My Buns

Jan 3 My Buns

Prepared Dec 31

Serving your buns up on a platter and inviting your friends to dive in is a great way to spend any evening, but it's become a favorite way in our group to spend New Year's Eve, and I happily obliged again this year. I thoroughly enjoy watching my friends gently squish my buns, nibble on my buns, and even just enjoy the aroma of my buns. Of course, it's not just the appearance of my buns that's such a hit with my friends, I think it's really about what's inside my buns.

As I suppose many people might say, the story of my buns really begins with my mother's buns. Growing up they were definitely a favorite of my sister's and mine. Following tradition, my mother likes to fill her bun with ground beef and cabbage, sometimes omitting the beef or cabbage or varying the meat. It's delicious to be sure, but I couldn't resist the temptation to try out some new combinations and techniques over the years, and this year I settled on three different ways of stuffing my buns that I like pretty well. I've also added some whole wheat to mine. I know my mother likes white buns, but I guess I just like mine a little browner, and, fortunately, my friends don't seem to mind.

Shredded Beef and Braised Cabbage

This is my take on the traditional combination. It's definitely more work than ground beef and sautéed cabbage, but I think it's well worth the effort.

For the beef:

This is yet another great application for tougher and less expensive cuts of meat. Top sirloin was on special at the grocery and looked good, so I got a couple steaks of that. I heated the water, salt, and beef on about medium-high to bring it to a gentle boil.

I've read recipes for various poached and shredded meats that say to skim off any foam that appears after the first few minutes of boiling, but I don't typically see much in the way of foam. This pot of meat, however, looked like a beef cappuccino after about a minute of simmering, so I scraped the giant foamy head off, then added the onion and garlic to the pot. I turned it down to about medium low to keep it at a gentle simmer.

Typically the meat needs to cook for anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and half. After about an hour my meat was nice and tender, so I shut off the heat and let it cool in the broth for several minutes before removing the beef to shred with a fork, then straining and reserving the broth for another use.

For the cabbage:

I added a generous dose of olive oil to a heavy-bottomed pot, added in the cabbage in a couple batches, stirring between additions to coat it with the oil as it wilted slightly and made room for more. I then added the onion and garlic.  I stirred occasionally, and let everything cook over about medium-low to medium heat until the onion and cabbage were both soft. I added in the broth to give it just enough liquid keep from scorching. In my case I used some of the broth from cooking the beef.

I turned the heat to low, then covered the cabbage and let it cook, stirring infrequently, for somewhere between an hour and several days, I'm not entirely sure. Once it had taken on a soft, buttery texture and the liquid had mostly cooked off, I shut off the heat. I added in around a couple pounds of the shredded beef. It's important not to have anything that will ooze too much liquid when stuffing it in your buns, as it will just dribble out and make a soggy mess in the oven. In this case I knew the beef would help soak up any excess liquid after sitting in the cabbage for a few minutes. I salted it taste, aiming for just a tad salty since you want to be able to taste the filling through a mouthful of the bread from the bun.

Potato and Caramelized Onion

I peeled and quartered the potatoes, then added them to salted boiling water and cooked them until they were just about tender enough to mash. I then removed the potatoes from the water and let them cool.

Having discovered that I had used nearly all of my oil up, I not so sadly opted for butter instead. I put the butter in a pan over medium heat, and as soon as it had melted, I added the onion to the pot. I let the onion cook, stirring occasionally, until it had caramelized fairly evenly. I then added the potatoes to the pan, chopping them in largish chunks as I went. I let the potato fry up with the onion a bit, stirring every so often, then shut the heat off. I added salt and pepper, aiming for a generous amount of salt and just a little pepper.

Mushroom and Onion

I gently brushed any dirt off the mushrooms, and cut them into decent-sized pieces, cutting each mushroom into about 6 or 8 pieces. Still out of oil, I browned the mushrooms in a pan with butter in several small batches, using about a tablespoon or so of butter for each batch. As I removed each batch from the pan, I set them aside together in bowl. Once the last batch had finished browning, I added the onion to the pan, then all of the mushrooms along with their juices that had collected. The juices helped to dissolve the browned bits in the pan. I lightly salted everything, then let it simmer over low heat, partially covered and stirring occasionally, until almost all of the liquid had cooked off and the onions were very soft. I then salted it a little more to taste.

Making the Buns

This makes a double batch of dough, which is just about enough to use up all of the above fillings. In looking through my notes, I realize now that I forgot the water, which explains why this batch of dough was not it's usual, supple self. It was definitely tough to work with, although the finished buns were still quite good. However, I do recommend remembering the water.

I heated the milk, water (well, I should have), and butter in saucepan to a little warmer than body temperature. Meanwhile, I stirred together the whole wheat flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. I then stirred the milk mixture into the flour mixture by pouring it in a thin stream while stirring the flour. Once the milk was incorporated, I added in the eggs one at a time, making sure they were incorporated between each addition.

I then beat the dough on high for about three minutes. I switched to the dough hook, and added in enough of the bread flour for it to form a ball and pull away from the sides of the bowl. I then kneaded the dough with the dough hook for about three minutes. Once the kneading was finished, I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and a towel and let it rest in a warm place for about 20 minutes.

After those twenty minutes, I punched down the dough and divided it in two. I rolled each half of dough out to a little less than 1/8 inch thickness, and cut it into squares about four or five inches on a side.

To form the buns, I then placed a very generous amount of filling on each square (a generous 1/4 cup or more) and folded the corners in, stretching the dough slightly. I tucked in any open seams, and placed the buns, seam side down, on a baking sheet a couple inches apart.

I then covered the buns with a towel and let them rise about an hour. Before popping them in the oven, I brushed each bun with a little beaten egg. I then baked them at 375° for between 20 and 30 minutes until they were golden brown.