on sunday my friend ben, who is an awesome cook (although reportedly not as good as his sister, who has won a james beard award... but still you can see what kind of cooking genes we are dealing with here. these people have cooking competitions when the family gets together), invited some friends over for a chinese new year dinner.
we had authentic japanese ramen with a 9 hour broth (ramen = not traditional for a chinese new year party but i am obviously not complaining), momofuku pork buns, a moosewood cookbook recipe for tofu with bok choy, lots of dumplings, wine, and dojo gelato (vietnamese coffee, coconut curry, and chocolate diavolo). it was awesome.
i did not take any pictures during the meal but here is a picture of leftovers which i ate for lunch the next day
ben did all sorts of interesting things for this meal including roasting pork belly, poaching eggs in the shell (it's so cool... you crack the egg and a poached egg slides out), and making his own pickled shiitake mushrooms (which are addictive as hell). obviously i had to get recipes so here they are from ben, via david chang, in ben's words:
pork belly
3 lbs of pork belly (skinless)
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar
yep. that's it. CAM's only has skin-on pork belly, so you'll need a sharp knife, a steady hand (remember why I had to wear that glove?) and a mental resolve that is comfortable with cutting a piece of meat that may have a nipple on it. (not. kidding). you can leave the skin on if you want a built in pork rind on top (that can be pretty tasty) but there are a couple of (in my opinion, potentially gross) pitfalls to watch out for. 1 is nipples - I'd cut them off. (ugh. i hate even TYPING that). The other is bristles, which can be apparently burned off by waving a blowtorch over the skin very lightly. (what do you mean you don't have a cooking blowtorch?!?)
If you got a nipple-less, bristleless piece of pork belly and have a hankering for some crackling, then I'd say full steam ahead. Otherwise, I'm afraid you'll need to slice the skin off on one end to make a flap you can grab with your hand, and then using a sawing motion cut the skin from the fat, being careful keep your hand outside the path of the blade. otherwise, you might cut through the skin and into, say , the knuckle on the middle finger of your left hand.
you could, also use the skin for crackling, but it requires boiling the skin in water to boil off the excess fat so your apt will smell like a pork sauna, putting the skin in a food dehydrator for 12 hours, and THEN deep frying it.
ok, so using the salt/sugar mixture, cover the meat with the sugar/salt mixture. you don't have to the entire 1/2 cup of seasoning, just enough to coat the top & bottom. put them in a baking dish, cover it with cling wrap and park it in the fridge for at least 6 hours, no more than 24 (otherwise you'll have bacon on your hands. which...is still pretty much OK.) That last step is important, otherwise you'll never dry out the outside enough to get a good crust and the meat won't be seasoned throughout.
Then, blast the belly, fat side up, in a roasting pan in a 450 oven for an hour, basting it with the fat at the halfway point. It should have a nice, brown crust.
then take the heat way down to 250 and roast for about an hour- 1:15. the meat should be pillow soft to the touch. reserve the fat for soups & meat juices as a kind of meat jelly if you're really into adding pork flavor to something.
If you want to cut it into neat slices for the ramen or for the pork buns, like I did, it's best to make sure the pork belly is completely cool (otherwise it will flake on you). then warm it in a pan before serving.
3 lbs of pork belly (skinless)
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar
yep. that's it. CAM's only has skin-on pork belly, so you'll need a sharp knife, a steady hand (remember why I had to wear that glove?) and a mental resolve that is comfortable with cutting a piece of meat that may have a nipple on it. (not. kidding). you can leave the skin on if you want a built in pork rind on top (that can be pretty tasty) but there are a couple of (in my opinion, potentially gross) pitfalls to watch out for. 1 is nipples - I'd cut them off. (ugh. i hate even TYPING that). The other is bristles, which can be apparently burned off by waving a blowtorch over the skin very lightly. (what do you mean you don't have a cooking blowtorch?!?)
