Pork Belly Bao

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These delicious Pork Belly Bao buns are delicious and packed with flavour! Well worth the effort it takes to create this dish.

Steamed buns Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 TBSP raw cane sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 packet instant yeast instant
  • 1 tbsp whole milk
  • 1/2 cup  warm water
  • 1 tbsp unsalted butter very soft
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

Slow-cooked Pork Belly ingredients

  • 2 lbs West Side Beef pork belly sliced & chopped in half & rind removed
  • 4 1/4 cups West Side Beef  chicken broth
  • 1 TBSP minced ginger
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 TBSP rice vinegar
  • 1 TBSP raw cane sugar

Pork Belly glaze ingredients

  • 2 TBSP vegetable oil
  • 1 red chilli finely chopped
  • 2 TBSP honey
  • 2 TBSP brown sugar
  • 2 TBSP soy sauce
  • 1 tsp lemongrass paste

Instructions

  1. For the bao buns. place the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a bowl and mix together. Add the milk, warm water and butter to a jug and stir together until the butter melts.
  2. Stir the liquid mixture into the flour mixture at first with a spoon, and then with your hands. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes.
  3. Place the dough in an oiled bowl. Cover and leave until doubled in size (2 hours).
  4. Meanwhile, start cooking the pork belly. Add all the slow-cooked pork belly ingredients to a pan. Bring to the boil, then cover with the lid, reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours. Then turn off the heat and drain the liquid from the pork (leave garlic and ginger in pot with the pork.
  5. Tip dough onto a floured surface. Knead the dough again and split into 8-10 balls. Roll each ball into an oval on top of the parchment. Brush the ovals with the olive oil and fold each oval over, using a chopstick in the middle to fold over to leave a little space in the fold (oil on the inside). Remove the chopstick.
  6. Line 2 trays with parchment. Place the buns on the trays. Cover with a tea towel and leave for 1 hour. Steam the buns on the parchment for 15 minutes.
  7. Meanwhile, add 1 tbsp. of the oil to the pork belly pot, and then mix the remaining glaze ingredients in the pot with pork belly.
  8. Stir until glaze forms and pork becomes golden, around 5 mins. Turn off the heat and transfer to a warm bowl until you’re ready to assemble the Pork Belly Bao.
  9. Once the buns are cooked, open them up and stuff them with sticky pork belly, Thai basil, slices of pickled radish, and strips of spring onions & carrots. Drizzle with garlic hoisin.