Gua bao (pork belly bun)

Grandma Li

This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.

Gua bao is made in different ways in Taiwan. This is the simpler way I make it at home: a steamed bun, braised pork belly, pickled mustard greens and peanut powder. The amounts and times for the bun and the braise follow recipe A, a signed recipe with amounts and numbered steps. Recipe B is another author's, with unnumbered steps and a garnish of cucumber, carrot and hoisin sauce; I do not follow its garnish and take just its steaming time as a comparison. The amounts of soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, five-spice powder, oil, garlic and coriander are my own choices at home. I use ready-made pickled mustard greens and braise the pork in a single pot.

Ingredients

• All-purpose flour 300 g
• Sugar (for the dough) 35 g
• Milk 190 g, lukewarm
• Yeast 3 g
• Oil for brushing the dough a little
• Pork belly 400 g
• Light soy sauce 3 tablespoons
• Dark soy sauce 1 tablespoon
• Rice wine 3 tablespoons
• Sugar (for the braise) 1 tablespoon
• Five-spice powder 1/2 teaspoon
• Pickled mustard greens 200 g
• Garlic 2 cloves, minced
• Cooking oil (for the greens) 1 tablespoon
• Peanuts 3 tablespoons
• Sugar (for the peanut powder) 2 teaspoons
• Coriander a small handful

Steps

1. Mix the flour, sugar and yeast, pour in the lukewarm milk and knead to a smooth dough. Cover and let it rise for about 40 minutes, the time recipe A gives.
2. Put the pork belly whole into a pot of cold water, bring it to a boil and blanch it for 5 minutes, as recipe A does. Lift it out and rinse.
3. Put the pork, light and dark soy sauce, rice wine, sugar and five-spice powder in the pot, add water to just cover the meat, bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover and braise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, the time recipe A gives. I judge it done when a chopstick goes in easily and the middle shows no raw pink.
4. While the pork braises, rinse and chop the pickled mustard greens and stir-fry them with the garlic in 1 tablespoon of oil. Taste, and add a pinch of sugar if needed.
5. Toast the peanuts in a dry pan over low heat, let them cool, crush them and mix in 2 teaspoons of sugar to make the peanut powder.
6. Divide the dough into 10 pieces of about 50 g each, as recipe A does. Roll each into an oval, brush it with oil, fold it in half and set it on a small square of baking paper.
7. Bring the steamer water to a boil and steam the folded buns over high heat for 7 minutes, the time recipe A gives; recipe B steams for 10 to 12 minutes. Steam in batches. The buns are done when they have puffed up and spring back when pressed.
8. Slice the braised pork thickly. Open each bun, fill it with pork and pickled greens, sprinkle with peanut powder and coriander, and eat it hot.

Tips

• Recipe B garnishes the bun with cucumber, carrot and hoisin sauce, which differs from the pickled mustard greens, coriander and peanut powder that Chinese Wikipedia and the Michelin article describe; at home I follow the latter.
• I often braise extra pork, because once it has cooled it slices into neat thick pieces more easily; this is my own habit.

Allergens: wheat, milk, soy, peanut

Grandpa Li

Picks come from public lists and guides and were checked on the dates shown; places can change, so confirm before you go.