​Sometimes when you miss someone and something so much, you try to recreate something that reminds you of them or the experience. For me, it’s my lǎolao's (grandma) baozi. Every year on Chinese New Year, our family gathers together and celebrates over food. 
My lǎolao use to come every four years and we were hoping she could make it this year too. Unfortunately, due to Covid, she couldn't fly over from China. It felt different without her and her cuisine, so my mom and my dā yí (aunt) decided to make one of her famous recipes: the baozi! I didn't mind at all, as it was one of my favourite foods in the entire world... but no one could remember the recipe. My mom and dā yí fought for what felt like hours over what type of filling my lǎolao used or for how long we had to leave the dough to rise.
Eventually after the first attempt of making the dough, it looked like a radioactive hazard. So, my mom called my shūshu (uncle) praying that he would know something more than my dā yí. Well, she was wrong… really wrong! My shūshu had a completely different recipe in his mind than my mom or my dā yí. I looked at my cousins with pleading eyes and then at my brother. We needed to help if we even wanted to eat before Chinese New Year ended. Besides, seven minds were better than one. 
Our first attempt at making them turned out raw, the second turned out burnt, and the structure of the baozis had completely collapsed. Third time’s a charm, right? False, don't listen to that. Our third attempt came out semi-decent, but the edges were as solid as a rock and the middle was still practically dough. My shūshu, who was still on Facetime, looked even more stressed out than we did. My kitchen was begging to be put out of its misery. Flour was everywhere, yeast rising in random water puddles, and bowls were in an endless stack in the sink.
The whole family had joined forces to make something that reminded us of our lǎolao. So it was in our hearts to make one final and hopefully best attempt. It was chaotic but finally the buns had finished steaming. Too afraid to look, my brother opened the lid, and to our surprise, it wasn't a fail, not as good as my lǎolao's, but good enough to remember how much she matters to us. 

My lǎolao is the one on the very left and i'm the baby. 

Serves: 12 baozi per batch

Time: 3-4.5 hrs

Ingredients for the filling:
4 cloves of garlic
3 cm of ginger
½ of a medium onion
½ a pound of ground beef
4 tbsp of light soy sauce ( or regular)
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
2 tbsp of corn starch 
1 tsp of salt
2 tbsp of water
¼ cup of chicken stock
2 small carrots ( or one big one)
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Ingredients for dough:
2.5 cups (300 grams) of All purpose flour
1tsp of yeast ( a pack) (either instant or dry active)
1 tbsp of brown sugar
1 tbsp of sesame oil
1.5 cups (150g) of water

Prep for filling:
First crush and mince the garlic and set it aside.
In a separate bowl peel and mince the ginger and set it aside. 
After, dice your onions and set it aside. 
Next, peel and dice your carrots and set that aside.
In a big bowl, put your ground beef in and season with soy sauce, oyster sauce and salt and mix well together. 
Now in a separate bowl mix in cornstarch and water in equal amounts till it becomes a smooth consistency and almost paste like. That will be your cornstarch slurry. 
Then, add corn starch slurry and chicken stock to the ground beef and continue to mix together till it's combined well. 

Prep for dough:
Combine the flour, yeast, sugar, and sesame oil in a big bowl.
Then, stream water into the dough slowly while constantly tugging and mixing on the dough till it starts to form into a dough consistency. It should be smooth, soft, and slightly tacky but not incredibly sticky. 
Rest the dough under a damp cloth for 1-2 hrs until the dough has roughly doubled in size. 
​On the stove for the filling:
First heat the stove onto high heat and add 2 tbsp of vegetable oil on a wok ( or a regular pan).
Next, add your carrots, garlic and ginger and saute until it's fragrant. 
After, add your onions and season with a pinch of salt and continue to saute for another minute or two.

Assembling the filling and the dough:
Add your cooked vegetables to the ground meat into a large bowl and mix it well and set it aside.
Lightly flour your surface lightly to prevent sticking and roll out the dough into a log and divide it into 12 pieces ( cut in half, then in half again, then into 3 even pieces, each piece being roughly 10 cm long and 5 cm thick)
Continue to flour your surface lightly if needed and roll out each of the pieces of dough into a coin like shape, rotating ¼ turn after each roll.
Next, fill each boa with 2-3 tbsp of filling, the pinch closed with folds.
After you're done filling each bao, let them rest for 30 min.

​On the stove to cook the bao: 
In a large pot with a steamer basket lined with parchment paper, heat water until boiling. 
Once the water is boiling, add baos to the basket, be careful not to overfill the basket and leave a good 2 cm in between each bao. 
Steam for 15 min and voila! You have baozi. Make sure to serve immediately.