Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Baked Pork Buns, My BUNdle of Joy

I have a confession to make. My favorite meat to cook with is pork. As boring as it sounds, I make pork stewed in soy sauce at least once every 2 weeks. For variation, sometimes pork belly is used or pork feet for that gelatinous texture. I don't know why, the first day of pork stew, it's still good just eaten with steamed rice. The second day, I started to get the itching to make something else out of it. And most of the time, I relented and make pork buns using the leftovers.

Instead of steaming them as usual, I baked them.



Pork stewed soy sauce, it sounds simple and yes, it is. Normally, I just put pork (usually 50% pork belly and 50% pork shoulder) in the pot, covered with sweet soy sauce, salt and pepper and cook it on low heat until tender (could take 6 hours, depends on the cut, or you can use slow cooker too). When I'm feeling fancy, I add mashed garlic and five spice powder. Then you can use the leftovers, chop them up, stir fry with minced garlic, for the filling.


For the dough:

Ingredients:
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 3 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 2 tbsp softened butter
  • 1/2 cup lukewarm water
  • 1/2 tsp white vinegar
Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Sift flour & baking powder into a bowl, stir in sugar and rub in the butter with fingertips until evenly distributed. Add water & vinegar, knead until the dough is soft and supple. Shape into a smooth ball, cover and rest the dough for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into 8 to 10 even portions. Roll out on a floured board to a circle approximately 4 inches in diameter. Put the filling in the middle, gather edges together, fold and pleat to make a neat joint. Twist dough to seal. Put each bun, pleat downwards on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown (mine is not so golden brown, because I forget the wash..)

True meaning of bundle of joy..

3 comments:

  1. Oooooo. I don't have any pork leftovers right now, but I want to make some of those. My husband actually bought me some steamers (ahem) 2 years ago and I still haven't used them, but at least my mom used them pretty recently.

    I like pork long stewed but I really don't understand the interest in lean cuts of pork that are just pan fried or grilled. They always seem dry to me.

    What is sweet soy sauce?

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  2. Pork buns ..I love them and make them and eat them on a regular basis:)Great taste..of course iti si pork;)

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  3. I love this recipe. Little different than my recipe. I can't wait to try it. Thanks for sharing.

    Thank you for your comment on my blog. You're so kind.

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