For Emma, forever ago.

Bon Iver and a scotch on the rocks. That's me. Happy.
Things have been fairly relaxed over here for the past week or so. As has the eating. Communal 'dig in' and eat with your fingers eating has been the norm and the following recipe is one of my favorites. This has been altered from Alex Rushmers Momofoku Pork Bun's. I can heartily recommend the original recipe, but I've changed things just slightly so these buns can be made with tofu to make them vegan friendly, and when pushed for time in the evenings I make them with pork chops drizzled in hoisin sauce which I then shred with forks.
Any way, here is the recipe:

In a bowl mix:
365g Plain Flour
1tsp Salt
40g Sugar
To this add:
250ml ish Warm water
1.5tsp Yeast (I use quick acting)
1tbs Oil
I mix all of this with a wooden spoon. Its a soggy dough so its not so good for tipping out and kneading. If you have a bread machine this makes the whole thing so much easier...just whack everything in and put it on the dough setting. Just treat the dough roughly with a spoon until the dough gets a bit elastic.
Leave this to rise for 40mins, or a couple of hours or most of the day...as I often do.
Once the dough has risen, knock it back and separate the dough into 20 balls. Put these on squares of baking paper and leave them to rise again. This should take another maybe 20 mins.

From here all you need to do is steam the buns. They take 8-12 mins and I do them in my vegetable steamer.
From there, just serve. Like I said I serve them with tofu or pork cooked in hoisin sauce. I serve these with bowls of shredded cucumber and spring onion. I serve them with extra sauce to spread on the buns. From there, dig in.
This goes exceptionally well with a few cold beers/ a good scotch and good music. Bon Iver fits my bill perfectly. Their new offering Calgary (Click for FREE DOWNLOAD!) is utterly beautiful and I cannot wait for the rest of the album!