Braised Pork Buns (Kung Bak Pao) was one our favourite dish from childhood by our mom. So tasty yet so fuss-free to make. Kong Bak Pau (aka 扣肉包) would be the closest version of a burger in Chinese cuisine, a thick slice of braised pork belly braised in soy sauce and spice sandwiched with fresh coriander between a steam leaf bun.
This time we are glad that we have our mom to assist us with this. Thus it will totally taste the same to what we have in our childhood.
With the use of five spice that combines with the fats that are rendered while cooking, it keeps the meat tender and develops that sweet flavor. This is one comforting yet sinful dish that is hard to resist!
Start by cleaning the pork belly
The first thing our mom did was to boil a large pot of water. Once the water had come to a boil, we placed the pork belly into the water and cooked it for 20 minutes. At the end of this time, the pork was lifted and placed on a cooling rack.
Using a fork, mom’s poked as many holes as she could on the skin, making sure that the fork also penetrated into the layer of fat under the skin. This would allow the fat to render out later.
When the pork had cooled a little, we dried the pork as best as we could with a piece of paper towel.
Prepare the herb & seasoning
Sides; Soak the mushroom in a bowl of water overnight in the fridge.
Herb; Sliced the ginger. Smash the ginger and garlic with the slide of the knife. In a pan, smoke the star anise, cinnamon stick and smashed ginger and garlic till fragrant.
Sauce; We made the sauce by mixing thedark soya sauce, shallots, garlic, honey, five-spice power, Shaoxing wine and sesame oil in a bowl.
With all the ingredients done prepared, combined them in a claypot. Cook it for 20 mins in high heat, and an hour in low heat. And it’s time to serve them.
How to wrap them?
Bun; Steam the bun till soft, remember to serve them got!
Garnish; you can wrap it with lettuce, coriander leaves and white sesame. Wash and drain the lettuce and coriander leaves overnight, leave it in the fridge with a cloth over to withstand the crispness of the vegetables.
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xoxo, Joe
Braised Pork Buns (Kung Bak Pau)
Ingredients
1 kg pork belly (preferably with 1/3 fat and 2/3 lean meat)
8 steamed buns
Green lettuce
2 tbsp of dark soya sauce
2 tbsp of sugar
1 tbsp of Shao Xing wine
1 bag of Kong Bak Pau herb
6 slices of ginger
6 cloves of garlic
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
8 soak Chinese mushroom
Methods
- Bring a large pot of water to the boil and add in the whole piece of pork. Simmer for 20 minutes. Remove and rinse the pork. Pat dry and let it cool slightly.
Using a fork, pierce through the skin (about 50 times) to make many little holes in it. Make sure you pierce right through to the layer of fat beneath the skin. Slide it into 1 I’m thick. - Place the pork in a clay-pot and combine with the remaining 4 tbsp thick caramel, shallots, five-spice, soy, honey, wine, garlic and sesame oil. Add into the soaked mushroom at the side.
- Cover with a lid and simmer for 1 1/2 – 2 hours until the pork is tender and the sauce should be reduced to a slightly syrupy consistency. Turn the slices of pork occasionally so that they are evenly covered with the sauce.
- Add salt, pepper and sugar to taste. Dish out and garnish with coriander leaves.
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