Satay Pau

Yesterday, I posted my Satay Buns entry.  This morning, I'm posting another satay-based finger food, Satay Pau. I used the same satay filling recipe & the dough recipe was one which I got from a weekend class more than ten years ago. I've not used this recipe for many years. At first, I wanted to try the recipe used by Victoria, but hers involves 3 days of preparation. For me, that really needs a lot of planning. So I decided to use this recipe which just required 2 days of preparation. Even then, I had to throw the first starter dough after it was left to ferment for more than 24 hours as I had to make an unscheduled trip to Johor to attend my hubby's uncle's funeral.

The idea to use satay filling came after eating satay pau I bought in Malaysia recently. I love the combination, but the satay filling was too sweet to my liking. I know satay is supposed to taste sweet, but that was just too sweet. For this homemade pau, I decided to use my mum's satay recipe. This time, the filling is more moist than the one I made for my satay buns after adding some cornflour & water mixture. The dough is good too. The pau is soft & fluffy although denser than the commercial ones. Still, I like it a lot. The next pau recipe I'm going to try will be the one Victoria used, with chicken filling, of course.

Satay Pau

DOUGH
Starter
Ingredients:
140g Hong Kong flour
1/4 tsp double-acting baking powder
90g water
1/4 tsp instant yeast

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl & mix until well blended.  Cover & leave in room temperature to ferment for at least 16 hours, up to 24 hours.

Final Dough
Ingredients:
1 quantity of the above starter dough
200g Hong Kong flour
2 tsp double-acting baking powder
1/4 tsp ammonia (The one I bought from Phoon Huat is labelled as ammonium bicarbonate.)
85g fine sugar
45g tap water
1/4 tsp lye water or vinegar (I used vinegar.)
13g vegetable shortening (I used Crisco.)

Method:

1. Combine flour, baking powder & ammonia & sift in a mixing bowl.
2. Add in the starter dough, sugar, tap water & lye water or vinegar. Mix until just combined.
3. Add in the vegetable shortening & continue mixing until well combined & a soft dough is formed. (I mixed it using my mixer using the dough hook for about 10 minutes.) Leave dough to rest for about 15 minutes.
4. Divide rested dough into small balls. (I divided mine into 18 balls of 30g each.) Roll each dough into a disc. Spoon filling & pleat. Place the pau onto a piece of parchment paper. (I place each pau onto a small paper cupcake liner which has been flattened.) Do  the same with the rest of dough.  Steam on very high fire for about 15 minutes. (You DO NOT need to leave buns to proof before steaming.)

Recipe by Hamidah Rusdi, with some minor modifications.

BEEF SATAY FILLING

Ingredients:

200g ground beef

1 1/2 tbsp ground coriander seeds

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp tumeric powder

1/2 tsp salt (adjust to taste)

3 tbsp very dark brown sugar  - adjust amount based on your preference
1/8 cup ground toasted peanuts
1 tbsp tamarind juice

1 tbsp cooking oil
1tbsp cornflour + 3 tbsp water 

ground into paste

4 small red onions

1 clove garlic

2 cm galangal (lengkuas)

1 stalk lemongrass (white part only)

Method:

1. Combine all the ingredients above, except oil & cornflour mixture, & mix thoroughly. Leave to marinate in the fridge for 1 hour. 
2. After 1 hour, heat up the oil in a frying pan. Add in the meat mixture & stir frequently until it's cooked. (If the mixture is too dry when cooking, add some water.) Pour in the cornflour mixture & stir well. Transfer the cooked filling into a colander to drain any excess liquid. Leave to cool before wrapping in the dough.