Gua Bao

Ingredients

• 700g skin-on pork belly, in one piece
• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 40g rock sugar
• 3 spring onions, halved
• 4 slices ginger
• 2 star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp five-spice powder
• 300g plain flour
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp neutral oil, plus more for brushing
• 150ml warm milk
• 120g suan cai (Taiwanese pickled mustard greens), rinsed and chopped
• 1 tsp caster sugar for the greens
• 80g roasted unsalted peanuts
• 2 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 large handful coriander leaves

Before you cook

• Mix the flour, yeast, sugar, baking powder, oil and warm milk, then knead for 10 minutes into a smooth, elastic dough.
• Cover the dough and leave it somewhere warm for 1 hour until doubled.
• Cut 8 squares of baking paper roughly 8cm across.
• Rinse the pickled mustard greens under cold water and squeeze them dry, then chop them finely.
• Crush the peanuts to a coarse rubble and stir through the icing sugar.

Steps

1. Put the pork belly in a pot of cold water, bring it to the boil, and blanch for 5 minutes.
2. Drain the pork, rinse off the scum, and cut it into slabs about 1.5cm thick.
3. Return the pork to the dry pot with both soy sauces, the Shaoxing wine, rock sugar, spring onions, ginger, star anise, cinnamon and five-spice.
4. Pour in enough water to just cover the meat and bring it to the boil.
5. Turn the heat right down, cover, and simmer for 90 minutes until the fat is translucent and a chopstick pushes through easily.
6. Uncover the pot and boil hard for 10 minutes to reduce the braising liquid to a glossy syrup.
7. Knock back the risen dough and roll it into a 40cm log.
8. Cut the log into 8 pieces and roll each into an oval about 12cm long.
9. Brush the top of each oval lightly with oil, lay a chopstick across the middle, and fold the dough over on itself.
10. Sit each folded bun on a paper square and prove them for 25 minutes until visibly puffy.
11. Steam the buns over rolling water for 12 minutes, then turn off the heat and wait 3 minutes before lifting the lid.
12. Fry the chopped mustard greens in a dry pan over medium heat for 3 minutes with the teaspoon of sugar until fragrant.
13. Open each bun and lay in a slab or two of pork belly.
14. Spoon over a little braising syrup and a heap of the mustard greens.
15. Finish each bun with a thick shower of sugared peanuts and a few coriander leaves, and eat immediately.