# BBQ Pork Buns



## punkin (22/3/13)

Been asked to post the recipes for these little home favourites so i will.

I swear if i was having my condemned last meal these would be on the menu (they'd probably be the frozen shit ones though).

There is three processes, first you make the Chinese BBQ Pork, then you use that and some sauces to make the filling, and then you make the dough to encase them.

If you live in a city with a Chinatown, you can probably buy the BBQ Pork ready to go, i live in a small country centre, so i make my own.

I usually make a fair bit and vaccuum pack and freeze itin chunks for slicing for soups and for this. Sometimes if i don't have any good pork cuts i'll roast some chicken fillets up with the recipe.
I've even resorted to cooking free flow sliced chicken up in the sauce recipe for drunken cravings for buns.

The pork can be frozen as chunks, diced, or frozen in the sauce, so cook up extra, make extra filling and freeze it ready for next time the drunken urge catches you.


Enough rambling.



*Cha Shiu; * (Barbeque Pork)


500gm Pork fillet, belly, shoulder etc
3 cloves Garlic
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fine grated ginger
1 Tbsp light soy
1/2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp dry sherry, rice wine, port ect
1/2 Tsp five spice
1 Tbsp Char Sui
Red colouring

Cut meat into large strips as round as a an apple and long as they go. Crush garlic with salt and mix with the other ingredients in a large bowl or a zip bag. Add pork and marinade overnight or for two days.
Half fill a roasting pan with water , put the pork on a rack over the top and roast in a hot oven 30 mins, turn, brush with marinade and cook 15 mins more till well glazed and touched with dark spots.
Slice to serve as BBQ Pork add plum or Hoisin sauce to dip.
Nice wrapped in pancakes or lettuce leaves.



*Char Shui Bao; * (BBQ Pork Buns)



185 gm BBQ Pork
2 tsp Peanut oil
1 small clove of garlic
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp oyster sauce
3 tsp cornflour
1 tsp hoi sin sauce
2 tsp char sui sauce
1 tsp sugar
red colour


Dice pork very small, heat oil add garlic crushed with salt and cook slowly, do not brown. Add hot water, soy sauce, sesame oil, and oyster sauce. 
Mix cornflour witha tbsp cold water and stir in, cook till thick and clear while stirring. 
Remove from heat, stir in hoi sin, char sui, sugar and red.
Cool then stir in pork.



*Dai Bao; * (Steamed Bun Dough)



2-1/2 cups plain flour
3- 1/2 tsp baking powder 
3 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp softened lard
about 1/2 cup warm water ( i usually need to use closer to a full cup)
1/2 tsp rice wine vinegar


Sift flour and baking powder into a large bowl with sugar.
Rub in the lard with your fingertips to make a fine dough. Mix water and vinegar and add while kneading till it makes a soft, medium stiff dough. Shape into the bowl and cover with a damp teatowel for 1/2 hour.

To make the dumplings, divide the dough into 8 or 10 pieces and mould to a smooth ball. roll out on a lightl;y floured board working from the center out to leave the middle thicker than the edges till they are as round as an orange or larger.
Put a heaped teaspoon on each in the middle and form into a dumpling. Twist to seal, no need for water.
Put each bun, joint down, on a small piece of greaseproof or a piece of cabbage or lettuce in a steamer tray. Cover and steam for 20 mins. Serve warm with a nice spicy homemade chilli plum sauce dribbled over the top.

They should look better than the pic on the bottom, it was pointed out to me by a master on a forum somewhere not long ago that mine were yellow because i'd used margarine instead of lard (true) and that my rolling had been inconsistent and not in line with how i have now amended the recipe.

They are now brilliant white and the dough is thick on the bottom as it is on the top and nice and even. I was getting a lot split, but don't now.



