Musings by Mia – Staycations for Celiacs – Gluten-Free Pork Buns

Staycations for Celiacs

Although summer is over, we still want to explore the world of food from the comfort of home! My partner, a wonderful cook/baker, has been busy developing some tasty gluten free recipes that I am eager to share. This instalment of the series is a Gluten-Free Pork Bun!

For so long I have looked on with eager eyes as my friends bought and devoured Pork Buns. Eager to try them myself, my partner was put to the task, and he did not disappoint! Although a bit tricky to make, the recipe yields 16 buns so they become a delicious quick meal for the next few days. Sit down, on-the-go, lunch, dinner, (breakfast?), these Gluten-free Pork Buns are a welcome alternative to traditional gluten-containing Pork Buns!

Enjoy!

Gluten-Free Pork Buns

Ingredients – Pork (Char Siu)

• ~3lbs (1.2kg) boneless pork shoulder/butt
• ¼ cup (50g) granulated white sugar
• 1 TSP salt
• 2 TBSP gluten-free soy sauce
• 1 TBSP gluten-free hoisin
• 1 TBSP rice wine vinegar or white vinegar
• ½ TSP sesame oil
• ½ TSP five spice powder
• 1 TSP brown sugar
• 2 TBSP honey
• 3 cloves minced garlic

Ingredients – Buns

• 1½ cup (350g) whole milk
• ¼ cup (60g) water
• 1 ½ cups (350g) + ¼ (35g) of gluten-free flour blend
• ¼ cup (50g) granulated white sugar
• 1 TBSP instant yeast
• 1 TSP salt
• 2 eggs

Ingredients – Filling

• ½ cup (30g) finely chopped shallots or onion
• 2 cups (400g) Roast pork
• 3 TBSP gluten-free soy sauce
• 1 TBSP gluten-free hoisin
• 2 TSP sesame oil
• 1 TBSP sugar
• ¾ cup (180g) chicken stock
• 3 TBSP corn starch
• 1 egg (for egg wash)

INSTRUCTIONS – Char Siu Pork

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl except for the honey, hot water and pork. Save a tablespoon or two of marinade and set aside.
2. Cut pork into strips/chunks around 2-3 inches thick and rub/cover with marinade and refrigerate overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 450°C and put pork on a metal roasting rack above a baking tray with water.
4. Roast pork for 25-30 minutes and flip it, ensure that there is still water on the bottom baking tray, refill if needed, roast another 15-20 minutes.
5. Add 2 tablespoons of honey to reserve marinade and hot water, use this to baste all sides of the pork and roast for another 10 minutes.
6. Remove from oven, baste with remaining sauce and let rest for 10-15 minutes before slicing.

INSTRUCTIONS – Bun dough

1. Add milk, water, and flour to saucepan and whisk to combine over medium-low heat until it begins to thicken and turn into a paste. Take off heat and let cool.
2. Bloom yeast in ~1/4 cup of milk.
3. Whisk together dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt) and in a separate bowl mix together, milk, bloomed yeast, eggs, and cooled milk/water/flour mixture.
4. In a stand mixture, slowly add wet ingredients to dry ingredients before mixing on medium for 8-10 minutes.
5. Cover the bowl with dough in saran wrap and let it sit at room temperature for 1-2 hours or until it has doubled in size. After it has doubled in size, refrigerate for at least another hour, but up to overnight.

INSTRUCTIONS – Assembly/Final preparation

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan over medium-high heat and fry the onions for 3-4 minutes.
2. In a bowl, mix the sugar, soy sauce, hoisin and sesame oil together before adding it to the pan and cook until it begins to bubble.
3. Mix the chicken stock and cornstarch together and add it to the pan. Reduce heat to low and cook until it has thickened
4. In a separate pan, fry off roast pork to get some crispy pieces and cube it into smaller pieces before mixing all the roast pork with the thickened sauce, put in refrigerator to cool.
5. After the dough has risen and been refrigerated, flour a countertop and divide into 16 pieces.
6. Preheat oven to 400°
7. One at a time, ensuring that the surface your working on is well floured, roll each ball into a circle and place ~2 tablespoons of meat filling in the middle. Pull the edges around the filling to the center and crimp to close.
8. Place seam side down on a baking sheet. Repeat for remaining.
9. Before baking, brush top with egg wash and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

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About Mia

• “Musings by Mia is meant to be a collection of topics that I wish had been more discussed when I was first diagnosed with Celiac Disease as a teen. I will explore topics from the perspective of a young adult with Celiac Disease and share my personal experiences in these articles. As these are my own experiences, they are by no means meant to be a ‘how-to’ guide, but instead an informative glimpse into the situations a typical young adult with Celiac Disease might face.”
• If you have questions or comments,  or if you have topic suggestions, Mia would be happy to hear from you. Scroll down to the comment field below or email ellen@theceliacscene.com with your thoughts.