Gingerboy’s steamed BBQ pork buns
For Christmas Gerard gave me the Gingerboy cookbook which is full of amazing looking recipes. Amazing. The book also looks really pretty, I know it probably makes me shallow but I love a pretty cookbook, good food styling can make anything look appealing. I wanted to make something from the book but I haven’t done a lot of asian cooking and most of the recipes look pretty darn complicated, it was a little overwhelming. Then I saw the recipe for steamed pork buns and knew I had to try it, I can’t get enough of pork buns. Being able to make pork buns at home meant there was a real risk that I would never eat anything else again and end up as a doughy (but happy) blob just waddling around the house from steamer basket to steamer basket, but being the brave and selfless sort I am, that was a risk I was willing to take.
The recipe didn’t look too scary and I had a lot of time on my hands being on holiday last week so I thought I’d see whether the recipe would actually work for someone who isn’t the best cook getting around. Don’t let the epic list of ingredients put you off, the buns are surprisingly/dangerously easy to make.
Note that this recipe is taken from the Gingerboy cookbook but has a couple little variations, mainly because I forgot to buy a couple of the ingredients. If you want a full version its best to head straight to the source.
Pork filling
600 g pork belly
1 cup char siu marinade (see below)
6 spring onions
1 red chilli
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
40 ml lime juice
1 tablespoon gula melaka (see below)
Char siu marinade
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
3 tablespoons ketchup
80 ml rice wine
2 tablespoons kecap manis (dark indonesian soy, I found mine at coles)
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
3 garlic cloves
30 g fresh ginger
Gula melaka
30 g dark palm sugar
30 ml water
1/4 cinnamon stick
Buns
300 g bun dough flour (can be bought from asian grocery stores, the bag I bought was about 1kg and helpfully had pictures of steamed buns on the front)
120 ml milk
60 g caster sugar
It’s best to start by preparing the marinade and gula melaka so you’ve got all the ingredients ready to go.
To make the marinade:
- Peel and finely chop both garlic and ginger.
- Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix together.
- Rest for at least 10 minutes before using.
To make the gula melaka:
- Grate the palm sugar.
- Combine ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
- Simmer the mixture until it is reduced in volume by around a half.
- Cool before using.
- Pour 2/3 of a cup of the char siu marinade over the pork, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour
- Place the pork on a wire rack sitting on top of a baking tray and roast for 30 minutes at 180 degrees.
- When the pork has cooled cut it into small pieces and put in a bowl.
- Add the rest of the marinade, the white sections of the spring onions finely sliced, sea salt, chilli, lime juice and gula melaka. Mix well.
- Mix 270 g of the flour with the milk and sugar until it comes together.
- Knead the dough on a floured surface until it is smooth and shiny.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for around 10 minutes.
- Roll the dough into a sausage shape and then cut into 12 evenly sized pieces.
- Roll each piece of dough out into a thin circle.
- Place a tablespoon in the centre of each circle of dough.
- Pinch the dough towards the centre of each circle to seal the bun.
- Place a perforated steel disc into a bamboo steamer and spray with cooking oil (I didn’t have a steel disc insert so I just used baking paper, it worked just fine).
- Place buns in the steamer making sure that there’s enough space between the buns that they won’t stick together when they expand.
- Cover the steamer and place over a pot or wok of simmering water for 6 minutes. The base of the buns should be firm when cooked.
My top tip from making these is to make sure that you don’t end up with too much liquid in the bun when you try to wrap it up. If you do it might end up looking like this:
