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America's Test Kitchen Season 26 Episode 10
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00:00Thank you for listening.
00:30Today on America's Test Kitchen, Dan makes Julia a classic Taiwanese dish, guabao.
00:39Jack challenges Bridget to a tasting of hoisin, and Maggie makes Bridget quick Taiwanese pork rice.
00:46It's all coming up right here on America's Test Kitchen.
00:49I love witnessing the evolution of American supermarkets.
01:0210, 20 years ago, you could only find bao, for example, in specialty markets.
01:07But today, they're in the freezer section of pretty much every supermarket.
01:11And they're the after-school snack of choice in my house.
01:14So Dan's here today to show me how to make them from scratch.
01:16So, Julia, we're going to make a really special kind called guabao, which is the folded style that has just gained this insane popularity in America.
01:23So they're defined by this plush, really light texture.
01:27And that comes from two things.
01:28Steaming them.
01:29You don't form a crust on the outside of the bread, so they can expand a lot.
01:32But also, your dough formulation has a big impact on how light and airy it is.
01:36So everything we're doing is in the service of lightness.
01:38So we're going to start with our flour.
01:40We have two and a half cups of all-purpose flour in here.
01:43And to that, I'm going to add a tablespoon of sugar.
01:46I also have one and three-quarter teaspoons of instant yeast.
01:50And you'll see some recipes that are just yeasted.
01:52When we tried them, sometimes they would work really well, but you wouldn't get the loft that you really wanted.
01:57So we're actually also going to use a teaspoon of baking powder.
02:01And then finally, I have a half teaspoon of salt.
02:04I'm going to put it on low speed just until it's combined.
02:06Okay, so for the liquid in the recipe, we're going to use milk.
02:09This is an enriched bread, so when you're making, like, sandwich loaves and that sort of thing,
02:12you want a little bit of the fat and some of the protein in the milk.
02:15It really does a nice job of tenderizing.
02:17So I have a cup of whole milk.
02:18This is heated to 100 degrees, just in service of jump-starting that yeast and having it rise a little bit faster.
02:26And then for the fat in the recipe, just two tablespoons of shortening.
02:30It has the ability to trap and hold on to air.
02:33The shortening really makes a big impact.
02:34So I'm going to mix this on low speed until it forms a ball around the hook there and there's no dry flour.
02:41Okay, that's exactly what I'm looking for.
02:44There's no dry flour, so we're going to mix it on medium-low for about five minutes.
02:47And what I'm looking for is this smooth, beautiful, elastic dough that just pulls all the way off the sides.
02:52Okay.
02:57That's a pretty dough.
02:58That's looking pretty good, right?
02:59Mm-hmm.
03:00So I'm just going to knead this for a couple seconds here.
03:02Just really smooth it out.
03:04And then just round it up.
03:06Beautiful.
03:08All right, so I've got my bowl here, and I've got a half teaspoon of veg oil that I'm just going to get in there.
03:14Make sure it's nice and greased.
03:16I go in first, smooth side down, roll it around, and then flip it.
03:20And we're just going to cover it.
03:22And we're going to let this rise until it's doubled in volume.
03:25It takes about an hour.
03:27So, Julia, if you eat guabao around the U.S., you've probably seen it with some pretty interesting fillings.
03:32Oh, yeah, fried chicken.
03:33Fried chicken.
03:33And a lot of vegetarian ones with, like, mushrooms.
03:36They're all wonderful.
03:37We're going to go with something pretty traditional.
03:38It's a braised pork belly.
03:40Yum.
03:41I have a beautiful two-pound center-cut piece of pork belly.
03:45Skin on.
03:46And this is really what you're looking for, something nice and even like this.
03:49So I'm going to cut this into three-quarter-inch thick strips this way, and then we'll break it down a little bit further.
03:54All right, and now we're going to simply cut these into two to two-and-a-half-inch lengths.
03:58Okay.
04:00Okay, so now I'm going to add my pork belly.
04:02And it's going to slowly sear and brown.
04:06Now, if you have more than actually fits in a single layer, you can give it a minute.
04:10It starts to shrink down, and you can get the other pieces in.
04:12Gotcha.
04:13Okay, great.
