Barbecued Pork Steaks in a Bun

One stormy day several years ago, I was watching Food Network and they were showing one of Pillsbury’s Bake – Off Contests, where contestants win as much as $1 million dollars for their recipes…

My reaction was – WOW!  A $1 million dollar for a recipe?  Are these recipes really worth that much?  Do they really taste that good to be awarded a $million dollars?  So I went to the library and borrow one of Pillsbury’s Cookbooks.  I was curious to try some of these million dollar  recipes.  I want to know, and taste for myself, what makes these recipes won $1 million dollars.

One of the $1 million dollar winning recipes that caught my eye was the Chinese Roast Pork Buns by Wayne Hu.  The picture looked good and the buns reminded me of Siopao, another Chinese dish that I used to enjoy in the Philippines years ago.  Siopao is a steamed bun filled with pork and boiled eggs, served with a sauce.  Thus, I decided to give this dish a try…

The verdict…?

Overall… my family loves these buns.  They are great travel food.  And can be eaten as a snack, lunch, or dinner accompanied with a light soup.

And the preparation is fairly easy because I did not make my own buns.  Instead, I used store bought Pillsbury Buttermilk Biscuits.

My question is… are the really worth $1 million dollars…?

The Barbecued Pork Blade Steaks are awesome.  This is a stand alone dish that can be served with cooked rice and sauteed vegetables on the side.  And they’re easy to make.

As for the buns…

I don’t think so.  They are good… and the preparation is easy, but I don’t think it’s worth a $1 million dollars.  But then again, this is a very good example that food and taste is very subjective!  According to the judges of the Pillsbury Bake – Off Contest in 1994, this recipe – Chinese Roast Pork Buns is worth the $million dollar prize.

The recipe that I am posting here is my own adaptation of that $million dollar winning recipe.  I made a slight deviation from the original recipe by using red wine and olive oil, instead of using sherry and peanut oil, but I think the taste is still pretty close.  Also, I made extra barbecue sauce for the pork and I mixed about ½ cup of the remaining barbecue sauce with the filling below.

This recipe serves 4.  Two buns per person.

(I apologize.  But I don’t have step by step photos for this, yet…)

Prepare the Barbecued Pork Blade Steaks first.

I realized that I cooked four blade steaks but I only need 2 for these buns.  So I made sandwiches with the ones I did not need…

Barbecued Pork Steaks

4 large pork blade steaks – about 3 pounds

Sweet Barbecue Sauce:

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup ketchup

½ cup soy sauce

½ cup hoisen sauce

¼ cup red wine

¼ cup deli style mustard with horseradish

2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

6 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled

 

Combine barbecue sauce ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.  Pour sauce into a large bowl.  Reserve 1/2 cup of this sauce to be used for the Barbecued Pork Steaks in a Bun…

 

Preheat oven to 400°F.

 

Line a heavy duty cookie sheet with foil.  Place a wire rack in the cookie sheet.

 

Wash pork steaks and pat dry with paper towels and place them on the wire rack.  Liberally brush both sides of each pork steak with the barbecue sauce.

 

Bake pork steaks in a preheated oven at 400°F for 30 minutes.

Brush pork steaks again, on both sides, with the remaining barbecue sauce.  Return to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes.

