Braised pork belly bao buns

Started with a 4lb pork belly (used about 2.5 of it)



Parboiled it in strips and cut it into chunks for the dutch oven.



Caramelized some brown sugar and threw in the meat. Added in some ginger, scallion, cinnamon, star anise, soy sauce, sherry, and love.



Several hours later



In the meantime I mandolined some veggies to pickle. Carrot, cucumber, pepper, radicchio, daikon, rice vinegar, sugar, water



Next came the dough. Made an easy yeast dough. I used all purpose flour as that is all I had, but I probably need a less gluteny flour to get more fluffy. After about an hour of proofing



Time to put it all together. Please don't judge my technique too harshly





15 minutes over steam and then we feast!





All in all, flavor was there for sure. Pork belly was perfect. I definitely made the bao too thick but know better for next time. I'll play with flour combinations to get that fluffy cloud.