Hey guys,
Sometimes veganizing past favourite foods is hard. This is not one of those times. Curry
beef buns were my second favourite item to get from Chinese bakeries when I was young
and lucky for the kid in me, recreating those soft golden buns with savory mild curry flavour
and meaty texture is easy.
First, you want to make the filling. I'm quickly going over this part as you can watch the
in-depth version if you click on the annonation, info link at the top right or find the link
in the description. But stay with me a while and you'll see that it's really simple.
TVP or texturized vegetable protein is made from dried, defatted soybeans and will soak
up the meaty flavour from this water mixed with marmite.
For depth of flavour, we're also going to include a few shiitake mushrooms, finely chopped.
Then, before we start cooking, mix up some water, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and cornstarch.
Take everything to the stove and cook onions and garlic with the mushrooms until the onions
are soft. I'm using coconut oil to give the crumbles the fatty mouthfeel that are characteristic
of Chinese curry beef buns, but you can always use the cooking oil of your choice or go for
the water saute method if you want to cut out the fat.
Then we add the spices and the soaked tvp. The mild madras curry powder gives us that
familiar yellow color and beautiful aroma, and I use red chili flakes for heat. You can
add salt and pepper now if you think you know what you're doing. Otherwise, taste and adjust
for those after cooking.
After a couple minutes, give the cornstarch mixture a stir and pour it in. This will thicken
up really quick and when it does, just turn off the heat, transfer the crumbles to a bowl
and let it cool down while you start the dough.
This dough recipe is pretty basic. Combine a cup of warm plant milk, brown sugar and
yeast. I'm using almond milk and traditional yeast. I always give this a few minutes to
bloom to make sure that the yeast is still active.
Then, a teaspoon of sea salt and one special ingredient: aquafaba.
You probably already have it in your pantry but you pour it down the drain. It's the cooking
water from a can of chickpeas. Yes, that's super weird, and no it doesn't make your buns
taste like chickpeas. And yes you can avoid preservatives by making it from scratch. And
yes, you can leave this ingredient out if you don't have it handy but I highly recommend
it as it makes a real difference that I'll show you at the end of this video.
So once that's whisked in, add your flour. Just add a half cup at a time and stir it
in until using a whisk is no longer an easy thing.
Switch to chopsticks and keep adding flour, a half cup at a time.
Finally, the dough has formed enough so we can knead it by hand. Turn it out on to a
clean surface with a little extra flour, and knead for a minute or so. It should be fairly
soft and a little sticky. Just sprinkle extra flour if it sticks a whole lot but try not
to add too much.
Then place the dough back in the mixing bowl and cover it. Leave it in a warm, draft-free
location to rise. On chillier days, I put it in the oven with just the oven light turned
on.
When the dough has doubled in size, take it out of the bowl, deflate it a bit and divide
it up into 16 pieces for regular sized buns.
Knead them a little bit, just to form round dough balls.
Now it's time to fill them. These curry crumbles were in the fridge so they are cold but you
can use warm filling too.
Choose the first dough ball you formed as it has sat there for a little bit and the
gluten inside will be more relaxed than the rest. You can flatten with your hand, or roll
it out lightly into a disc but don't make it too thin.
Hold the dough in your palm, then place a few tablespoons of the curry crumbles in the
center. Gather up the sides and pinch at the top to cover the filling. Pinch and twist
to secure, then place the bun with the puckered side down to create a smooth topped bun.
I find that you can place quite a lot of filling in the middle and you can carefully stretch
the dough to cover it up.
When all your buns are formed, cover them with a warm, damp towel and let them rise
until doubled in size. If you used warm filling, this will be really quick. If you used cold
filling like i did, this will take longer. I waited about 30 minutes for these.
Start preheating your oven to 400 F or 205 C now if you haven't already.
I'm trying something a bit different. Aqua faba makes a great egg replacer in some recipes
so I'm brushing it on top of some of the buns to see how they turn out.
On the other buns, I'm doing my usual, half maple syrup and half water wash.
Sesame seeds go on everything. Because I think it looks nice.
Bake these in your preheated oven for 20 minutes.
They came out looking like this. In this mini test, the maple syrup wash wins for looks.
But this here is why I recommend using aqua faba in the dough itself; this bubbly looking
crumb. It's the same as the ones I used to get from my favourite Chinese bakeries.
But how do they taste? Just like the Curry Beef Buns I used to love, now way healthier
and leaving our animal friends out of the equation.
And they look just like the original too. Just like the bakery versions, these buns
are best eaten on the first day. But if you have to, you can store them in the fridge.
Nuke them for ten seconds or so to reheat OR put them in a panini press or waffle maker
and make day old buns look like fancy gourmet treats.
Do you have a favourite bakery bun that you want to see veganized? Let me know in the
comments below. Thanks for watching and bye for now!