A good tip is to make lots of the pork, lots of the sauce and lots of the dumplings. You can easily double or triple the batch for cooking and it doesn't hurt to make lots of pork and sauce and freeze enough for a double batch when the mood strikes. This makes it a 1.5 hour prep and cook time instead of a Saturday afternoon marathon.









I have gone to extremes in the past to get the best ingredients for these...













edit; edited because i'm a pro and i can. edited steaming time to 20mins


----------



## Airgead (22/3/13)

Nice. I'll have to give them a go.

Edit - do you use a shop bought cha siu sauce or do you make your own? I have seen recipes for the sauce that look really simple (basically honey and soy).

Cheers
Dave


----------



## punkin (22/3/13)

No i buy it in 2l jars (i use it in my jerky, but don't tell anyone)


----------



## sponge (22/3/13)

Hey everyone,

Punkin uses store-bought cha siu sauce in his jerky!!




*runs away*


----------



## Amber Fluid (22/3/13)

Nice recipes Punkin.

Here is a tip you may or may not know when using a saw for forequarter chops etc....

Being a butcher in my past, when we used to get "sloppy pigs" in we used to chill the shoulders in the freezer for a couple of hours (not freeze them). This made them a lot safer and easier when running them through a saw. If you have used a saw on a sloppy shoulder you will know what I mean.

Cheers


----------



## Mardoo (22/3/13)

Someone may or may not be interested in this but one little tweak I learned when I was obsessing about making my own Char Siu was to add some rose-flavored rice wine to the marinade/cooking sauce. Pushed it just that bit further. You can find the wine in most Chinese supermarkets. I can post the name and a bottle shot if someone wants.


----------



## Airgead (22/3/13)

Wants


----------



## DU99 (22/3/13)

shopping trip tomorrow


----------



## Nick JD (22/3/13)

Yum.

Ever tried pork floss? Ewwwwwww. Fairyfloss made from pigs blood.


----------



## punkin (22/3/13)

Amber Fluid said:


> Nice recipes Punkin.
> 
> Here is a tip you may or may not know when using a saw for forequarter chops etc....
> 
> ...


Thanks mate, i knew i'd cop a comment when i posted that photo.

The 10 large blacks actually spent 6 days in the chiller before dismemberment, so were pretty good to cut, although there was some grease as you can see. Was a long night, (that's not me by the way) and some EXCEPTIONALLY good tucker.

I wish i still had somewhere to grow them, i'd do it again in a heartbeat.


----------



## WarmBeer (22/3/13)

Nick JD said:


> Yum.
> 
> Ever tried pork floss? Ewwwwwww. Fairyfloss made from pigs blood.


Yup.

And it's DEEEEEEEELICIOUS


----------



## benno1973 (22/3/13)

Yellow or not, those pork buns look delicious. Good work making them totally from scratch, love it!


----------



## manticle (22/3/13)

This and the dim sim thread make me want to bust out some good, chinese style, from scratch dishes, including some pork buns. Good stuff.


----------



## Yob (22/3/13)

printed and given to the missus to add to her "to cook" book..

Nice one :icon_drool2:


----------



## punkin (23/3/13)

sponge said:


> Hey everyone,
> 
> Punkin uses store-bought cha siu sauce in his jerky!!
> 
> ...


Mongrel!



'stands with angry look and shaking fist at sponges retreating back'


----------



## pat_00 (27/3/13)

Nick JD said:


> Yum.
> 
> Ever tried pork floss? Ewwwwwww. Fairyfloss made from pigs blood.


One of my chinese friends told me it was made from the skin. Wikipedia says muscle, but I don't think it's made from pigs blood.


----------



## sponge (28/3/13)

punkin said:


> Mongrel!
> 
> 
> 
> 'stands with angry look and shaking fist at sponges retreating back'


Shake harder boy!


----------



## sponge (28/3/13)

If only these mystical animals could produce delicacies like bacon, sausages and prosciutto..


----------



## Fents (28/3/13)

best pork buns in melbourne are at Namloongs in the city, trust.