04:13So now that it's in there, I'm going to sear this until we get really beautiful browning.
04:17We're going to flip it about halfway through, cook for about 15 to 20 minutes.
04:20We're going to render fat, get great browning, build a lot of nice flavor.
04:24So it's been about 20 minutes.
04:25It smells so good.
04:27But we're going to really build on this with a lot of nice flavors.
04:29Okay.
04:29So over here, I have three cups of water, and we're going to build our braising liquid.
04:34Okay.
04:34So I have three tablespoons of hoisin.
04:37I also have three tablespoons of soy sauce.
04:41Three tablespoons of oyster sauce, which is such a fabulous ingredient.
04:45I have three tablespoons of light brown sugar.
04:48And then finally, a quarter cup of xiaoxing cooking wine.
04:54Okay.
04:55I'll just whisk this together.
04:57All right.
04:57So we're going to go into our Dutch oven with our braising liquid.
05:03Okay.
05:04And then to that braising liquid, I also have three arbol chilies.
05:07Nice little bit of heat there, but not too much.
05:09It's going to kind of balance that sweet heat profile.
05:11Okay.
05:11I have three crushed cloves of garlic, two star anise pods, and then I have an inch of ginger
05:17that I just peeled and cut into a few rounds.
05:19All right.
05:20Let's stir that all together.
05:22So we're going to need a pretty significant braising time and temperature here.
05:25So I'm going to bring this up to a boil over high heat.
05:28I'm going to cover it and then lower the temperature to maintain sort of a vigorous simmer.
05:32So a little bit more than you normally would at a simmer.
05:34We're going to cook that for about an hour until it is nice and tender, not fall apart,
05:37holding it together nicely, but really tender and unctuous.
05:40Okay.
05:40I would say this is at least doubled in volume.
05:42Absolutely.
05:43All right.
05:43Super squishy.
05:44That warmth and the yeast really just went to town.
05:47I love it.
05:47Smells like a really good bakery.
05:48So we're just going to pop this out onto our counter here, a nice clean counter.
05:53We'll set this aside.
05:53We're going to use this a little bit here.
05:55So what I'm going to do is first just kind of pat some air out of it.
05:57We want nice fine bubbles throughout.
05:59Then I'm just going to form it into a rough little round again.
06:01You don't have to be too precious here.
06:03Again, that also expels some of that excess air.
06:07And then I'm just going to split it in half.
06:09Return this here.
06:14We're going to keep everything covered as we work.
06:16Okay.
06:16So our next step here is to roll this out to about an eight-inch log.
06:20All right.
06:22We're going to cut this into eight kind of coins, basically.
06:25So I like to go down the middle.
06:29And again.
06:30And again.
06:32All right.
06:32So with these, we're going to flatten them out.
06:35Fold in.
06:35Kind of like we did with the big dough there.
06:37Mm-hmm.
06:37And that brings it all together.
06:39Gets us sort of a nice top.
06:41And then what I like to do is just round them up a little bit.
06:44So when we roll them out, we get nice, even edges on them.
06:47So I'm going to put a damp towel over this just to keep it, again, from drying out.
06:51And I'll repeat that with this one.
06:52Okay, great.
06:55So what I'm going to do for each of these, I'm going to start with one at a time, keep
06:59the others covered.
07:00And so I'm just going to roll this into basically a six-inch long oval.
07:03So I just like to go at the center and then up and sort of back and forth like that.
07:07Okay, great.
07:07So now I'm going to bring this over here to the cutting board.
07:10Basically, just wandered off the surface I'm working on because I'm going to add a little
07:12bit of oil to it.
07:13And I just don't want it to get over here.
07:14So I'm just going to brush it very lightly with a little bit of oil on top.
07:18And this is the coolest part.
07:22To form that folded shape, you just basically take a chopstick here and you fold it over
07:27and pick it up.
07:28Make sure my edges are nice and lined up.
07:32And then I transfer it to a perfect little square of parchment.
07:36Okay, so this is fully formed and perfect.
07:38We've got the oil on the inside, which is going to prevent it from sticking.
07:40So we will open it up afterwards.
07:42That makes sense.
07:42This needs to proof for about 30 minutes as any bread dough would.
