Macau Pork Chop Buns (澳门猪扒包)

Macau's take on the Bifana.

Piggie Buns

Baker’s percentages are [in brackets]. If you don’t know what baker’s percentages are, just ignore them.

• Bread flour (高筋面粉), 210g

• Water, 143g [68%]

• Sugar, 2g [1%]

• Salt, 4g [2%]

• Yeast, 2g [1%]

• Lard -or- ghee, 4g [2%]

Process:

Mix 210g of flour and 143g of water into a rough shaggy dough. Cover, and set aside for 40 minutes.

Pull the dough into a rough 'log' shape. On one side of the log, add 4g of salt and 2g of sugar. On the other side of the log, add 2g of yeast. Fold each side in, and then incorporate/knead by smearing against the work surface and then rolling it all up. After about five minutes, add 4g of lard (or ghee). Continue for another 2-3 minutes until the lard is incorporated and the work surface is no longer obviously 'oily'.

Slap the dough 300 times: get up to about shoulder height, slap against the work surface, fold the edge over, twist 90 degrees, repeat. You could also use a stand mixer on speed 4-5 here. The gluten should be developed enough that you can see a vague outline of your finger through it if you pulled it into a sheet. Cover, ferment for one hour.

Half way through fermenting, fold the dough three to four times.

Dust the dough, dust the work surface. Weigh the dough, split into three even pieces. Fold each into a ball: fold the edge in and over, pinch closed the craggily side, ‘seal’ by continuously twisting against the work surface. Move onto a tray, let it sit 15 minutes to relax the gluten.

Dust the dough, dust the work surface. Shape each by:

(1) slapping the ball in order to ‘lengthen’ it a touch

(2) press it flat

(3) from the edge in the ‘long’ direction, fold it in about a third of the way and press… then fold again and press

(4) cup your hands, then roll it a touch – seam side down - to get a rough ‘cigar’ shape

(5) pinch closed the seam

Cover them all, let them proof for 45 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 220C, placing a tray of water on the bottom rack to help develop steam.

Once the buns are done proofing, score each lengthwise with a razor blade. Bake for 14 minutes – but with five minutes remaining, remove the tray of water.

Cool the buns down on a cooling rack.

Macau Pork Chop Buns

For the pork chops, either bone out or bone in are great. We purchased rib chops and sliced them in half to get one bone in and one bone out piece each.

• Pork chops, 3, about ~150g (bone out) to ~250g (bone in) each

• Piggie buns from above

• Butter

• For the pork chop marinade:

  White pepper (白胡椒), 2 tsp

  Coriander seed (芫荽), 1 tsp

  Cumin (孜然), ½ tsp

  Salt, 2 tsp

  Baking soda (苏打粉), ¾ tsp

  Slab sugar (红糖) or dark brown sugar, 35g/~2.5 tbsp

  Chicken bouillon powder (鸡粉), ½ tbsp

  Onion, ~¼. Sliced.

  Garlic, 8 cloves. Smashed.

  Dried bay leaf (香叶), 3g. Crumpled up.

  White wine -or- Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒) -or- mix of equal parts brandy and water, ¾ cup

Process:

If using whole spices: toast two tsp of white pepper, 1 tsp of coriander seed, and ½ tsp of cumin seed spices until fragrant (~3 minutes, medium low flame). Add to a mortar and pound together with 2 tsp of salt and ¾ tsp of baking soda. Add the 35g (~2.5 tbsp) of dark brown or slab sugar and ½ tbsp of chicken powder. Pound/mix together until uniform.

Alternatively, if you’re using powdered spices, simply mix everything together.

Slice a quarter of an onion, smash eight cloves of garlic, and crumple up three dried bay leaves. Set aside.

Pound three pork chops to about ~0.5cm to ~0.7cm thickness, either using a mallet or a Chinese chef’s knife (if using the chef’s knife… pound with the back of the knife, rotate 90 degrees, pound again and slab thin. Repeat on the other side). Transfer to a marinading bowl.

Massage the spice mix in with the pork chop, then add the aromatics and massage those in as well. Add in ¾ cup of wine – it should barely submerge the pork chops. Marinate in the fridge for at least eight hours.

Remove the chops, remove any obvious solids. Stretch them out a touch, transfer to a plate.

Deep fry the pork chops at 140C for about ~2 minutes, or until done. You could also shallow fry or pan fry instead. Because of that boozy alkaline marinade, I like the texture best if you take the chops out at an internal temp of ~75C-80C. Place onto some paper towels.

Butter the buns, and toast them. Optionally toss on an additional small slab of butter, add the fried pork chop.