Pork Belly Buns – The Original!

Homemade Pork Belly Buns

 

Pork belly bun (but with the addition of hoisin sauce...and I forgot the cilantro!)

Taiwanese pork belly buns (刮包), simply put, are amazing. Braised pork belly sandwiched between fluffy white buns (also known as mantou or 饅頭) sprinkled with pickled mustard greens, crushed peanut powder, and cilantro…it’s really now wonder why interpretations of these buns have been popping up everywhere (think Momofuku, Baohaus, etc.).

Inspired by this recipe request for pork belly buns (2011/03/06 recipe wanted: pork belly buns aka taiwanese hamburger), I set out to create my own homemade pork belly buns! Once I had the buns ready (steamed buns part II), the world – or more like these buns – was my oyster. All that was left was to braise my pork belly and prepare the toppings!

For the traditional pork belly bun, I had a few key components I needed to gather before I could assemble the buns and chow down.

First: the braised pork belly. Though I see that Momofuku appears to braise their pork belly in nothing more than salt, water, and chicken broth, I preferred following the traditional Taiwanese style of braising fatty meats.

Next up: pickled mustard greens. Packages of pickled mustard greens can usually be bought in the refrigerated section in Asian supermarkets, though selection may vary.

And then the final 2 (easier) components: crushed peanut powder and cilantro. The peanut powder (which is slightly sweetened) can be found in Chinese supermarkets, most likely in the flour section.

As soon as those 4 ingredients are ready, you’re merely seconds away from eating! Assemble by layering slices of pork belly with spoonfuls of the pickled mustard greens, a dash of the crushed peanuts and some cilantro in between a steamed bun. Adjust each component to your personal taste. If you want to, spread a thin layer of hoisin sauce (not too much, or else the flavor will be too strong). Now eat!

Taiwanese pork belly bun

taiwanese-style Braised pork belly

Ingredients

• 2 lbs pork belly
• ~1/2 cup soy sauce
• ~1/4 cup mirin rice wine
• ~1/4 cup brown sugar
• dash of five spice powder
• hard-boiled eggs (optional)
• water

Prepare the pork belly depending on how you want it to cook (i.e. the whole pork belly chunk together versus 2 inch slices ready to insert into pork buns).

Heat the pot that will be used to braise the pork belly. Stir-fry the pork belly in the pot for a few minutes to brown. Add the soy sauce, rice wine, five spice powder, sugar, and water, adjusting to taste. Make sure the liquid mixture fully covers the meat – keep adding liquid until the meat is covered. If you are braising eggs as well, throw in the peeled hard-boiled eggs to stew with the meat.

Let cook at medium heat for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. Lower heat and continue to cook for an additional 30 minutes (though longer is okay too). Remove from heat and serve.

STIR-fried pickled mustard greens

Ingredients

• 1 package of pickled mustard greens
• ~3 tbsp sugar
• oil

Drain the mustard greens and soak in water for at least 30 minutes. Remove from water and dice the mustard greens.

Heat the pan with oil and stir-fry the diced mustard greens on high heat. Add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time to adjust the mixture to taste. Remove from heat and serve.

Steamed Buns (Part II)

Steamed Buns Attempt #2 – (Partial) SUCCESS!

So after the horrendous results of my last batch of dough (steamed buns part I), I obviously felt the need to try again. And try again I did!

This time, I learned to cut back on experimentation levels and stick to good old self-rising cake flour (and all-purpose flour for my 3rd batch, just to see what would happen). I would have liked to try another batch with regular cake flour (without baking powder and salt added), but…I can’t seem to find it. Next time!

So this time around, I knew the end result would be infinitely better because instead of watching crumbles of dough mixture flop around in the mixer, this time I was able to witness a beautiful and seamless integration of liquid and flour mixture! Exciting stuff!!

Dough from second batch

Unfortunately, I may have skipped a few steps in the process of making the buns and didn’t really bother with rolling out the dough and slicing it – I just formed tiny balls of dough in my hand and flattened it out. I also didn’t give the dough much time to rise my second time around, but I did for the third batch and what a difference it makes! I assume this is why my buns weren’t as thin as I ideally would’ve liked them to be or as pretty, but I’ll just have to find out next time!

In the end, the buns were satisfying in taste, texture, and functionality (they made great pork belly buns – post to follow!). Now if only they were thinner and more pretty….!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups warm water (slightly cooled past boiling)
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp  salt
• 1 1/2 tbsp oil
• 3 tbsp dried milk powder
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 5 cups all purpose flour
• parchment paper

Dissolve sugar and salt in 1 cup of the warm water. Stir in yeast. Let it sit for 10 minutes to activate – yeast mixture should look foamy. Add milk powder and rest of the warm water. Stir in oil.

Pour flour in a large mixing bowl. Slowly begin to stir in the liquid yeast mixture to evenly distribute the liquid in the flour. Knead the dough for about 15 minutes. The dough should not stick to your hands and should have a taffy-like appearance when stretched. If the dough is too dry, add a little more warm water; if the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour. Form the dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl. Cover in plastic wrap and let rise for 2 hours – the dough should grow 2.5-3 times in size.

Punch down the dough (literally punch down into the dough, will slightly deflate the dough). Roll out the dough into a log and slice into 1 inch slices (will probably form around 20). Take each slice and roll out into oval shapes. Lightly spread oil on one side of the oval and using a chopstick, fold the oval dough in half.  Place the bun on top of a square of wax paper. Continue until all buns are finished. Let buns sit and rise for another 30 minutes.

Buns before steaming (though these were too thick!)

Arrange the buns in a steamer, leaving about 2 inches of space between each one. Cover and steam over boiling water for 15 minutes. Remove from steamer after fully cooked and wrap in a moist towel if not being eaten immediately.

Buns in steamer

Serve with pork belly or anything else you can think of (recipes to be posted soon!)