Cooking with Colm O'Gorman: How to make Taiwanese Pork Pepper Buns 

These bite-sized buns are a taste of heaven

If you are a regular reader of this column you will know by now just how much I love street food. I have shared street food recipes from all around the world, from Afghani Bolantarget="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">i to Korean Fried Chicken and more.

This week’s recipe is another firm favourite of mine, one that I discovered when I was lucky enough to visit Taiwan a few years ago. Taiwan has an incredible street food culture. In its capital, Taipei, you can find incredible food in the many night markets that are spread across the city. Your biggest problem will be stopping yourself from eating too much, the choice is simply incredible, and the quality of the food is off the charts.

I first tried these Pork Pepper Buns at one of the cities largest night markets, and I was instantly hooked. I will never forget biting into my first one. The first thing that hits you is the lovely crusty bread, then the beautiful peppery, savoury pork filling with the sweetness of the spring onions. It was heaven. I was looking at some photos of that trip a few weeks ago and that memory came flooding back, so of course, I had to make some myself.

In Taiwan, these are baked in large cylindrical ovens, a lot like Indian tandoors. I think they would cook beautifully in a pizza oven as well, but I made these in my own regular fan oven at home. 

Taiwanese pork pepper buns

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

Don't worry about getting the perfect round bun shape the first time you make them, just make sure you seal the dough properly and if they look a little misshapen when they bake, do not worry, they will taste delicious

Servings

4

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• For the filling:

• 300g pork mince

• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger

• 1 clove of garlic, grated

• 1 tsp ground black pepper

• ½ tsp ground white pepper

• 2 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil

• 1 tbsp honey

• 1 tsp cornflour

• 1 bunch of spring onions

• For the dough:

• 350g strong white flour

• 7g instant active yeast

• ½ tsp salt

• 1 tsp sugar

• 20g coconut oil

• 220ml lukewarm water

• To glaze and finish:

• 1 egg

• Some sesame seeds

Method

1. Pop all the ingredients for the filling, apart from the spring onion into a bowl and stir to combine. Make sure everything is well mixed, you want a paste-like consistency with everything fully incorporated. Do not use low-fat pork for this, the fat is what gives these buns much of their flavour. Cover the bowl and let the filling marinade for at least four hours, and up to eight if you can plan ahead that much.

2. An hour or so before you will be ready to bake your buns, prepare the dough. Combine the flour, yeast, sugar, salt and melted coconut oil in a mixing bowl. If you do not have any coconut oil, just use some olive oil. I make this in my mixer with the dough hook. With the mixer running, gradually add the water, let the mixer run until the dough comes together and is smooth and a little springy to the touch. Place it in a light oiled bowl, cover with a silicone lid or some cling film and let it proof for thirty to forty minutes, it should about double in size in that time. You can mix and knead the dough by hand if you prefer.

3. Warm your oven to 180°C for a fan oven. Remove the filling from the fridge, wash and chop the spring onion and mix them through the meat.

4. When your dough is ready, turn it out onto a floured surface and knock it back a little. To do this, just punch it lightly with your fists. Divide the dough into twelve equal portions. Now roll them out into discs about twelve centimetres wide. To achieve a perfect disc, I just rolled my dough out to the correct size and then pressed a cereal bowl into the dough to cut out the disc.

5. Next, using slightly wet fingers take one-twelfth of the filling and roll it into a ball. Place the ball in the middle of one of your discs of dough. Gather the edges together and pinch and seal the bun. Make sure it is properly sealed to avoid leakage during baking. Place the bun seam side down on a non-stick or lined baking tray. Now repeat until you have made twelve buns.

6. Lightly whisk an egg, add a few tablespoons of water, and use this to coat the top of each bun. Spread some sesame seeds on a plate, and dip each bun upside down in the seeds to coat the top of the bun. 

7. Bake the buns for twenty minutes, when they are golden brown and crust they are done. Depending upon your oven they may need an extra five minutes to get nice and crusty. Allow the cooked buns rest on a wire rack for a few minutes to let them to cook slightly but eat them warm. Serve the buns with a side salad or whatever other side you fancy. An Asian Slaw is perfect with these. I made one with some shredded white cabbage, carrots, kale and dressed it with sesame oil, soy sauce, honey, black pepper, chopped red chilli and lots of lime juice and some lime zest. Yum.