07:45And then it'll be ready to steam.
07:47Okay.
07:48Okay, now I'm going to repeat with the others.
07:52Okay, so this pork cooked for an hour.
07:54Mm-hmm.
07:55Mm-hmm.
07:56I just want to show you the tenderness that we're looking for here.
07:59Okay.
08:00Not falling apart.
08:01Not falling apart, but incredibly tender, right?
08:03Yeah.
08:03That looks perfect.
08:06So I'll use my slotted spoon here to get the pork out.
08:08Mm-hmm.
08:10Okay, beautiful.
08:12Now, this liquid is gold.
08:14Yeah.
08:15It's also capped with a lot of pork fat.
08:16Mm-hmm.
08:17From the searing and then also the simmering.
08:18So I'm going to pour it into a fat separator.
08:20All right.
08:21We're going to let this settle for about 15 minutes until that fat comes to the top.
08:24And then we'll put the sauce back in here.
08:27Just give it a squeeze.
08:28And the liquid that's on the bottom comes out, leaves that fat right behind.
08:34Yep.
08:37All right, that's great.
08:38So what I'm going to do is put this over medium heat, and we're going to reduce it down to
08:42about a cup.
08:43Mm-hmm.
08:43Really concentrate those flavors, and then it's going to coat the pork beautifully.
08:46Nice.
08:46Probably takes about 15 minutes.
08:48Okay, you can see this has come down a lot.
08:50It starts to get almost like syrupy at the edge.
08:52Yeah.
08:53So I'm going to turn this off, and we'll return the pork to it.
08:58There we go.
08:59Mm-hmm.
09:01And then we're just going to cover this and set it aside, keep it warm while we finish up
09:06our bao.
09:07Okay.
09:08Okay, so these are set for 30 minutes.
09:10We covered them, again, to make sure that they don't dry out on the outside.
09:12Mm-hmm.
09:13And you can see that they are nice and puffy.
09:15Oh, yeah.
09:15Beautiful.
09:16So I have two steamer basket layers here, and I have my wok over here.
09:19This has four cups of boiling water in it, so depending on your steamer basket, you can
09:23probably fit more or less, but I'm going to do four in each, give them all plenty of
09:27space.
09:30Okay, great.
09:31So simply stack, and we'll pop it on.
09:37Now, I'm going to lower the heat.
09:39We want to maintain a very gentle simmer, and you're going to see little wisps of steam
09:42coming out, but it doesn't have to be at a full boil.
09:44We're going to steam these for 10 minutes this way.
09:46Bao achieved that unique, plush, airy texture, thanks to two things, the shortening in the
09:53dough and the steaming.
09:55By adding a shortening to the dough, which is a solid, instead of oil, which is a liquid,
10:00we're able to create a stiffer dough that's able to retain the air bubbles formed during
10:05kneading.
10:06Now, if we baked this dough instead of steaming it, the surface would quickly dry out and
10:11form a firm brown crust.
10:13This rigid exterior would prevent the air bubbles in the dough from expanding further.
10:19However, bao were steamed in a humid environment, which prevents a crust from forming.
10:24As a result, the air bubbles created during kneading have more room to expand as the bun
10:29rises and cooks.
10:30And that's why bao have that delightful, tender, and delicate texture.
10:35Okay, so that's 10 minutes.
10:36I'm going to turn off the heat and then remove this whole setup.
10:40Pop it right over here.
10:42I'm going to let this sit for about five minutes, and then we're going to take the buns out
10:45to the cooling rack.
10:45Okay.
10:46This is the big, steamy reveal.
10:48Let's take a look at what we made.
10:49Oh!
10:50Oh, those look incredible.
10:52Yeah, they're so puffy.
10:55Look at that.
10:55So I'm just going to transfer them over to a wire rack here.
11:00Mm-hmm.
11:02And now I'll just repeat with this second sheet here.
11:04Okay.
11:04We've got our water boiling and ready to steam.
11:06Now, Julia, after cooking together, I'm always very excited for when we get to taste it, but
11:11I think I might be the most excited about tasting that I've been in a long time.
11:14Let's have a party.
11:15Let's do it.
11:17All right, I'm going to do what you do.
