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benazir's blog

Chinese Red Bean Buns

Actually I have a story to tell about this post that I was watching tv and I seen some kind of cooker that I could use on my stovetop even to bake a cake in but however I had ordered it and when I got it I looked at the instruction manuel. It has been many years since I used it and it is under my kitchen sink to this day. This was one of the items I made and the other which is coming up is an Indian savory called dhokla. Since I can use it as a steamer why should I not use it for these and these are soooo very delicous. It is not something I would indulge in now unless if it is for breakfast. This is when my blood sugar levels are lowest between 80 and 90. This is not something I would contemplate eating in the evening because of the carbs from the buns itself that would give me a big spike. So yeah even though my diabetes is controlled, I want to keep it that way.

For the red bean paste use 1/2 bag of dried red beans of any type or use adziki. Add 5 cups of water or roughly about a liter give or take, 1 pinch of either pink salt, kosher salt or plain sea salt and pressure cook in instant pot for 20 minutes on high. Make sure it is on sealing. Place the steam diverter over the vent and press the quick release button to let the pressure escape. If the beans are still a little hard then repeat for another 20 and then you have a very soft bean.

From here take the inner lining and move it to the stove or the counter because you do not want to do this while it is still on the base yet. From here you can mash the beans and then use the immersion blender to blend it all up and place the beans inside the inner lining back in the base of your multi functional cooker. Add 3 pats of butter or 3 tbs of butter ghee, 1 drop of sesame oil, either add 4 packets of stevia or 4 tbs of either agave nectar or sugar free syrup. Select the cooker to saute funcion for 20 minutes and tap start. When it says hot get to stirring until it becomes a paste. If you added too much water you may need to drain this off and reserve about a cup of water as a reserve. This you have to do before you start mashing and blending the beans.

Once the bean paste is made then you can make the yeast dough for the buns. In a large mixing bowl add 1 cup each of all purpose unbleached flour and whole wheat flour, 3 big pinches of yeast if using from a bag or a jar or 1 sachet, 1 pinch of baking poweder 1 pinch each of pink salt and turbindano sugar. Mix with hand. By the way I wash my hands first brefore I go anywhere near my kitchn to handle food, This is a must because it keeps you and your family from getting sick. Add 1/4 cup of water at room temp a little at a time to make a dough and keep mixing and kneading until you have a nice ball of dough and add 1 oz of vegetable oil or peanut oil and knead some more and cover and let sit in a warm place in your kitchen for 30 minutes in a covered bowl you made your dough in.

Now I have a silicone strainer that fits in to my instant pot or I can use the air fryer basket that came with my cooker and one of these silicone food dehydrater tray liners or a sheet of parchment paper. But I will go with my silicone steamer basket instead that and the silicone food drhydrater tray liners I bought on Amazon. The air fryer basket came with my instant pot duo crisp. So we are steaming. we are not baking, broiling, dehydrating food or even roasting. Take golf ball sized pieces of dough and roll it in to a circle and take 1 handful of all purpose unbleached flour and and sprinkle it on the work surface which mine is a tray which is huge and I use this a lot for baking or even making gnocchi. Roll this dough out flat with a rolling pin keeping the shape of the circle and then place 3 tbs of the red bean filling in the center of this circle of dough you made and carefully fold the other sides of this dough all over the circle then carefully pinch the top closed to seal it and set this on the steamer basket lined with either parchment paper or a food dehydrater liner underneath,

They are actually non stick and nothing to worry about but in case spray with a little cooking spray just in case. Repeat until there is no more dough and red bean paste left. In case if you run out of dough and still have red bean paste left remove this from the inner lining of the cooker and place it in freezer bags and chuck it in the freezer for next time and defrost in refrigerator to use when you want to make them a day in advance next time you have the craving. It goe the same thing for if you run out of the red bean paste and have dough left. Take the unused dougb and place it also in plastic freezer bag and put it in the fridge to use in another reicpe if you desire. Wash out your inner lining and add 10 cups of water and place your first batch of these steamed buns in to steam in the instant pot. Let stand for 10 minutes, then select steam for 20 minutes, select start. Both times using an external timer. One more time using an external timer let sit for 15 minutes before opening and drain the condensation collector in the back and replace it back on the cooker.

Enjoy these with a steaming cup of oolong tea at breakfast time or even a mid afternoon tea. These are simply delicious. Sorry it took me so long to write this post and I did not have any idea that this picture existed but my snapfish account.

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