Featured recipe

Butaman

Steamed pork buns

In Osaka a filled steamed bun is called butaman, never nikuman, and there are queues all day at the bun counters under Namba and Shin-Osaka stations, where travellers buy a box of them hot to take home. The dough is soft, slightly sweet and pillowy; the pork filling is juicy with lots of sweet onion and a little ginger, and every bite gets a dab of sharp karashi mustard. Make a batch for a weekend lunch and freeze the rest. Chef's tip: stir the pork mince in one direction until it turns sticky before adding the onion, so the filling holds its juice instead of crumbling.

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