A word first about timing – and measurements. You want the buns to be ready for their few minutes’ frying once your Colombo-spiced pork is cooked. That way both the pork and the buns will be nicely hot for serving.
Bearing that in mind, I’d start with the buns, so that while the pork is slow roasting, the dough can rest and rise a couple of times before you form the buns and fry them. The dough needs to rise and rest twice – each time for 90 minutes – 3 hours in total. And, happily, three hours is how long it takes to cook the pork.
As with all types of bread and pastry making, it pays to take some care to be accurate with your measurements.
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl that’s easily big enough to hold all the buns’ ingredients. Stir the salt into the sifted flour.
Add the milk, water, and melted lard (or butter, if you prefer) to a heatproof mixing jug and heat in the microwave for 20 seconds or so until warm – about 108F / 42 C. That’s the sort of water temperature that’s grand for a good washing of your hands.
Stir the caster sugar and dried yeast into the warmed milk, water, and lard (or butter) – and keep stirring until the yeast and sugar have completely dissolved. Time now to mix the liquid into the flour – and for that I start by stirring with a stout wooden spoon, followed by some final mixing with my fingers.
Combining the flour and the liquid is a gradual process. I start by adding a third of the liquid and stirring thoroughly until it’s all absorbed by the flour. Then I repeat that process for the next third of the liquid, and then repeat again for the final third.
What you’re aiming for is a ball of dough where all the liquid is absorbed by the flour and the ball easily comes away from the sides of your bowl.
Now for some kneading – for 10 mins – on a work surface lightly dusted with a little flour. If you’re not familiar with how to knead dough by hand, there’s a good instructional video here from America’s Test Kitchen.
After that 10 minutes’ kneading, set the dough back in its mixing bowl, and cover it with a damp cotton kitchen towel. Set it aside for 90 minutes to let it rise and expand – it’ll probably about double in size during that time.
During this first ‘rise’, you’ll have ample time to sort out your Colombo-spiced pork and the Creole chien sauce.
After those 90 minutes’ rising, knead the dough again for another 2 minutes. Once that’s done, form the dough into six equal balls and return them to your mixing bowl. (FYI: each of the balls I made weighed almost 5 ounces.)
Cover the bowl again and set it aside for another 90 minutes. And when those 90 minutes are up, the pork will be done, and you’ll be ready to fry the buns and serve your bokits.