Hirata buns or Bao buns are Japan’s answer to a cheeseburger, delicious steamed buns, filled with your choice of toppings and fresh veggies. No matter what you call them, nobody can deny that these soft sweet buns and their rich toppings are quickly becoming a street food staple here in the UK.
We have a new sauce for bao buns and recipe for it today! Miso glazed pork belly and sticky miso aubergine.
The most important aspect in making your Bao tasty and fresh of course is the Bun, you can find numerous recipes online if you are brave enough to make them from scratch, however there are plenty of ready made options you can store in the freezer. Try our Kuro Hirata buns!
The following recipes are for 6-8 Bao Buns, but as long as you follow a general rule of adding sauce equal to 20-30% of the ingredient weight, the filling will turn out perfectly every time.
Miso Glazed Pork belly bao buns
400g Pork Belly,
80g Nihon Shokken Miso Sauce. (Our new sauce!)
This pork is best slow cooked, either in a pot on the hob or in the oven, and is perfect for a large slow cooked batch. The miso can be added at the start as a marinade, or as a finishing sauce towards the end of cooking.
Sticky Miso Aubergine
2 aubergine (500g)
100g Nihon Shokken Miso Sauce
Cut the aubergine into thin slices and pan fry in plenty of oil.
Add Nihon Shokken Miso sauce towards the end of cooking.
Thirdly you need to have texture and crunch to offset the pillowy bao.
We filled our bao with a crispy salad of lettuce, chilli and radish.
For the Salad
Half Lettuce – Shredded.
2 Spring onions finely chopped 2-3 medium Red and Green Chillies (Depending on how much you like spice)
3 Baby Radishes, finely chopped.
3 Baby Cucumbers chopped into strips.
Your choice of Japanese style dressing (We reccomend Nihon Shokken Japanese Dressing)
Rich miso with sweet flavour, it goes well with not just bao buns, tonkatsu and cod too! Hope you enjoy our new sauce!