Bao, Wow! Vegetarian Dim Sum Bao

The labbits are pleased to present to you their special guest Chef Jimmy. He comes to the Green Mountain Warren from Toronto's Monster Factory and will be sharing a few dishes this week. Here's a little bit about Jimmy, courtesy of Monster Factory:

The labbits have faith that Chef Jimmy will come up with something delicious. For his first day at the warren, he made vegetarian dim sum bao, which is a steamed dumpling shaped bread, stuffed with a variety of fillings. One of the most popular bao is char siu bao, a bun filled with BBQ pork. Jimmy often ducks out of the Toronto Monster Factory headquarters and up Spadina Ave for a quick nibble of char siu bao. Knowing the labbits are vegetarian, he decided to raid the labbit pantry and put together a labbit version. He ended up using bean sprouts, shiitake mushrooms, water chestnuts and Lightlife Gimme Lean vegetable protein. It pan fries and crumbles just like ground meat. Then he threw in some soy sauce, hoisin sauce, white pepper, salt, and ginger, and stuffed the bao.

You can add make vegetarian filling with tempeh, diced carrot, scallions, BBQ sauce, Sriracha sauce, cabbage, bok choy...there are lots of savoury options! Embrace Jimmy's free spirit and use what's in your fridge. No amounts for the filling are provided below, just be sure you have at least a full cup and a half to 2 cups of filling for 8 bao.

And, you know what? Steamed bao without any filling is pretty tasty, too! Just ball up the dough and steam. You can print out the recipe below by clicking here.

Vegetarian Dim Sum Bao
Bao Ingredients:
1 package dry yeast
2 Tbsp sugar
3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp warm water (about 120°F - 130°F)
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp sesame oil

Filling Ingredients:
Vegetable protein, such as Lightlife Gimme Lean Sausage
Water chestnuts
Bean sprouts
Shiitake mushroom
Ground ginger or fresh ginger, finely chopped
White pepper
Salt
Low sodium soy sauce
Sesame oil
Hoisin sauce

Note: No exact amounts for the filling were provided, but you can choose whatever savoury fillings you'd like. Just be sure that everything is finely chopped, and that you have about 1.5 to 2 cups of filling "stuff" for your 8 bao. 

You'll need:
Wax paper, cut into 3"x3" squares
Steamer basket

Preparation:

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Add the flour and sesame oil. With clean hands, knead the dough until smooth, about 10 minutes. The dough will be very sticky! Add up to 4 more tablespoons of flour if needed.

Cover bowl with a cloth and set in a warm spot in the kitchen. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare your filling. Wash and finely chop the vegetables. In a small skillet over medium heat, heat a small amount of sesame oil - just enough to coat the skillet. Pan fry the vegetable protein. Add the vegetables and cook until the mushrooms soften. Remove from heat. Add salt, pepper, soy sauce and other desired condiments to taste. (You don't need much!) Set aside.

 




Remove the cloth from the bowl. Roll your dough into a long cylinder and divide the dough into 8. With your hands, flatten the divided dough into round disks. Spoon 2 heaping Tbsp of filling into the center of the bao - yes, it will look very full! Bring up the sides, squish together at the top and give it a little twist to seal.

Top: before steaming Bottom: apres steam!

Place bao on a square of wax paper and set in a steamer basket, making sure you leave room for these bad bao to expand, because expand they will!

Cover your pot/steamer basket and steam for 10 - 15 minutes. Carefully remove bao from steamer, and enjoy, remembering to remove wax paper before nomming away!

Yields: 8 very big bao!!

Labbits Like: Chocolate Orange Zucchini Bread

Just look at this moist, chocolatey slice of goodness that Pipkin's munching on! Can you believe it's zucchini bread? Who on earth ever looked at a zucchini and thought, "mmmmm, that would make fantastic bread?" His friends must have pointed and laughed at him. But then he made a loaf of deliciousness and his friends were too busy stuffing their faces to laugh at him again. True fact, I'm sure.

Okay, totally made up, but the fact is, zucchini bread doesn't taste like some mystery green vegetable your mom makes you eat, it bakes up a really moist quick bread! Add in some chocolate chips, orange zest and bake it in a bundt pan and it's practically cake.  This recipe's easy and quick to make, and great to bring to parties! In fact, you might want to print out extra copies of the recipe to share. Print the recipe here.