----------



## WarmBeer (28/3/13)

Fents said:


> best pork buns in melbourne are at Namloongs in the city, trust.


brb, pork buns calling.


----------



## WarmBeer (28/3/13)

As of 5 minutes ago, I can now concur.

Dammit, Fents, now I have yet another food vice up this end of the city!


----------



## Ducatiboy stu (28/3/13)

Was thinking of doing these with pork mince in a Chinese sauce. Pork pie bun


----------



## Airgead (3/4/13)

Made Punkin's recipe last night. Very nice indeed.

I did cheat and bought my Char Siu at my local Chinese BBQ place (Tim's BBQ Kitchen in Hornsby... fantastic. Any place that sells pickled ducks tongues is good with me).

I had to use butter because I forgot to buy lard. This coupled with the fact that we are a very unprocessed family which meant unbleached flour and raw sugar meant the buns were very yellow rather than white.

Not sure I got the dough right. It came out more like a pastry but it did rise and go somewhat fluffy in the steaming. It was a little dry though. I checked a few other recipes and they all say to steam for 15 mins not 30 with the warning that any longer will cause the dough to dry out. About 80% of the recipes I checked also use yeast in the dough. There were a few with just baking powder but most used yeast or yeast and baking powder. The only other thing I noticed was that all the other recipes say to put the buns in the steamer seam side up rather than seam side down.

Definitely giving this a go again. I'll use lard next time and might give the yeasted dough a crack.

Cheers
Dave


----------



## Wolfman (3/4/13)

WarmBeer said:


> As of 5 minutes ago, I can now concur.
> 
> Dammit, Fents, now I have yet another food vice up this end of the city!


Could not find it on google. What's the address?


----------



## WarmBeer (3/4/13)

Wolfman said:


> Could not find it on google. What's the address?


https://plus.google.com/105508032322096995063/about?gl=au&hl=en

About 5 doors down from Stalactites, towards Chinatown.


----------



## Wolfman (3/4/13)

Hahahaha didn't have the space in between nam and loong. 

Cheers. May have to head in for lunch.


----------



## punkin (6/4/13)

Airgead said:


> Made Punkin's recipe last night. Very nice indeed.
> 
> I did cheat and bought my Char Siu at my local Chinese BBQ place (Tim's BBQ Kitchen in Hornsby... fantastic. Any place that sells pickled ducks tongues is good with me).
> 
> ...


Sorry the 30 mins was a typo, thanks for pointing that out. Should read steam for 20 mins, i've edited it. Also when making the dough, add water till it feels right, sometimes up to half a cup extra is needed. The buns definately rise with cooking rather than the resting in this yeastless recipe. I'll have to have a google and try a yeasted one too.


----------



## Wolfman (23/7/13)

Made some BBQ pork the other day. Let it marinade in the fridge for 3 days turn every or even twice a day.

Man this stuff is the goods! Was farting pure BBQ pork at work last night. Hahahahahaha.

Here's the finished product.




Cooked them at 240c for 30 mins the turned and basted. dropped the temp to 200c for 15 mins. Wasn't sure that they were finished, should have used the thermometer, so basted and went for another 15. The ends were a little dry but the middle was juicy.

Next time, yes there will be a next time, I will use the thermometer and check the internal temp so as not to over cook.

Cheers for the recipe Punkin.


----------



## punkin (24/7/13)

You are very welcome. Not sure where i got it, but it was a book somewhere.


----------



## punkin (3/9/13)

Tried this bun recipe from DonBurke last night 
http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/68308-smoking-meat/?p=1074711

The buns are a very light bread texture and much closer to the original buns i tried as a young fella from a chinese shop at West ryde or Eastwood.

Very tasty indeed, but we both ended up prefering the heavier baking powder style bun for this recipe.

I also fucked the sauce up realising at the last minute that i had no Hoi Sin and substituting Char sui for it.


----------

