot. Yeah. So load her up. Because the dough is doughier and there's more of it and it's yeasted, it's probably harder to transfer flavor because you gotta get past the receptacle of the dough. Right, so that's why I think it's very important to make sure the flavor really does punch through. So that means maybe a little bit more soy sauce, maybe a little bit more salt, more things like sesame oil. You do have to keep everything into consideration. Do we want a little cabbage in there? Yeah, a little Napa cabbage. I like to peel the leaves off. Then I can just use individual leaves versus cutting into it. If you don't use the whole head, it can stay fresh longer. Normally I chop up the bottom because it's tougher. It's just not as sweet flavor-wise. I think we got all our vegetables. Okay, now I was looking at your roller here. So this is actually a bao maker. I think I'm making anywhere between 1,200 to like 1,800 baos at a time. Holy cannoli! It gets- Or bao! Yeah, it gets- Baby, bao! Holy baos, right? Oh, bao! I guess a lot to just yeah make everything by hand. So this guy, when it does get busy, comes in handy. Here's the best part. We get to mix everything together. Today I got some pork over here and we want to season them very heavily. This is a Chinese cooking wine. This is going to make sure that very porky taste gets diluted a little bit. You can smell there's a little alcohol. Yeah, it's kind of more like a sherry. It's a little sweet. And then goes in with some soy sauce. Okay, I love soy sauce. And sesame oil. We also want to add some salt in there, right? Because your soy sauce and everything is only to improve the seasoning and it's not really giving it that much saltiness. So what I like to do is I add them after I add liquid in there. So when I mix them, it's easier for the salt to be spread evenly. All these little chef-y tricks that you learn. Now we're just gonna dump all of those in there. Okay, our jalapeno. Can I dump with you? Absolutely. Cabbage and our ginger was in there too, right? You know what I forgot? What? Scallion. I forgot scallion. Yes, you guys, this smells so gingery and fresh. I can smell the toasted sesame oil. It is time to mix. All right. Is there like a strategy? No, I think it's just kind of like playdough. Are we mushing and stirring? We can mush. Our goal is to just make sure everything's all evenly seasoned. Oh, my gosh. It smells so good. Have you made anything with this combination before? I have not. Because I feel like we are on to something. Now we're just going to have to come up with a wacky name for it. Our pork one is called swine and dine. Our beef one is called Shia La beef. You know, one day. Shia La beef is hilarious. One day I made a biscuits and gravy one and named it Fifty Shades of Gravy. Oh, that's cute. What could mine be? The Scandinavian Slammer? All right, let's go. The delightful Danish dough ball. Okay, I think I got it. It's like meatloaf. This is where it's going to get real crazy, I have a feeling. 15 pounds of buttery love. Okay, this is where it's gonna get real crazy, I have a feeling. 15 pounds of buttery love. So we're just gonna dust our bench. For our bao buns, it's a six to four ratio, so we do 60 grams of dough, and then we try to fill 40 grams of filling on the inside. You're just gonna pinch a little, and try to get it to 60. Too much. Yep. Hey, look at that! Oh, 61! Hey, that's a winning shot. Grab the dough. Do you make pizza at home from scratch? Sometimes. like you fold and then make pizza dough uh-huh basically the same thing so what we're gonna do is we're just gonna flatten this down let's imagine there's four corners on this disc which that's totally how geometry works right then we're just gonna fold everything together I got so overwhelmed when you said geometry because I failed twice I took it two years in a row Ed and what we're gonna do is we're just gonna use one hand and then grab and pinch a bottom together and you look at the bottom they're kind of pinched together and then we're just gonna roll them and it should be sticking together right but if it's opening up it's a technique problem also I might have dusted too much for a bench because if the dough is too wet you're gonna have issue of closing it and then what we're gonna do is we're gonna flatten this into a disc again grab a rolling pin okay so the way to roll baos is a little different because you want think about like when we are steaming the baos right if the middle part is too thin then all the filling is gonna fall out okay so what What we're going to do is we're going to make sure the middle has a little bit more density to it. Like a thickness. Yeah. Okay. So when you're rolling it, the technique is you start in the middle and you gradually increase your pressure when you're rolling out. Got it. So we're going to have what I call a sunny side up egg sort of deal in the middle, right? This is like, what, about four, five inches or so. For anybody that's learning how to make baozi, I like to roll out as much as you can. So that way it's... Give us some room for pinching air. It's easier to pinch and close. Yeah, so now here's a sunny-side up egg. There's so much to this. You would be doing this for, like, hours. Yeah. We're in the old kitchen. There's been a couple times I stayed there for 24 hours straight. Oh. Okay, why does mine look like an egg that's not fully... Oh, that's okay. And yours is... Like, I got a little SpongeBob SquarePants over here. Mine's a two-hander. Yours looks like an egg that has a ring around it that you get at a fancy restaurant. Mine looks like grandma's cracked it on the skillet. Now what we're gonna do is we're gonna just grab a generous amount of filling. Like I would say two tablespoons kind of is what that looks like. We're just gonna try to make sure it stays in a ball in the middle. Use your thumb and just push up a little bit and then we're just gonna pinch and grab them together. And then what I normally like to do is pull up a little bit and then use your middle finger kind of just and then switch between middle and then, you know, your index finger. kind of do this little moonwalk thing, right? So it's just like Michael Jackson is now walking all the way along. And then now, once you get everything in the middle, you kind of just pinch it together and then do a little twist. It looks really pretty. And