bison steamed buns

Stuffed dumplings, steamed buns what been filled with meat. I do not know what to call this. I invented it! Of course it was invented already at least 1,000 times in 1,000 variations: bao, nunu, pau, Goubuli (brand), dabaozi, xiabaozi, manti, vareniki (boiled), xingal, xlaklo, khinkali, ravioli, poteball, kløbb, Pitepalt, pierogi, pelmeni, kluski, koldūnai, pozi

SHUT UP !!!¡¡11!!11

Dough: this was changed midstream on impulse. Originally, I started with 1/2 Cup hot water, 1 level teaspoon dry active yeast, drizzle honey to kickstart the yeast and to sweeten the dough, 1 level cup white A/P flour, pinch of salt. Then for some reason right there I was overtaken with the urge to include masa harina (alkali-treated husked corn meal, makes niacin available) for that particular earthy flavor. It is a very un-dumpling-like ingredient. So, another 1/2 cup hot water and sufficient masa harina to form a stiff dough along with another pinch of salt to compensate for the increased mass. Left to rest and to rise. The masa, nearly 1/2 the volume of dry ingredient, is dead weight for the yeast and contains no gluten to form a molecular net that could trap bubbles produced by yeast. So all that would burden the A/P flour.  It would not contribute to the rise, and no chemical leaven is included, but I am not concerned with that because I am making dumplings, not bread. Nevertheless, the dough did rise, and fast too. This gave me the idea that masa-infused dough would make great tasting dinner rolls. I'll have to put that to the test some time.

Stuffing: two bison burgers, 1/2 diced white onion fried to soften, 1 garlic clove, 1/4 teaspoon Chinese five-spice, olive oil, sake, soy sauce, water to halt the burning of the garlic, boy, caught that just in time, honey (in place of mirin), 2 diced mushrooms. 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs.

Flattened the dough balls, stretched the dough around a ball of meat mixture. Steamed.

OMG! These are uckingfay eliciousday.

Ya know what is cool? I imagined I was making too much dough for the amount of filling intended but I didn't care about wasting it. I made the dough, then made the filling, then cut four strips of parchment paper, then cut those strips into thirds for 12 small rectangles. Maths! I divided the dough into half, then halved those, third-ed those segments, which then seemed to be the right size. Turned out to be 12 just like the parchment. Maths! Then as I went along scooping and pinching the stuffing from the bulk to form each little ball, I paid no attention to matching the amount of stuffing to the amount of dough. Still, the stuffing turned out to be exactly twelve dumplings worth. I did not plan that, even so, it turned out to match perfectly. It's maths! I tell you what, the maths of intuition.

But how to know when they're done? By inserting a thermometer, that's how. Science! But even there, the thermometer is inserted when one expects the dumplings are done. So once again, it is the science of intuition. Turned out, the timing was spot-on. Damn, I'm good.

I ate three of these. Know what that means? It means they're 1/4 gone, it means 75% remains. Maths! It is everywhere.

Say, howz 'bout a photo essay?