Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 2 ½ hours
Servings: 12 sandwiches
INGREDIENTS:
Basic Ingredients:
2.5 lb pork belly with skin intact
1 quart water
2 tsp salt
¼ cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
2 Tbsp Shaoxing wine
1 stalk spring onion (2-inch segments)
2 slices of ginger
½ tsp Thirteen-Spices
Spice Blend:
1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
2 whole star anise
Level-Up Spices (Optional):
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
4 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
Caramelized Sugar Syrup:
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
75g rock sugar (or ⅓ cup granulated sugar)
2 cups boiling water
Buns:
1 cup warm water
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp (1 packet) active dry yeast
380g (3 cups) all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp vegetable oil or lard
Garnish:
Cilantro
Green bell pepper
STEWED PORK INSTRUCTIONS:
Cut the pork belly into large 4-inch chunks and soak them in water for 8 hours in the fridge. This step gets rid of the blood. If you’re short on time, bring 2 quarts of water to a boil and cook the pork belly for 5 minutes or until the water becomes foamy, then take out the pork belly and discard the water.
Fill a 4-quart pot with one-quart of water and bring it to a boil. Place the pork carefully into the boiling water. As the stew comes back to a boil, skim off any foam with a fine mesh strainer or fat skimmer.
Add the remaining basic ingredients into the stew.
Place the spice blend ingredients into a spice strainer. If you have any of the level-up spices at hand, place them in the strainer as well. Lower the strainer carefully into the stew.
In a separate one-quart pot that has a lid, add the oil and melt the rock sugar on medium heat until it becomes dark caramel in color. Keep a close watch, as sugar burns easily once a certain temperature is reached.
Holding the lid ready in one hand, pour 2 cups of boiling water into the caramel pot and put the lid on the pot immediately. Because molten sugar is much hotter than boiling water, some of the water will immediately evaporate upon contact and make loud sizzling sounds, don’t be alarmed. If you’re new to this, wear heat-proof gloves on both hands.
Let this caramel syrup simmer for a couple minutes, until all caramel is dissolved into the water. Add this syrup to the pork stew and let it simmer on low for 2 hours with the lid on.
Make sure the pork is submerged during the cooking process. Place a ceramic plate on the pork chunks to press them down if necessary.
BUNS INSTRUCTIONS:
Dissolve 2 teaspoons of sugar in one cup of warm water, then stir in the yeast until well-combined. Let this mixture sit in room temperature for 5 minutes, until it starts to foam.
Meanwhile, whisk together the flour and baking powder in a large bowl. Keep in mind the proper way to measure flour is to spoon it into a measuring cup and level, else you will end up with way too much flour.
Slowly pour the yeast starter over the dry ingredients while mixing with a non-stick spatula until clumps form and very little powdery flour is visible. Add the vegetable oil, for extra flavor, you can substitute this oil with 1 Tbsp of lard skimmed off the pork stew.
Cover the hand you use for kneading with a little extra vegetable oil to prevent sticking and knead the dough until everything comes together and an even consistency is reached, for about 5 to 10 minutes. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour one tablespoon at a time, up to 2 tablespoons.
Cover the bowl with cling wrap and let the dough rise in room temperature for 45 minutes to an hour, or until it doubles in size.
Once the dough doubled in size and no longer springs back when you poke a hole in it, punch it down, and divide it into 12 equal pieces (approximately 60g each).
Form each piece of dough into a ball, roll it out into a circle 5 inches in diameter using a rolling pin, and then roll this circle into a log with your hand (top row below). Dust with a little flour if necessary but you shouldn't need much. Make sure you place the logs in order, so that each log has time to rest before you start the next step. Cover the logs that you’re not working on with cling wrap, so they don’t dry out.
Gently stretch each log out to approximately 8 inches long with your hands and roll it flat to approximately 10 inches long, 1 inch wide with a rolling pin. Roll this strip into a swirl with your hand, making sure the outer end is tucked under the roll (middle row below), so that the roll doesn't come loose.
Preheat a large flat nonstick pan on medium heat for 5 minutes.
Starting from the first roll again, flatten it a bit with your palm, and roll it out to a circle 5 inches in diameter. Place the circles up-side down on the pan first and cook for approximately 2 minutes per side, or until golden spots form on both sides.
In case you wondered why we did all these extra steps just to get back to the same circle again: this process aligns the gluten in the dough, so that instead of needing to cut the buns with a knife, you can tear a neat pocket into the buns with your hands and stuff more pork in it.
To assemble, remove the braised pork from the stew and chop it into small pieces. Add 2 Tbsp of stew back into the chopped pork to flavor it, and garnish with chopped cilantro and green bell pepper if desired. Stuff as much pork as you can (or wish) into the buns and enjoy!
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