Don't forget salt! Pipkin always forgets one ingredient in the photo.

Chocolate Orange Zucchini Bread
Ingredients:
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels
2 tbsp orange zest (about one labbit sized orange)

Preparation: 
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In another large bowl, beat the eggs, then add sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Stir in the applesauce, vanilla, zucchini and chocolate morsels. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir well to blend. 

Pipkin admits that at this stage, it doesn't look so appetizing.

Pour it all into a greased bundt pan* and bake at 350ºF for one hour or until a toothpick inserted through the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly in the pan before flipping it over and serving. 

Yields: one bundt zucchini cakey bread. Enough for 12 - 16 servings.
*To make a more traditional bread shape, bake in two separate 9 x 5 bread loaf pans, for about 50
minutes at 350ºF, OR make a couple dozen muffins, baked for 20-22 minutes at 350ºF.

Recipe Redux: Poppy Seed Banana Muffins

When Pipkin blushes, even his ears get a little pink.

Pipkin got to work this morning baking one of his favorite easy breakfast items — the banana poppy seed bread in muffin form. He's made that banana bread so many times he's got the recipe memorized. Or, so he thought. After he popped the muffin trays into the oven, he happened to peek at the blog entry and realized he forgot to put in baking powder! No wonder his banana bread had come out so flat last time! He thought that the squishy sides of his silicone bread pan spread out the loaf and that's why it didn't grow tall. Nope. Turns out he forgot to put in baking powder. Funny thing is, he posed in a picture with the baking powder. See?

Not pictured: flour, which is very important.

Quick like a labbit, he got the muffins out of the oven, poured the batter back into his mixing bowl, and added a teaspoon of baking powder before spooning the batter into the muffin tray and popping it back into the oven. Phew! No one wants flat muffins, right?

And not to worry, Pipkin has corrected the error on the banana bread entry, and he's included this recipe remix on that same page, so you too can make these easy muffins for breakfast. Pipkin's a little embarrassed now, but he hopes you'll forgive him. Labbits make mistakes just like everyone else.

Labbits Like: Italian Herb Focaccia

Clover woke up unusually early this morning and got all antsy having no one around to play with. Since she had a couple of hours alone she thought she'd bake a quick bread before everyone else woke up. In under two hours she'd have an aromatic herbed focaccia hot from the oven for the labbits to eat.

Just like the fantastic Banana Poppy Seed Bread (with fancy pants orange zest!) that Pipkin baked a couple weeks ago, this bread requires no kneading. Just prep your pan, mix the dough ingredients together, and let the yeast do its magic. You'll get the best flavored results from long, slow fermentation (rising) at an ambient temperature of 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Then poke some holes in the puffy, pillowy dough, drizzle some oil and sprinkle on some herbs and bake!
Print the recipe here.




Italian Herb Focaccia
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups warm water (105 - 115 degrees Fahrenheit)
3 Tbsp EVOO
1 1/4 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp instant yeast
1/4 cup Vermont cheese powder (Clover likes Cabot Cheddar Shake Cheese)

2 to 3 Tbsp EVOO for drizzling
Dried Italian herbs for sprinkling (Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme, Basil)

Preparation:
Prep a 9" x 13" pan by lightly greasing and then drizzling olive oil in the bottom of the pan. Don't be shy with the olive oil. You'll get a nice crust bottom!

Dough, pre-rise

In a large bowl, combine the water, oil, salt, flour, yeast and cheese powder and beat at high speed with an electric mixer for 60 seconds. Your dough should get smooth and tacky. Pour the batter into the pan and cover with plastic wrap or a bit of tin foil (tin foil is recyclable!). Let the batter rise at an ambient room temperature of 70 - 80 degrees Fahrenheit for 60 minutes until it's puffy. At the end of rising, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Gently poke the batter all over with a finger or clean paws.

Clover's focaccia dance is dedicated to Miss Maggie Whalebutt

Drizzle the top with a little olive oil and sprinkle generously with dried Italian herbs. Bake until the bread is golden brown, about 35 - 40 minutes. 

