pan fried beef buns 生煎牛肉包 - part 1

This is another Shanghainese delight from childhood memory that I have been craving. It is pan fried beef buns 生煎牛肉包. The only thing that I bought to make these was a large pack of extra lean ground beef from Costco. All other ingredients are from the freezer, fridge, and my pantry.

I seldom buy ready ground beef. I prefer to grind the meat myself, or better yet, hand chop them or even cut them depends on the intended dish. This time I made an exception mainly due to the forecasted impending deep freeze here in the Pacific Northwest. This ground beef is lean and the price is right. I would prefer if they are not so finely ground though.

I used about 1 lb of meat from this giant pack for this batch of filling

I have limited scallion in the refrigerator. Rather than using them I went to my yard and pull a few spring onions.

I bought this package of Chinese preserved radish 甜菜脯 over a year ago and it has been sitting in the pantry since until today. I had not cooked with nor eaten Chinese preserved radish 甜菜脯 since I moved to the west.

these Chinese preserved radish (tim choy po) 甜菜脯 is needed to make this authentic pan fried beef buns

this is what the preserved radish (daikon) 甜菜脯 looks like; it is salted (to dehydrate) and then seasoned with sugar; they are highly dehydrated and hence the concentrated flavors

the kind of preserved radish (tim choy po) 甜菜脯 you want is salted and with sugar added; never buy the ones that had saccharine rather than sugar; saccharine is toxic non-food crap

I added some mashed potato to the filling to bulk it up

some Chinese celery for the filling in addition to chopped spring onions; the yellow leaves are still edible

I also added some pork fat to the very lean minced beef; you never want to use hamburger beef that has a lot of beef fat

Ingredients for the beef filling (most are conceived in my head and recreated by taste):

• lean minced beef
• finely diced pork fat
• egg white
• mashed potato
• chopped spring onion
• chopped Chinese celery
• black pepper
• Sichuan pepper powder (I ground the Sichuan pepper corns with a whirring blade coffee grinder)
• Chinese five spice
• garlic powder
• salt
• Chinese preserved radish (sweet kind) 
• Shaoxing 紹興 cooking wine (hua diao jiu 花雕酒) 
• grated ginger

I went and checked how much 12% fat ground beef I used. There is only about one pound of beef here.

 add a some pretty white sesame seeds

this is the test bun that I made to check seasoning and taste

the filling is nice and moist, and the seasoning is just about right though it can use a bit more preserved radish

I added a bit more of the preserved radish 甜菜脯

most of the frying is done with the lid on so the steam will cook the thick bun especially the filling

I flip the nice side up to check that it is browned just right

it is so pretty that is such a shame to bite into it; this is the second one I made

the additional bits of preserved radish makes all the difference; you can see the preserved radish 甜菜脯 bits

I can say that I succeeded in recreated this Shanghai delight from childhood memory. What stood out for me about these buns is the sweet and salty preserved radish 甜菜脯  in the beef filling. I made mine with very thin skin to lessen the intake of refined starch. This is another honest to mother nature made from scratch slow food.

here are two; obviously I can't quit my day job to make a living on selling these delicious delights yet as they are not uniform in size

The genius of these pan fried buns is it is all done in a pan, and the result is buns that taste like they were baked in an oven. I did a google image search on "生煎牛肉包" to compare mine against other people's and I can say I am very pleased with mine.

after some tweaking this is what the filling looks like

these are so delicious that I would be so impressed if I came across them in the street of Shanghai; you can see how small I make mine

the filling is moist and full of umami and very complex in textures as well as flavors

While it may seems like a lot of work to make these Shanghai delights at home, there is lasting rewards. The filling keeps very well in the refrigerator, and may be in a freezer too. I would have these tasty snacks for days to come. Just need to make small batches of dough.

here are a few I made for breakfast - buns wrapped and ready to dip into sesame seeds

if the dough is too dry I wet the top with water using a finger so the sesame seeds stick

the bottoms are fried first followed with adding water and close the lid to steam the whole bun; lastly is to flip them over to brown the top side to perfection

they are succulent without the need for the gelatin like I did with xiao long bao

The purpose made steel pan that a street vendor or restaurant would use to make these is made of mild steel and can hold a lot of these buns. The lid is made of wood. I watched the chef in fascination making these as a child. He would turn the pan constantly so the buns get evenly browned.

this is actually a very small diameter pan but you get the idea

somewhat related to these pan fried beef buns 生煎牛肉包 is these roasted meat pie like buns that is fried and roasted in a vertical charcoal oven that resembles a tandoori oven; the proficiency of the vendor is a delight to observe and I bet they are delicious though your cardiologist might not approve



To find out more about preserved radish 甜菜脯 here is a great blog post the poster has home made preserved radish 甜菜脯.

I remember I loved snack on a black color preserved radish 黑菜脯 being a kid. It was delicious and were sold in Chinese condiment stores. I had no idea how one supposed to cook it. Our parents would diced some up and add to a bowl of plain congee. The only time that I found this black preserved radish 黑菜脯 was in a well stocked condiment store in Beijing a few years ago. I didn't realize they are now amongst the most pricy Chinese preserved food.

I do remember these black preserved radish 黑菜脯 tasted like no other preserved vegetable. They had the most complex flavors and rich in umami.

Some are aged for thirty years or more. According to this video 20-year costs $100 USD and 30-year costs $200 USD a pound. They are called black gold 黑金. It gives the true meaning of turning the humble daikon and salt into gold, as well as investment that grows in value with time.



I had always assumed the black color of the  black preserved radish 黑菜脯 came from being preserved in dark soy sauce. It is not. The process of making these aged  black preserved radish 黑菜脯 involve salting the daikon, but the most interesting part is, they are taken out to dry in the winter sun. Evidently the oxidation during this drying process turn them dark brown, and later black. With 100 pounds of daikon, the end result is just 7 pounds of  black preserved radish 黑菜脯. Fascinating!



And lastly here is a long-winded video from a Taiwan TV station on the making of these black gold. The lady learnt the techniques from her mother. In a later iteration, she started with 100 catties of daikon and ended up with just 12 catties of the black preserved radish 黑菜脯.