Recipes

Servings

Ingredients

Pulled pork

2 garlic cloves crushed

400g pork shoulder, boneless cut into 4 equal pieces

60g onions, sliced in half moons (1/2 cm /1/4 in)

1 small sprig rosemary, leaves only

120ml water

85ml apple cider vinegar

½ tsp vegetable stock

250g barbecue sauce, divided

black pepper, ground, to season, to taste

Bao buns

 160ml full cream milk

1 tsp sugar

1tsp active dry yeast

olive oil, to grease

215g cake flour

½ tsp baking powder

8 pieces of baking paper cut into 5cm squares

Pickled onions

 60g red onion, thinly sliced

60ml rice vinegar

1 ½ tsp sugar

1 ½ tsp salt

To serve

hoisin sauce

125 ml each white and red cabbage, shredded

30g coriander, finely sliced

chopped chillies to taste

sesame seeds

Pulled pork bao buns

Method

1. First make the pork: Add the garlic, pork, onions, rosemary, water, cider vinegar, stock paste, salt and 170g barbecue sauce to a slow cooker and cook for 4 h 30 minutes at 98ºC.
2. Now make the bao bun dough: Heat the milk, sugar and yeast in a saucepan to 37ºC. Meanwhile, lightly grease a large bowl and set aside.
3. Add the milk to a stand mixer mixing bowl, add the flour and baking powder, and mix well. Knead the dough and shape into a ball and place into a ball and place into the prepared bowl. Cover with cling wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size (approx. 1 hr.).
4. Now make the pickled onions: Place the onions, vinegar, sugar & salt in a bowl, mix well to combine and set aside until serving.
5. Divide rested dough into 8 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball and, using a rolling pin, roll out into an oval shape (approx. 5mm thick). Using a pastry brush, brush one side of each oval with oil, making sure to brush the sides as well (remember they will rise again and you don’t want the edges to stick to each other so you can’t open the buns). Place each piece of dough on the baking paper in the top part of the steamer.  Cover, set aside and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
6. After the dough has risen for 25 minutes, bring 1 litre of water to the boil in the bottom part of the steamer. Place the top part of the steamer over the boiling water and steam the buns for 15 minutes.  Remove the top part of the steamer from the boiling water rand let the buns rest for 5 minutes prior to assembly.
7. When the pork is done, stain the meat and onions, reserving 40ml of cooking liquid. You can throw the rest away or use it for a sauce in another recipe.
8. Pull the pork with the help of 2 forks, add the reserved cooking liquid and the other 80ml barbeque sauce (add less if you like, I did). Season with a good grind of black pepper and set aside.
9. Assemble the buns: open each bun up and spread with hoisin sauce. Add pulled pork, cabbage, spring onions, pickled onion, coriander, sesame seeds and chillies and enjoy!