I don’t know how experienced you are with these delicious, meaty treats, but I can assure you that these homemade hirata buns are incredibly tasty! While I am admitting that I do not have any reference for comparison, I can also say that these have been one of the very best dishes I have ever had/made (I can’t quite make up my mind).
Edinburgh & the festival
August is a crazy month, here in Edinburgh. The Fringe and the International Edinburgh Festival (yes, we have a bunch of festivals happening at the same time) take over the entire city. There are shows from morning until late at night, and the whole city is buzzing with comedy enthusiasts running from one venue to the next to catch shows. Consequently, as you can imagine, there are all sorts of small stalls offering a variety of foods and drinks, from pizza (by the slice), to haggis mac’n’cheese (still wondering why anyone would want to eat that).
Fringe binge
Last year I spent the whole festival month writing my MSc dissertation and reading about organisational culture and happiness, so I completely missed the festival. This year, though, after I realised that half of August had passed without me going to any shows, I decided to Fringe-binge (as I like to call it) on some shows before the festival ended. That week I spent running around from one venue to the next was an utter disaster for any healthy eating habits. I mean, how can you go to comedy shows without enjoying one, two, three (…) pints of some good local ale? Plus, there’s not enough time between the shows to actually grab a decent dinner, so anything will do. Actually, no. I still wouldn’t want to try haggis mac’n’cheese!
I love you like… salt
There I was at the Three Sisters, in between shows and craving my first cubano sandwich from a stall that was unfortunately closed. I wasn’t very hungry, but I was there with my boyfriend and a colleague of his and they were looking forward to having dinner. The choice was fairly simple: hirata buns, whatever those were, or log fired pizza. Because we were going to share the food, the guys decided to try the log fired margherita. I mean, log fired pizza, what can be wrong with that? I have to admit though, that was one of the worst pizzas I’ve ever had! The reason was simple: it had no salt. That was what I would call dessert; aren’t tomatoes fruits anyway? I say it over and over again: don’t ever forget to put a pinch of salt into your food, be it a savoury dish or dessert!
Hira…what!?
Despite that the Three Sisters claim to be a food fair kind of place, none of the stalls in the courtyard had salt (!!!). While I was enjoying my margherita dessert, my eyes kept falling on those hirata buns that others were picking over log fired pizza and haggis mac’n’cheese. The sweeter the pizza was getting, the more I was salivating imagining some salty soy glazed pulled pork with coriander in those cute fluffy buns. So I decided to make them at home.
Developing the recipe
After I finally managed to recover from the festival with an overload of light and healthy vegetarian food, I finally decided to make hirata buns. I looked online for some inspiration, and yes, I did use BBC’s Chinese steamed buns recipe. I am an utter disaster when it comes to mixing yeast and flour. Plus, I’d never had steamed buns before. I bought pork shoulder to slow cook in an asian inspired glaze. I decided to use some salad leaves (I can’t live without them), coriander, spring onion and radishes. I also had some sriracha sauce to add some spiciness, and all was perfect. They ended up being so good my boyfriend and I couldn’t stop eating. As for the meat, Max said it’s the best pork roast I’d ever made!
The recipe
- 600g pork shoulder
- 1 black cardamom, ground
- 1 tbsp cloves, ground
- 1 tbsp cinnamon, ground
- 1 star anise, ground
- 1 cup of sake
- 1/2 cup oyster sauce
- 1/3 cup dark soy sauce
- 4 tbsp muscovado sugar
- 1 cup of water
- salt
- pepper
- 8 Chinese steamed buns
- 1 large handful of green salad leaves of your choice
- 8 radishes
- 6 spring onions
- 1 handful of fresh coriander leaves
- Sriracha sauce
- First of all you should prepare the pork. It should marinate in the spices and glaze overnight if possible. Mix all the sauces together and add them to the pork shoulder. Rub it with the salt, pepper and spices and leave it in the fridge.
- Turn the oven on at 160ºC. Cover the pork with aluminium foil and roast it for 5 hours. Take it out every hour and pour some more of the sauce on top, to make sure the flavours will be spread evenly.
- Prepare the steamed buns about 5 minutes before you serve the dish. It's nice to have them warm when serving them.
- Once the pork is cooked and soft, pull it apart using two forks. It should be soft and juicy.
- Open the buns, add a layer of green salad leaves, add some pork and top it up with spring onions, coriander, radishes and sriracha sauce (depending on how spicy you want it to be).
- Enjoy this delicious treat!
Ioana
1 comment
These buns look incredible! Steamed buns has been on the list to make for so long…and yours look so professional, I’d buy one of those from a festival stall in a heartbeat.