These delicious Pork Belly Bao buns are delicious and packed with flavour! Well worth the effort it takes to create this dish.
- 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.
- 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.
- Place the dough in an oiled bowl. Cover and leave until doubled in size (2 hours).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
