Pork and Cabbage Steamed Buns

We ran out of curry beef steamed buns.

More buns were needed.

The dough recipe is the same as last time, with the only two differences being: 1) I measured each dough ball to be 1.5 ounces instead of 2 ounces, so we got more buns out of the same recipe, 2) we proofed the buns after wrapping but before steaming for a longer period of time (at least 30-45 minutes), and we got a much better fluffy texture for the bread.

This time we decided to go with a more traditional filling: pork and cabbage. The recipe is loosely adapted from a dumpling filling recipe from our beloved book Regional Cooking of China by Margaret Gin and Alfred E. Castle.


Pork and Cabbage Bun/Dumpling Filling

Ingredients:
~2-2.5 lbs ground pork (we ground up some pork chunks with our food processor)
~2 tablespoons ginger root, frozen as a chunk and grated
4 green onions (scallions), minced
1/3 head of cabbage (doesn't really matter what kind), finely diced and sauteed with olive oil, salt and pepper until soft and cooled
~1/4 cup soy sauce (or to taste--we splash a bit, mix up the pork by hand, and repeat until the pork changes to a slightly darker shade of color overall)
2-3 tablespoons or rice wine or dry sherry or vodka
2 tablespoons cornstarch
~1 tablespoon sesame oil
salt, to taste (usually I will sprinkle enough to coat the entire surface of the meat lightly and that ends up being adequate)
white pepper, to taste (ditto as with the salt)

Instructions:
Mix everything together by hand or with a big spoon until evenly distributed. Chill for a little while, if you have the time, to let the flavors meld. If you are concerned about the seasoning of the filling, you can fry up a mini-patty in a frying pan and eat that; then adjust your filling as needed.

Use to stuff steamed buns or dumplings. I used approximately two rounded tablespoons (~1/8 cup) of filling for each bun; you'll need less for dumplings. Ended up with about 30 stuffed buns and used up all the filling.