11:18Okay, leave the paper behind.
11:19So because we did that oil, it's very easy to open it up, that classic guabao.
11:24Oh, yeah.
11:25And then I'm going to go for this beautiful piece of pork belly.
11:30Oh.
11:30Nice.
11:31Hello.
11:32And then this is some pickled daikon.
11:34We have this recipe in our app and on the website.
11:37Okay.
11:37That's going to add crunch and texture.
11:39It's a little sweet and sour.
11:40So I'm going to do a little bit of scallion.
11:43All right.
11:44A little bit of cilantro.
11:46Okay, I'm coming.
11:48Ooh.
11:48And then this is a hoisin soy sauce.
11:51Very, very easy to make.
11:52Again, that recipe is up on our site and app as well.
11:56Beautiful.
11:57Peanuts.
12:00I have some Thai chili here as well, if you want to make it a little bit spicy.
12:04All right.
12:05Doing it.
12:05Want to try?
12:06Oh, yeah.
12:09Mmm.
12:11Mmm.
12:14I'm going to be quiet for a minute.
12:16This is so good.
12:17That's incredible.
12:19Mmm.
12:21The texture of the bun itself, it's like a cloud.
12:25It's airy.
12:26It's got a little bit of chew.
12:27It's got real flavor.
12:28Mm-hmm.
12:29And that pork.
12:30I mean, you've got to be kidding me.
12:31I know.
12:32It's rich.
12:32It has a little bit of the backbone of the soy and the hoisin and the oyster sauce you put in there.
12:37But all the work that we put into this dough in terms of using the shortening and, you know, the steaming of it, you do get this beautiful lightness to it.
12:45So it almost sort of, like, melts away.
12:46And then you just get hit with, like, the pork and then all of the nice crunch and texture.
12:51Dan, these are spectacular.
12:53Thank you for showing me how to make them.
12:54You're welcome.
12:54If you want to make these wonderful pillowy bao, start by adding baking powder and shortening to the yeast dough, brown and braised pork belly in a flavorful liquid, then shape and steam the buns before filling with pork and garnishes.
13:07From America's Test Kitchen, a great recipe for a Taiwanese classic, gua bao.
13:14This is incredible.
13:15I can't wait to make these at home.
13:16There are sauces, and then there are super sauces, the kind that give you lots of flavor in every bite and can be used on almost any food out there.
13:32Now, today we're talking about one such sauce, hoisin, and Jack's here.
13:37He's going to tell us all about it.
13:38Yeah, so I brought three samples that I think are pretty different from each other.
13:42This sauce is so delicious.
13:44Now, first of all, it's fermented soybeans, so it's got all that umami complexity.
13:49Right.
13:49Then it's got the sweet and the sour.
13:51There's usually some sugar in there, some vinegar.
13:53You get five spice, some garlic.
13:56It's used classically in General Tsao's chicken, on char siu, barbecued ribs.
14:02It makes everything it touches beautiful and delicious.
14:06I agree.
14:06So you can dip in.
14:08As you taste these, I think you're going to notice a couple things.
14:10One is, is there an ingredient that comes to the fore, right?
14:13Some of these, you get more of a garlic hit or you get a lot of plumy or stone fruit.
14:19The other thing is there's a little bit of difference in texture.
14:22One of them is a little bit grainier than the others, which isn't really a defect, but it may not make a beautiful lacquer, for instance, if you're using it as a glaze.
14:31So this sauce is a stand-in for a lot of other sauces.
14:35Like in China, this would not be with Beijing roasted duck, but in the United States, it's often used there because it's got a sort of similar profile from a flavor perspective to what would be used in China.
14:46So anything that you are gravitating towards, anything you're noticing here about what you're tasting?
14:52I'm noticing that they're all really good and different.
14:57They're actually very different.
14:59All very good.
15:01You mentioned pasty.
15:03I'm going right to this one.
15:04Or not pasty, but a little grainy, maybe a little bit of texture in there.
15:08And it's definitely thicker.
15:10This one, the spices are forward, warm spices.
15:13Yeah, so you're going to probably taste star anise, maybe ginger in these.
15:18Ginger.
15:19Yeah, you might.