then there's the bow. You did it all in one hand. Sometimes even using two hands can help. Yeah, I'm a two-hander. I'm doing the Michael Jackson moonwalk. And also I'm using my thumb sometimes to push the filling down a little bit. Okay, it's like, hey man, we're getting out of here. It's like my hair sometimes if I don't. Oh, you guys, this is so hideous. Gonna be great. Now spin it. Grab the little loose ends together, do a little twisty twist. It's ripping. You don't have to go that hard. Yeah, maybe not go that hard. You didn't have to man the handle in seventy. I'm a Viking. That is my nature. Everything is a little Helga-like. It's true. No gentle touch here. Basically, now we're just gonna put them in the steamer and then steam them. So this is a pretty common steamer. It's a lot bigger than the ones you would have at home. A lot bigger. And how long did they take to steam? So from this state, it takes about 15, 16 minutes. There is a silicone mat I put in here so that way it does not stick to the bottom. Can I just point out like that one has a little hole. Ideally you don't want to have that hole. I'm sure it was mine. They both look great. 15 minutes. All right. The moment we've all been waiting for. The bao buns have arrived, steamed and ready to eat. Some curly green onions. Yes, the curly ones are pretty. and you eat with your eyes. The most important part. It's all about chili oil. He makes his own chili oil. I do, I do. Because we have like a little ramekin, is there etiquette? Do you dip? Do you pull? Do you hunger? I think, you know, going back to our Vikings talk and this is the time to just grab and just get dirty with it. And do you know which one is yours and which one is mine? Cause I can already tell. Mine's already popped open. Take a bite and then really dig your teeth into it and then I get some chili oil and then just douse it on top of it. So one bite first. Yep. That's chili oil free. Yep. That you really get the taste. Yep. Mm. You know how I know this is mine? I'm laughing so hard. That was a big bite, but I had no filling because I didn't put enough filling in my bun. Awesome. Ah! A little hot. Juicy. Yum. Juicy. Yum. Delicious. I kind of dribbled on my face. I do this all the time. And also, I burn my mouth all the time because I'm impatient. Oh yeah, because they're hot. You know, the chili oil's really not as spicy. It is juicy. I'm ruining the kitchen. Oh, that sauce. We did a really good job on the filling. We did, it tastes really good. Porky, a little spicy. The chili oil has so much umami flavor, like you can tell it's a mushroomy, meaty, hot, but not too hot. You know, the idea is to make something that goes well on everything and doesn't overpower as chili oil, being so spicy. I love the dough, and it has a delicious ginger flavor of the pork. Yeah, all the juice gets soaked in there while it's steaming. I mean, I'm sorry for those of you watching this on TV. It's probably kind of gross, but it's very delicious. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mm. So Ed, I am leaving you to go home and make something with your frozen buns. I'm gonna steam them, but I'm gonna try to do something that maybe is just a little bit different for the at-home viewer. because I know I can never make buns as good as you. All right, we'll see you soon. All right, taste buds, we're back from Bao Bao Buns, and I'm going to make a bao bun dumpling soup for you today. You can always just microwave your bao buns and eat them. They're delicious. But I like to do a little something different at home just to show you how versatile some of these foods are. So we're gonna start by making a delicious broth, and then we're gonna steam the buns in the broth. Are you ready? We're gonna put some sesame oil in our pan, And we're just going to microplane some ginger. I don't even peel it. You can eat the outside and I just don't bother. It just takes longer. So there's our ginger. I've got garlic already microplaned. I have about a teaspoon. If you're feeling real garlicky, you could add another clove. And we're just gonna fry these up a little bit. From there, I'm gonna add two cups of chicken broth. This is a really nice rich broth. You can make your own or you can use canned. I'm also gonna add some soy sauce to this. I have about two tablespoons. Just give it that nice richness and a little bit of salt. And I'm gonna add some chili crisps. Now there's lots of different kinds of chili crisps. I happen to have the chili crisps that they make at Bao Bao Buns. A little bit here just to flavor our broth. All right, so we've got our delicious broth heating. Let us see how delicious our bao buns look. Okay, they are frozen. So we're just gonna set them right inside our pan. So cute. And you know, there is so much delicious goodness in there because we watched them make them. 12 minutes and we are gonna have an awesome bao bao bun soup. That was super easy. And just one more way that you can eat your buns. Okay, taste buds. I know this is gonna be magical and steamy because I can hear it bubbling away in there. Oh yeah, look at that. Nice. It just looks so delicious, smells so fragrant. Whoa, look at that. Okay, friend, I'm also just gonna give a little broth so I can taste, make sure I have enough seasoning in there. Okay, how you doing, bao bao bun? All right, put a little bit more of our chili oil on there. I like to do oil in the broth and then crisp kind of on the top. Some chili oil is really hot, other is just kind of sweet and crunchy. You just gotta kind of keep tasting until you find the one that you like. Ooh, we'll make sure our buns are done. Mm, yum. What happens, it's a little bit different when you put them in the soup, is the broth is being absorbed by the dough of the bun. It's just like a sponge that's soaking up all that delicious broth. And then you've got the pork and the lemongrass flavor of the inside. Plus then you've got the chili crisp on top. Ooh, this is a really good, savory, hearty, warming comforting bite yum okay taste buds it was so fun to see bao bao buns and how they made their buns in commercial kitchen theirs are frozen you can also find frozen buns at other retailers and you could even do this with frozen dumplings it would be equally delicious all right taste buds that's a wrap for us this week we'll see you next week in the meantime eat well