Remove pork steaks from the oven and cool enough to handle.  Chop pork steaks into small pieces, discarding the bones.  Serve pork steaks as sandwiches or use as filling for the Barbecued Pork in a Bun.

~~~

So once the pork steaks are ready…

Prepare the filling for the buns:

1 TBSP. olive oil or vegetable oil

½ medium onion – finely diced

1 – 8 ounces can water chestnuts, finely diced

1 TBSP. cornstarch

1 TBSP. red wine or dry sherry

1 TBSP. soy sauce

1 TBSP. hoisen sauce

½ cup chicken stock (broth)

2 Barbecued Pork Blade Steaks – chopped

Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet.  Sauté the onions until translucent.  Add the water chestnuts and stir a few minutes.

In a small bowl, combine soy sauce and hoisen sauce and pour over the sautéed onions and water chestnuts, stirring to combine.  Stir in chicken stock or broth and bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat.

In another small bowl, combine wine or sherry and cornstarch.  Gradually stir in cornstarch mixture into onions and water chestnuts, whisking constantly until thick.  Remove skillet from the heat and add chopped barbecued pork.  I mixed ½ cup of the remaining barbecue sauce to this mixture to make the filling more saucy.

As for the buns, you will need 1 can Pillsbury Buttermilk Biscuits…

Take the biscuits out of the can and separate them…

On a lightly floured board or clean counter, roll each biscuit, using a lightly floured rolling pin, into a 6 inch circle.

Scoop about 6 tablespoons of the barbecued pork and fill the center of the flattened biscuit.  Gather the edges towards the middle, twisting and pressing to seal.

Place buns seam side down on the greased cookie sheet.   Brush each bun with the glaze and bake in a preheated oven at 375°F for 18 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve warm.

Bun Glaze:

1 large egg

1 tsp. brown sugar

1 tsp. water

Beat all ingredients.  Brush each barbecued pork buns with this glaze before baking.

After 18 minutes or so… the buns are ready to serve.

 

Enjoy and Happy Cooking!

Tess Harris

 

Eat Your Rum and Drink Your Pork

“Dad… wake up!” the little girl shaking his father on the left shoulder.

“Huhh…?  ssshhhhhh… ssshhhh…” the father snored while leaning his head on a big rock.

“Dad… c’mon, let’s go!  Let’s go home…!”

“It’s getting dark and I’m scared…” the little girl is now on the verge of crying.

This man is my dad.  He is drunk.  He is too drunk too keep walking and so he laid down right in the middle of the dirt path beside a big rock.  We are about 3 miles from our nipa hut, five miles away from the town.

As a little girl, I always wanted to go with my dad wherever he  went.  And this day was just one of the days I went with him.  He couldn’t refuse his friend and  drank too many shots of Tanduay Rum while we were in town.  He managed to head home with me… but midway to our nipa hut, he couldn’t keep his eyes open and slump right in the middle of the dirt road… This is not the first time he’s done this – got drunk and slept in the dirt path halfway home.  My mother was hoping that because I am with him, he wouldn’t get too drunk.  But she’s wrong.  I am just a little girl, no match to his friend who was offering him free drinks…

At least this time he is sleeping, instead of going to one of his violent and crazy rage…

Five years back… when I was even younger, probably four years old… I remember running with my little brother, while my mom holding my other youngest brother and youngest sister, yelling:

“Let’s go, Eday (baby)! Let’s go… let’s go.  Hurry!”

I was confused… I was dazed…. I didn’t understand why we were running.  And where we running to…? What’s happening…?

Finally… we arrived at the Barrio Captain’s house, all wet  and covered in mud…

I was sitting on the floor, in the corner, still holding my little brother’s hand, shaking… trembling from fear and exhaustion.  We ran through the rice fields,  and across the muddy and wooded marsh before we reach the small town…

“Mrs… what happened? How can I help you?” asked the Barrio Captain.

“My husband… Please hide us.” said Mrs… in tears and shaking.

“Why? What did he do? Why are you so afraid?” The Barrio Captain with a worried look on his face, wanted to know.

“My husband… He is very angry.  He pulled out his long knife and was going to kill us – me… and my children.  Please hide us? Please!” said Mrs, signaling for me and my little brother to come to her.

She pulled me and my little brother closer to her… She, looking at the Barrio Captain, pleading… look at me and my children… I don’t want to die… I don’t want them to die…please help me…

I don’t exactly remember why my dad was angry that night.  Something must have set him off, but I didn’t know what.  Could it have been my mother? What did she said?  I sensed that he came home drunk again and the slightest thing made him angry…

My father did not drink every day. Not even every week.  He got drunk intermittently.  But when he did, he became aggressive… mean… and very intimidating.  He looked for fights and we hoped that no one would engage him.  We hid when he’s drunk because we were scared he is going to physically hurt us.

My mother… she drank occasionally, at party celebrations.  When she did, her face turned bright red and she’d start crying.  She became depressed.  She strummed her guitar and cried uncontrollably.

~~~

I was 16 when I had my first drink.  It was white, clear, liquid.  Very strong, intense and fiery on the tongue.  I was with my cousin who was 18 and my step sister, who was 19.  We were on our way to the big city… to school.  That night, before we boarded a small boat, our friends – much older than us, persuaded us to have a drink…

“Here, drink some!” Said Renato, pushing the small glass towards me.

“What is that?” turning the glass with my finger.

“How does it taste?” I asked curiously.

“Well, try some and you’ll see.” Renato assured.

I picked up the glass and drank the content.  It burned my throat as the clear liquid went down my esophagus.  I felt my stomach burst into fire.  My head felt funny…  my eyes were seeing double… and the wall was spinning.

I don’t like the taste of straight alcohol and my body has low tolerance for it.  I very,  rarely drink, and won’t drink any alcohol unless it is camouflaged with sweet juices or sweet syrup. And even this, I can’t drink that much.

But… I like how some alcohol make certain dishes taste.  So I often use medium dry sherry or white wine in my sauces and marinades.  I use white wine with chicken and pork, and red for beef dishes.

Here in this dish, I used Myer’s 100% Jamaican Rum.  Dark rums are ideal for cooking.  It makes food and sauces very flavorful.

Pork Steaks with Rum Barbecue Sauce

Serves 3

3 large pork blade steaks – about 3 pounds

Sweet RUM Barbecue Sauce:

¼ cup firmly packed brown sugar

½ cup ketchup

¼ cup soy sauce

¼ cup hoisen sauce

2 TBSPs. dark rum

1 TBSP. genuine wasabi or 2 TBSPs. deli style mustard with horseradish

1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

4 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled

Combine sauce ingredients in a medium size glass bowl.  Stir until well blended and smooth.  Set aside.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Line a heavy duty cookie sheet with heavy strength foil.

Wash pork steaks and pat dry with paper towels and place them on foiled lined baking sheet.  Using a pastry brush, liberally brush pork steaks, on one side with the barbecue sauce.

Roast pork steaks in a preheated oven at 400°F for 30 minutes.

Remove pork steaks from the oven and pour off excess liquid.

(Usually, I  temporarily transfer them into a large plate, while I pour the liquid from the baking sheet.)

Turn the pork steaks on the other side and again, liberrally brush with the barbecue sauce.

Return pork steaks to the oven and bake for another 30 minutes.

Serve with rice or potato salad.

OR

Chop pork steaks into small pieces, discarding the bones, and serve pork steaks as sandwiches…

Sweet RUM BBQ Sauce

Pork steaks freshly brushed with the sauce

Enjoy and Happy Cooking!

Tess