Drizzled with oil and sprinkled with herbs. Ready for the oven!

Remove from the oven and allow to cool 5 minutes, then turn it out onto a cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature, on its own or slice it up and make yourself a veggie sandwich with avocado, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and mustard. Yum!

Yield: about 12 slices
Recipe: Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Labbits Like: Banana Poppy Seed Bread With Orange Zest

The labbits prefer their bananas bright and yellow and without brown spots. When bananas get really ripe, they make banana bread! This version skips the walnuts (which some of the labbits are allergic to) and adds poppy seeds and orange zest, to fancy pants it up.

Banana bread is a quick and easy bread to make, and doesn't require kneading or even anything more than a fork to mash and mix. It's a perfect Sunday morning kind of bread.

If you prefer your banana bread in muffin format, that's easily doable, and even quicker to come out of the oven. Look for the recipe remix down below, and print both versions here.

Banana Bread, pre-bake.

Banana Poppy Seed Bread With Orange Zest

Not pictured: flour, which is very important!

Ingredients:
2 ripe bananas, peeled
1 egg
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 Tbsp poppy seeds
Zest of one medium orange (about 2 tsp)
Vegetable oil and flour for the bread pan


Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease and flour a bread pan and set aside. 

In a small bowl, mash the banana with a fork until smooth (a few lumps are ok). Add egg, sugar and butter and mix well.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, poppy seeds and orange zest. Add banana mixture and mix until evenly moist. Pour into the prepared bread pan and bake 50 - 60 minutes or until loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.



*RECIPE REMIX!*
For muffins: Spoon batter into a prepared muffin tray and bake 25 - 30 minutes or until tops of muffins are golden brown.

Allow to cool in the pan 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool further. Serve at room temperature.

Yields: One loaf, 12 slices, OR 12 muffins

Labbits Like: Spotted Dog

Clover Juneau's not Irish in the least (she's from the midwest), but her name being Clover, she thought she'd be the one to share tonight's St. Patty's day flavors: a popular twist on traditional Irish Soda Bread and a vegetarian Shepherd's Pie.

Traditional Irish Soda Bread in its strictest sense is made up of four ingredients: flour, baking soda, buttermilk and salt. That's it. Nothing Martha Stewart about it at all. Modern day bakers have come up with several variations of this bread which may include raisins, caraway seeds, butter, eggs, shortening, sugar, nuts, cheese, chocolate, orange zest, whiskey...the list goes on. Purists will scoff and declare it NOT traditional soda bread, even though all those options may be tasty.

Soda bread with raisins is a very common variation and it's known by the names "Spotted Dog" or "Railway Cake". There's no shortage of raisins in the labbits' pantry, so they voted for the "Spotted Dog". The addition of an egg and a little sugar (again, making it non-traditional Soda Bread!) gives the bread a more contrasted crust - a little darker, a little crunchier. Serve this up with jam, butter, or a nice aged Irish cheddar. Print the recipe here.

Spotted Dog

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour (not self rising)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 egg
3-4 oz dark and/or golden raisins
1 1/2 - 1 3/4 buttermilk

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl, sift together flour and baking soda, then add salt, sugar and raisins. Mix together with clean hands, (paws?) allowing mixture to fall back into the bowl through open fingers (okay, not paws). This allows your dough to get more air and result in a lighter bread.

Make a well in the mixture. Crack an egg into a measuring cup and add buttermilk until it reaches the 1 1/2 cup line. Gently mix together. Pour most of the liquid mixture into the well and mix gently with hands. Add up to 1/4 more buttermilk if dough is dry and not sticking. Do not overmix the dough. Once the dough comes together, place onto a well floured working surface.

Wash and dry hands thoroughly. Flour your hands and quickly tidy and shape the dough into a round about 2 1/2 inches high. Transfer to a floured baking sheet and score the bread into quarters with a sharp knife. Place in oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes. To check that the bread is done, tap the bottom of the bread. It should sound hollow.

Serve freshly baked, with butter, jam or Irish cheddar. Keep wrapped in tin foil or under a moist tea towel to keep the bread moist.

Yields: one loaf
Recipe:  Adapted from Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Darina Allen.