Bao with braised pork

Course of action

• Prepare the meat and put it in the oven.
• Make the dough and set aside for the first rise.
• Prepare marinated vegetables and topping.
• Form bao and style to proof.
• Have meat and toppings ready before steaming your bao.
• Steam! And eat!

The most delicious, tender pork: find a roasting pan and mix all the ingredients - except meat - in it. When the marinade is mixed well, put the neck chops in and make sure they are completely marinated. Then put the lid on and let it take care of itself in the oven for a minimum of 3 hours at 150 degrees. Keep an eye on it and if necessary turn the chops along the way.

Bao - the steamed buns: dissolve the yeast in the water, then add all the remaining ingredients. Knead for about 10 minutes on a stand mixer - or by hand if you're not as lazy as me :-)
Let the dough rise until doubled in size - this takes about 1 hour.
Form approx. 18 'balls' of 60 grams each and place them on a lightly floured piece of baking paper. The buns must be flat and oval - so that they form a perfect bao when they are later 'folded' over.
Let them rise for about 30 minutes and brush them with peanut oil, after which you fold them over so that they get the characteristic little 'pocket'. Cut out the baking paper so that each bao has a small piece of baking paper underneath - this is to prevent them from sticking to the bamboo steamer.
Now they are ready to go into the steamer. Place the bamboo steamer on top of a pot of boiling water (mine is at 7/9 on the stove when boiling). Steam your bao for about 10 minutes and serve immediately.

Marinated vegetables: cut the vegetables into thin sticks - about 5 cm long. Mix all the ingredients for the marinade and add the vegetables. You can let this marinate anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours, depending on how much time you have.