15:20Some of them, you get cinnamon notes coming to the fore.
15:22And those will really be different.
15:23And there's no wrong or right there.
15:25They're just different from each other.
15:27This one has a little blackstrap molasses thing going on there, a little bit of smokiness.
15:32It doesn't taste charred or anything like that, but it tastes like really developed sugar, like sugar that's been really concentrated and almost on teetering on burnt, but not quite.
15:41I actually really like that one, too.
15:43Okay.
15:44This one I actually like a lot because I'm getting this fruitier flavor coming forward.
15:49Definitely tastes the five spice the most.
15:50I feel like this is the least complicated or the cleanest.
15:53Is there one that's your favorite?
15:55Probably this one.
15:56So you picked our favorite among the gluten-free options.
16:00This is Lee Kum Kee, and I think it's just delicious.
16:03I didn't really notice the flavor differences because it's gluten-free.
16:07I don't know that those things are actually related to each other.
16:10Right.
16:10And you said it's just a delicious hoisin sauce.
16:12Yeah, I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything here.
16:16I'm not missing the gluten.
16:18All right, this one.
16:19So this is Kun Chun, and we thought this was the most complex.
16:21Yes.
16:22This is just you picked up smoke, charred notes.
16:25You said blackstrap molasses, and that's exactly what the tasting panel said.
16:28It felt a little different than the rest of them.
16:30Right.
16:31This one is the powerhouse of the three, I think.
16:34Yeah, and it's packing a punch.
16:36It's probably not the best glaze, but it's got a lot of flavor in every teaspoon.
16:40Right, definitely.
16:41And this is?
16:42This, the Kikomon.
16:43And we thought this was the classic choice.
16:44Great.
16:44You described it as kind of middle of the road and not a bad way, but we've, tasters felt
16:49the same, which is like, if you had to sort of define what should hoisin taste like, this
16:54one did a really good job of doing that.
16:56Wow.
16:56Who knew?
16:57Gluten-free for me.
16:58And I learned so much about hoisin sauce.
17:01This was great.
17:01But next time, char siu.
17:04Next time, you got it.
17:11Braised pork rice is an ultimate comfort food that comes from Taiwan, and it can be a little
17:16bit complicated to make, but lucky for us, Maggie's here, and she's going to show us
17:21a streamlined version that we can make at home.
17:23Bridget, today we're going to make Taiwanese pork rice, or ruel fan.
17:27Traditionally, the dish is made with pork belly, but today we're using ground pork to
17:32cut the cooking time from two hours to 30 minutes.
17:35So we're going to start with dried siitake mushrooms.
17:38Those are fresh mushrooms that are smoked over direct fire to create those little umami
17:42bombs.
17:43To get started, we will be soaking them in the hot water.
17:47So here we already have two cups hot water with quarter ounce dried siitake mushrooms,
17:52and we have let it sit for about 15 minutes.
17:54And here you want to fill them by your hands.
17:57They should be tender throughout.
17:59And I like to squeeze the water out as much as I can, so it's easier to brown them later.
18:03Got it.
18:04So first of all, I'm going to remove the stem because the stem is really tough and you
18:08don't want to eat that.
18:10And then I'm going to finely mince the mushrooms into small pieces.
18:16So here the mushrooms are cut, and we will reserve the mushroom soaking water for later.
18:21So now we're going to heat one tablespoon of vegetable oil over a medium heat until the
18:26oil is shimmering.
18:27Got it.
18:28And then I'm going to cook the mushrooms.
18:32So you want to cook the mushrooms until they're golden brown.
18:36It will take about one to two minutes.
18:38So now you can see that the mushroom has slightly turned golden.
18:43I'm going to add two globes of minced garlic, okay, half a teaspoon of minced ginger.
18:49So this is going to take like about one minute.
18:52Okay, so we want to smell the fragrance, but not browning the aromatics.
18:57So now we're adding one tablespoon of oil, okay, and then one pound of ground pork.
19:12And now we're adding a pinch of table salt to it.
19:16Then I'm going to cook this over medium high heat until the pork is break down to small pieces
19:23and brown, okay, this will take five to seven minutes.
19:28So you can see the pork has been cut into smaller pieces and they're nicely brown.
