This recipe was found in a veg cookbook under “pre-dinner finger food”. Pfft. I took one look at the recipe and knew that those poor little buns were never going to be made by me. Ever. This baby was being elevated from pre-dinner to main course.
I am not one for buggerising around with super refined flour and steaming apparatuses when I can skip right to the good stuff and just make a big pot of the delicious filling to scoop onto rice. Rice wins because it gets poured into a rice cooker and forgotten about. Buns lose.*
Filling:
oil (sesame is good, but whatever goes)
500g shiitake mushrooms chopped
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 tsp ginger crushed
3 tbsp smooth peanut butter
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
bunch of coriander, finely chopped (use the whole thing, discard roots)
Method: chuck everything in pan on medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring. The. End. Serve with rice and sprinkle reserved coriander over top. Everyone loves coriander sprinkled on top of stuff**. If they don’t, politely ask them to leave.
*buns win, of course, when being made by someone else. Feel free to make this in buns for me.
**Actually not true. Broad sweeping statement for what is essentially a litmus test for dining companions. Perhaps best discussed before serving dish composed of almost half coriander…
