One day my wife came back home from shopping with a bamboo steamer - the first thing that came into my head was "pulled beef chuck roast in steamed buns".
This was a great opportunity for me to experience with both, steamed buns and pulled beef in sous vide.
Chuck cut is considered to be the best choice for ground beef for a hamburger, a long-cooked stew and of course the best choice for pulled beef.
Ingredients - chuck roast
2-3 kg chuck cut
Rock salt
Black pepper
Powder garlic
Powder onion
Coriander seeds
Honey BBQ sauce
2 big onions for sautéing
Ingredients - steamed buns (18 units)
560 grams plain flour
11 grams instant dry yeast
Half teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
30 grams fine sugar
30 grams vegetable oil
320 grams whole milk or water
Ingredients - assemble the best pulled beef bun ever!
Shredded beef chuck roast
Steamed buns
Dijon mustard or Aioli sauce
Pickles
Scallion
Alfalfa Sprouts
Beer with the best bun ever!
Cooking
Season generously the entire roast with all the ingredients mentioned above and throw it to a vacuum bag.
When cooking for a long period of time and especially in a high temperature, it's highly recommended to seal in two vacuum bags to keep the bags from opening.
Submerge the vacuum bag into the preheated water at 82°C/176°F and cook it for 12 hours.
Use any compatible weight accessories to keep the bags from floating.
Shredding and Sautéing
After 12 hours, separate the chuck roast from the cooking liquid.
Preheat a large-sized saute pan on medium heat.
Add canola oil, throw two sliced onions and cook the onions until they get caramelized. Pour all the juices from the bag into a pan and cook it on medium heat to reduce the cooking liquid by half.
Shred the roast as granular as possible, throw it to the pan and mix the shredded roast with the reduced cooking liquid.
Steamed Buns - mixing & cooking
There's nothing better than eating pulled beef in a steamed bun.
I follow a simple steamed buns recipe by Michael Lim which came out perfect.
Milk can be replaced with water for kosher reasons.
Mix all bun ingredients in a mixer on low speed for two minutes to get unified dough and then increase the speed and mix the dough for another 6 minutes. This will result with a smooth and non-stick dough.
Divide the dough into ping-pong ball sized pieces, approx. 50 grams each.
Work with the dough to remove the air and prevent bubbles in the bun and shape it to a smooth ping-pong ball.
Put all buns on small square baking paper and let it rest for up to 30 minutes to increase the side by 50%
Place the buns in the steamer on boiling water and let it cook for 13 minutes.
After removing the steamer from the heat, it's important to wait for several minutes before opening the lid. That way the buns will not sink or wrinkle due to the sudden change in temperature.
Assemble
Slice the buns horizontally and add your favorite dressing.
Add dijon mustard or aioli sauce, pickles, green onion and alfalfa sprouts and of course
a generous amount of shredded chuck roast.
Give it a big bite and prepare to be amazed!
Final result
Recommended equipment
Vacuum Seal Rolls - https://amzn.to/2yfP6NC
Sous Vide weights - https://amzn.to/2C0LW3Z
FoodSaver vacuum sealer - https://amzn.to/2QBs77y
Anova precision cooker - https://anovaculinary.com/
Bamboo steamer - https://amzn.to/2K1OAZ8