If you got a nipple-less, bristleless piece of pork belly and have a hankering for some crackling, then I'd say full steam ahead. Otherwise, I'm afraid you'll need to slice the skin off on one end to make a flap you can grab with your hand, and then using a sawing motion cut the skin from the fat, being careful keep your hand outside the path of the blade. otherwise, you might cut through the skin and into, say , the knuckle on the middle finger of your left hand.
you could, also use the skin for crackling, but it requires boiling the skin in water to boil off the excess fat so your apt will smell like a pork sauna, putting the skin in a food dehydrator for 12 hours, and THEN deep frying it.
ok, so using the salt/sugar mixture, cover the meat with the sugar/salt mixture. you don't have to the entire 1/2 cup of seasoning, just enough to coat the top & bottom. put them in a baking dish, cover it with cling wrap and park it in the fridge for at least 6 hours, no more than 24 (otherwise you'll have bacon on your hands. which...is still pretty much OK.) That last step is important, otherwise you'll never dry out the outside enough to get a good crust and the meat won't be seasoned throughout.
Then, blast the belly, fat side up, in a roasting pan in a 450 oven for an hour, basting it with the fat at the halfway point. It should have a nice, brown crust.
then take the heat way down to 250 and roast for about an hour- 1:15. the meat should be pillow soft to the touch. reserve the fat for soups & meat juices as a kind of meat jelly if you're really into adding pork flavor to something.
If you want to cut it into neat slices for the ramen or for the pork buns, like I did, it's best to make sure the pork belly is completely cool (otherwise it will flake on you). then warm it in a pan before serving.
momofuku-style pork buns
To make the pork buns (i think you could call them "chinese white castles") I made, buy the steamed buns at CAMs (they didn't have the folded ones when I was there, but those are preferred). Steam the buns, cut some cucumbers really thin, coat the cucumbers to taste with the remaining salt/sugar mixture and wait 10 mins. put cucumbers on the bun with a smear of hoisin sauce and pork belly and eat. take it easy with the hoisin - a little goes a long way.
To make the pork buns (i think you could call them "chinese white castles") I made, buy the steamed buns at CAMs (they didn't have the folded ones when I was there, but those are preferred). Steam the buns, cut some cucumbers really thin, coat the cucumbers to taste with the remaining salt/sugar mixture and wait 10 mins. put cucumbers on the bun with a smear of hoisin sauce and pork belly and eat. take it easy with the hoisin - a little goes a long way.
shiitake pickles
4 loosely packed cups (1/3 oz, or 1 bag) of shiitake mushrooms
4 loosely packed cups (1/3 oz, or 1 bag) of shiitake mushrooms
1 cup sugar
1 cup usukuchi (light soy sauce)
1 cup sherry vinegar (I can't find this anywhere, so I just used rice vinegar)
1 cup sherry vinegar (I can't find this anywhere, so I just used rice vinegar)
2 3-inch knobs of fresh ginger, peeled.
Usukuchi is important for this one - just because normal soy sauce would be wayy too salty (usukuchi is the soy sauce on the right with the yellow cap). Since you're probably going to cam's to pick up the dried mushrooms, i'd pick up a bottle of the usukuchi as well.
put the mushrooms in a bowl. boil some water and pour over the shiitakes, enough to immerse them in water. cover the bowl with a plate & let steep for 10-15 min, until they are soft.
get the mushrooms out of the liquid, reserving 2 cups of the liquid for the brine. Chop the mushrooms into strips and set aside.
in a pot, combine the mushrooms, mushroom liquid, sugar, soy sauce, ginger and vinegar. bring to a gentle simmer for 30 mins. then dump the pickles into a jar or other container, using enough brining liquid to coat. store in the fridge & don't forget to check your blood pressure regularly.
Usukuchi is important for this one - just because normal soy sauce would be wayy too salty (usukuchi is the soy sauce on the right with the yellow cap). Since you're probably going to cam's to pick up the dried mushrooms, i'd pick up a bottle of the usukuchi as well.
put the mushrooms in a bowl. boil some water and pour over the shiitakes, enough to immerse them in water. cover the bowl with a plate & let steep for 10-15 min, until they are soft.
get the mushrooms out of the liquid, reserving 2 cups of the liquid for the brine. Chop the mushrooms into strips and set aside.
in a pot, combine the mushrooms, mushroom liquid, sugar, soy sauce, ginger and vinegar. bring to a gentle simmer for 30 mins. then dump the pickles into a jar or other container, using enough brining liquid to coat. store in the fridge & don't forget to check your blood pressure regularly.
