On Thursday, we went to a prime rib dinner and I was asked to make the pork buns as the appetizer. We still had practically the whole batch of steamed buns, which I froze and stored in a big plastic bag in the chest freezer.
Josh went to DFM and picked a beautiful pork belly for me. Given what happened last time, I still on marginally followed the directions. I did my equal parts salt and sugar mixture, but instead of letting it meld for 6 to 24 hours, I only went about two hours or so.
I set the oven to 450 and halved the recipe based on the amount of pork belly. Then I turned it down to 250 and let it go low and slow until it felt soft to the touch, about two hours.
Then when I took it out, I knew I had done it properly. When I poked it to feel its pillowy softness, my finger tasted porky, salty, and sweet all at once.
Here's a closeup of that lusciousness. You can clearly see the alternating layers of fat and meat, which is what you want in a good slab of pork belly.
You have to let the pork belly cool in order to slice it properly. Since I was serving at Mike and Nancy's, I wrapped it up in foil.
Once we got there, I sliced up my cucumber and let it pickle in an equal ratio salt/sugar mixture. I sliced up my scallions, though in retrospect, not as thinly as I should have. I have to admit that I was being very careful since Mike's knives are much sharper than mine. I sliced up the pork belly and sauteed it until warm and jiggly. I steamed my frozen buns for 2-3 minutes.
Each bun was opened, got a swipe of hoisin sauce, two pieces of warm, jiggly pork belly slices, two pickled cucumber slices, and a mixture of green and white scallion slices.
Then serve!
There was enough pork belly for three rounds. Whew. They were really good. But I was also pretty full after that.
Josh estimates we still have about 24 buns left. Hint, hint.
P.S. I know David Chang is Korean but I really see nothing Korean about these pork buns. So that's why I've tagged this post as Chinese!
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