Chinese steamed bun, also know as “Man tou” or ‘Pau’ meaning ‘packet’

Man tou or steam bun is steeped with the Chinese cuisine since… oh I don’t know, the start of the Chinese food culture. Anyways, its history goes far and long and has been a main staple in Chinese cuisine, besides rice. ‘Pau’ is made of processed or bleached wheat and rice flour, water and leavening agents. At home, to achieve that soft, light and fluffy texture, milk is used in replace of water for the recipe. White mantou was consider a luxury in pre-industrial China, as bleach white flour was more expensive then.

Was missing the great taste of a freshly made Chinese steam bun, better know as ‘pau’, I decided to surfed online to find the best recipe. Here is one I tried, with a little variation to make the dough sweeter.

Pau Ingredients A

• 400 gm bleached all-purpose flour(remove 4 tbsp and replace with 4 tbsp of Wheat starch - tung mein fun)
• 240 ml water
• 1 ½ tsp instant yeast.

Pau Ingredients B

• 100 gm bleached all-purpose flour( remove 1 tbsp and replace with 1 tbsp of Wheat starch - tung mein fun)
• 50 gm sugar
• 10 gm butter or vegetable oil
• 1 ¼ tsp baking powder

FILLING:

• 600 gm pork
• 4 stalks of spring onion
• 15 gm young ginger
• 50 gm shallots(sliced and fried till golden)

Seasoning:

• 1 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 ½ tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp soya sauce
• 2 tsp sugar
• ½ tsp msg
• 100 cc stock

Method:

For pau:

• Mix ingredients A together.
• Knead until smooth and elastic.
• Let it rise for 40 mins
• Mix dough from method 1 with ingredients B. and knead until well blended.
• Cut into equal portions and roll all the portions into a very thin circle before wrapping in filling. Wrap the first circle and so forth.
• Let it rise for 20 minutes.
• Steam for 15 minutes.

For Filling:

• Chop pork till fine.
• Chop spring onions and ginger until fine.
• Mix ingredients for seasoning with pork.
• Use the cake mixer and with the paddle beat pork until elastic.
• Add in stock, spring onions and ginger.

Try it! Let me know how it goes and send me the pictures of it. Enjoy your home made pau!

Organic food stores are a great source to get ingredients that are gluten-free, chemical-free, or another other growth hormone-food-altering substance used. Great food quality but it comes with a higher price tag.

Have you ever wondered why there are so many cancers and allergies these days compared previously?
Say our parents and past generations? Have you ever wondered what we consume on a day to day basis, might be the catalyst of all these allergies, illness and diseases that come about? Especially cancer and other deficiency-types illnesses.

Even for those of us who generally live a healthy lifestyle by doing regular exercise and eating lots of fresh vegetables and fruit along with drinking lots of water we are still poisoning our bodies. This is because th fresh fruit and vegetables we buy from the grocer have been sprayed with toxic pesticides and chemicals and our water contains contaminants. Plus all the the processed foods that we eat, who knows what is really in them.

Because of lower scale of economies to produce that quality food, we the consumers usually settle for regular supermarket produce. But how nutritious is the produce at the supermarket? How much chemicals is sprayed to make that great red tomatoes look so fresh, blemish-free and plum? Of course there is a reason for these products being the way that they are and that is because we can buy out of season fruits, vegetables and meat produces and the shops can sell them at cheaper prices.
We can keep other products on the shelf for much longer periods. In all it is more convenient.
But at what price? Whilst we may be saving some money we are not saving on any health benefits. We maybe getting sicker, accumulating all that toxic pesticides and oxidants.

The best solution is to grow your own vegetables. Not only will you be preventing pesticides and chemicals from entering your system but you will find that you will be eating fruit and vegetables that are higher in vitamins and minerals.

But ff course, for most of us, land, time and resources are limited and growing our own vegetables, hence is not a feasible solution.

It is no wonder that organic foods are gaining popularity. But as food prices goes up, its is often a choice the more affluent make, or is it?

So what is your take on Organic foods?

Some people insist of consuming only organic food produce.
Most say its too expensive… what is your view point on it?

To go Organic, sometimes? whenever you can afford it? Never? or All the time? Comments please!

Instead of plain rice, how about this simple fried rice served with other meats and vegetables dishes?

A classic dish, fried rice is believed to have originated in the city of Yangzhou, a province in China. Made with barbecued pork, shrimp and spring onions, Yangzhou Fried Rice is the standard and by far the most popular of fried rice dishes of Chinese cuisine.

Here, is a simple and basic recipe to enjoy fried rice.

Plus, It’s great way to use leftover rice cooked for the next meal.

What is good about fried rice is that you can turn it into a main meal by adding meat/seafood and vegetables.

Ingredients:

• 1 - 2 green onions. More if you like
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Pepper to taste
• 4 tablespoons oil for stir-frying, or as needed
• 4 cups cold cooked rice
• 1 - 2 tablespoons light soy sauce or oyster sauce, as desired

Preparation:

Wash and finely chop the green onion. Lightly beat the eggs with the salt and pepper.

Heat a wok or frying pan and add 2 tablespoons oil. When the oil is hot, add the eggs. Cook, stirring, until they are lightly scrambled but not too dry. Remove the eggs and clean out the pan.

Add 2 tablespoons oil. Add the rice. Stir-fry for a few minutes, using chopsticks or a wooden spoon to break it apart.

Stir in the soy sauce or oyster sauce as desired.

When the rice is heated through, add the scrambled egg back into the pan.
Mix thoroughly. Stir in the green onion and serve hot!

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Many grocery stores offer shoppers even more savings through “bonus” coupon programs. This means that these stores will double or triple coupons up to a certain amount, such as 50 cents.

Know Where to Find Coupons: Strategic shoppers seek out coupons from traditional sources, like your local newspaper, as well as from online coupon Web sites. A few coupon-collecting strategies include:

* Buy more than one copy of the newspaper when it is a high-coupon week.

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Courtesy of ARAcontent