Pork Buns

Tonight...it's pork buns.

Get yourself a damn fine piece of fatty pork belly. Make sure it's of good quality as it is the star of this meal. You want that rich, porky taste, not some wet, flabby pork flavor that tends to be associated with average grocery store pork. Trust me on this, I didn't like pork when I was kid because it came from a shit hole. Did you like those breaded pork chops from childhood? The only good part of those was the overly seasoned bread crumb coating.

My belly came from the Meat Hook here in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Look at the fatty glory of this belly.

I marinated it overnight in some rice vinegar, miso paste, ginger, soy sauce, Sriracha, brown sugar, and garlic. Remove the skin the next day, but whatever you do, do not, I repeat, DO NOT THROW IT AWAY! You could roast it at a super high temperature and make some crispy roasted pig skin, or braise it, or even dehydrate it and deep fry. Just don't toss it in the trash.

Preheat you oven to 450˚ and then throw your pork belly in a pan with a high wall, I used a dutch oven. Once your oven reaches 450˚, toss it in. Cook it at that temperature for 10-15 minutes.

Give the pork belly a quick basting with its own fat and turn the temperature down to 250˚. Now you must wait. How long? At least 2 hours, but up to 4 or so. Just make sure it doesn't burn.

While you've got your belly in the oven, make some white bread dough. I chose to use pork and duck fat in mine. Let the dough rise and pound it down. I'm not a baker so you may want to get some advise or guidance elsewhere on the whole dough making thingy. I can tell you that once it would be ready for making a loaf of bread, you should tear off some little pieces, roughly the size of a ping pong ball or a silver dollar, and roll them into balls. Let those pieces of dough rise under a towel or plastic wrap for a bit.

Once the balls of dough have risen again, roll them into ovals and grease them up. Fold 'em over and place them on an appropriately sized piece of parchment paper and steam away. Allow the buns to steam for roughly ten minutes.

Open up the buns, slather some Hoisin sauce, a slice of belly, pickled cucumbers, cilantro, scallions, and Sriracha. Enjoy!