19:34So we're going to add one tablespoon of Shaoxing wine.
19:37I'm going to stir here to deglaze the pan for a little bit.
19:41If you don't have Shaoxing wine, dried sherry is the best substitute.
19:45And now we're adding two cups of chicken stock.
19:49And one tablespoon of soy sauce.
19:56And then one tablespoon dark soy sauce.
19:59Dark soy sauce add a really nice color to it.
20:01It has a slight caramel taste to it too.
20:04And then we're adding one tablespoon of packed brown sugar.
20:08And a quarter teaspoon of five spice.
20:11So here is our reserved a quarter cup of mushroom soaking water.
20:15All right, yeah.
20:16Now I'm going to turn to medium high heat to bring it back to a simmer.
20:23So now we have the broth come to a boil.
20:25We're going to add half a cup of fried shallot.
20:28If you don't have fried shallot, fried onion is just as good.
20:31Oh, great to know.
20:32So now we are going to cover and turn to medium heat.
20:37And let it braise rigorously for about 20 minutes instead of two hours.
20:43Right.
20:44Big difference.
20:44So now we have the pork cooking.
20:47We have a few minutes.
20:48So we're going to cook some eggs for topping.
20:49Oh, good.
20:50So now here we have half inch of water boiling.
20:53I'm going to put in the steamer rack.
20:56And then we're cooking two eggs.
20:59We're going to cover this and let it cook for six and a half minutes for soft boiled eggs.
21:03Got it.
21:03So now we have the pork simmering for about 20 minutes.
21:08Let's have a look.
21:09Oh, it smells good.
21:10Oh, it smells so good.
21:12You can see that the stock has been absorbed.
21:15It's slightly thickened and the pork is really nice and tender.
21:20And now we're done here.
21:21Amazing.
21:22Okay.
21:22So nice to turn off the heat.
21:24I actually want to add a point that I missed earlier.
21:27So sometimes when you're cooking it, if the heat is too high, the broth might dry out a little bit too fast.
21:34And then you can add some water about one tablespoon at a time just to bring it back.
21:38Got it.
21:38Because you want it saucy.
21:39Yeah.
21:42So now the eggs are done too.
21:44Okay.
21:44We're going to rinse the egg in cold water for 30 seconds.
21:48So now we're going to peel the eggs.
21:53Slice the eggs.
21:55So now we're going to assemble the bowl.
21:58Look at the feast that you've put out for us here.
22:00So here we have rice already here.
22:04We're going to add the pork topping.
22:05We're going to add a generous amount of the topping here.
22:11So we're adding some gai-lan, steamed gai-lan here.
22:17And now we're adding the eggs onto the bowl.
22:21Perfect.
22:22All right.
22:23These are for garnish and add a really good texture.
22:26So we have some actual fried shallot and we have some sliced scallion for a pop of color.
22:33Gorgeous.
22:34Let's try it.
22:35Let's do it.
22:37All right.
22:37I'm going right in for a piece of that pork because really that's what I'm here for.
22:46Very good.
22:46Fowl apart tender.
22:50Super meaty still.
22:51So it's not dry at all.
22:52A lot of flavor.
22:53The aromatics and the five side really comes through.
22:56It's like it have a warm tone to it.
22:57You're right.
22:58Because the sauce is so rich, the soft egg really just add a contrast and add some softness to it.
23:04Works really well.
23:05Super complex, but in flavor, but not in effort.
23:09Yes.
23:09This is kind of an amazing dish.
23:11I'm definitely going to make this again.
23:12All right.
23:12Just one more bite.
23:15Maggie, that's fantastic.
23:16So thank you so much for showing us how it's done.
23:18My pleasure.
23:19Now, if you'd like to make this fabulous pork rice at home, it starts by cooking ground pork
23:24in place of pork belly.
23:25Use five spice in place of individual spices and serve with soft boiled eggs and steamed vegetables.
23:32So from America's Test Kitchen, quick Taiwanese pork rice.
23:36You can get this amazing recipe and all the recipes from this season,
23:40along with product reviews and select episodes.
23:43And you'll find them all on our website, americastestkitchen.com slash TV.
23:49That took forever to say, because I really wanted to eat this.
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