On this sequence, we check out recipes from skilled cooks and streamline them to seize their essence, whereas nonetheless prioritizing truly consuming dinner at an affordable hour. For this installment, we’re turning our consideration to bo ssam, a dish popularized by David Chang at Momofuku Ssäm Bar.
Experiencing the eponymous bo ssam at Momofuku Ssäm Bar was the form of eating occasion you place in your bucket listing as quickly because the New York Metropolis restaurant opened in 2006. However scoring a chew of David Chang’s era-defining pork shoulder, served wrapped in lettuce leaves and accompanied by quite a few accoutrements, was no straightforward feat. First, you needed to safe a notoriously tough reservation, and you then needed to discover 4 to 6 pork-loving mates who simply occurred to be free at 9:30 on a wet Tuesday evening. Sadly, the celebrities by no means did align for me and by no means will, for the reason that new location of Ssäm Bar’s New York location (its second), shuttered within the fall of 2023.
I did verify the bo ssam off my listing a bit later at Momofuku’s restaurant in Las Vegas, the place the dish’s shareable, eat-with-your-hands sensuality and go-for-broke enjoyable made it the right match for that journey. Any lingering pork grease on my fingers that evening might or might not have helped me on the craps desk later. Anyway, that night was so memorable that as quickly as I received again to Portland, Oregon, I cracked open my copy of the Momofuku cookbook to attempt making bo ssam at house.
Very similar to getting a reservation on the authentic Ssäm Bar, this proved to be fairly an endeavor. The recipe requires an 8- to 10-pound bone-in pork butt, 6 to eight hours of dry brining, 4 sub-recipes, and roasting the beast in a low oven for six hours (in actuality it took 8-plus hours for the meat to be fork-tender, and the home smelled like greasy pork for 2 days). There have been additionally visits to 2 totally different Korean markets to search out elements for the ssam sauce recipe.
By the point I sat all the way down to benefit from the meal with mates, I used to be too exhausted to eat. Very similar to, once more, the Momofuku expertise, it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime occasion, not one thing I’d ever add to my common cooking rotation. However I needed to expertise the dish greater than twice in my life, and have the power to really take pleasure in it, so I started working adapting the recipe into one thing that may require much less time (and fewer sub-recipes) however nonetheless ship all of the promise of the unique.
First, I tackled the dry brining. The aim of dry brining is to tenderize and infuse meat with moisture and taste. Initially, the brine (on this case salt and sugar) attracts the moisture out of the muscle fibers, which liquifies the salt and sugar, in the beginning is absorbed again into the meat, seasoning and plumping it concurrently. Dry brining additionally provides meat a browner, crispier floor (suppose golden Thanksgiving turkey).
Straight up, I don’t have time for this. Pork shoulder is already very flavorful, and my chosen cooking technique wasn’t going to dry out the meat, so juiciness wasn’t going to be a difficulty. So I made a decision to decide as a substitute for a easy rub of a tablespoon every of sugar and kosher salt. Utilized proper earlier than cooking, it was lots to season the meat.
As an alternative of roasting the pork in a low oven for six hours or extra, I turned to my trusty On the spot Pot. After penning three cookbooks on On the spot Pot cooking, I’ve discovered that the equipment is good for cooking robust, fatty cuts of meat. The moist warmth and excessive stress assist break down meat fibers in about two-thirds of the time of stovetop braising. To additional expedite the method, I lower the roast into 4 smaller items, since smaller items equal much less cooking time. And since the meat finally will get pulled aside anyway, the massive roast presentation isn’t strictly mandatory until you’re serving Fred Flintstone.
It’s good to add liquid to the On the spot Pot to construct up steam to convey it as much as stress. Water would have sufficed, however I discovered that including kimchi juice (the liquid within the kimchi jar) infused the meat with the piquant chile taste that Korean meals is known for; it functioned kind of like an prompt marinade. After simply 35 minutes, plus a 10-minute pure stress launch time, the pork was very tender, however not fairly and definitely not crispy.
Right here’s the place I reverted to the unique recipe: I rubbed the cooked meat with a mix of brown sugar, salt, and simply sufficient cooking liquid to create a paste that allowed the combination to stay to the meat. It labored: A fast roast at 500 levels for 10 to fifteen minutes gave the pork the deep, darkish, shellacked meat-candy exterior that made Chang’s bo ssam so very alluring.
Whereas the meat was cooking, I ready the accompaniments, albeit a pared-back model of them. I didn’t make my very own napa kimchi as Chang suggests. It’s mission for weekend warriors, however there are wonderful native manufacturers that I prefer to assist (shout out to Choi’s Kimchi in Portland, Oregon). I additionally didn’t puree the kimchi as ordered as a result of why would I need to miss out on the crispness of cabbage items?
I skipped the uncooked oysters within the recipe as a result of I’m not a Rockefeller and it was a Tuesday evening for Pete’s sake, so dear bivalves have been out. And anyway, I’d quite eat oysters straight out of the half-shell. I additionally skipped the home made ssam sauce, which I’d discovered oily after I made it beforehand. As an alternative, I smeared Mama O’s heavenly Kimchi Paste and O’Meals Gochujang Spicy Miso Sauce on the wraps. Each gave the wraps the identical spicy funk with out requiring me to bust out the measuring spoons.
I did make the unique ginger scallion sauce sub-recipe from scratch. It’s actually extra of a relish, and fast work with a mini meals processor. Subsequent time, I’d simply put out a bowl of chopped inexperienced onions and pickled ginger. I additionally made steamed rice, as the unique bo ssam recipe requires, however truthfully, I’d forgo it subsequent time as a result of the meal is form of good with out it. The recipe suggests bibb lettuce for wrapping and whereas the massive, blousy leaves are good, I discovered that any leafy lettuce will do.
So, there you’re, magic chunks of sweet-salty, crispy pulled pork bundled up in lettuce leaves with tangy kimchi, the umami-rich gochujang sauce of your alternative, and gingery scallion relish — all in about an hour and a half. No reservations required.
Simple Bo Ssam Recipe
Tailored from Momofuku: A Cookbook
Serves 4 to six
Substances:
For the meat:
¼ cup kimchi juice, from a jar of kimchi
3- to three ½-pound pork shoulder roast
1 tablespoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt (or about ½ tablespoon Morton’s kosher salt), plus 1 teaspoon, divided
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
¼ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
For the ginger scallion sauce and accompaniments:
1 (3-inch) piece of contemporary ginger, peeled and thinly sliced (about ¼ cup)
2 tablespoons neutral-flavored oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce
½ teaspoon sherry vinegar or purple wine vinegar
1 cup sliced inexperienced onions (about 1 bunch)
Salt
3 cups cooked short-grain rice, heat (optionally available)
1 head bibb or inexperienced leaf lettuce, washed and leaves separated
1 cup napa cabbage kimchi
½ cup ssamjang sauce, gochujang miso sauce, or kimchi paste (see notice above)
Directions:
Step 1: Set a small rack within the electrical stress cooker. Pour the kimchi juice and ¼ cup water into the pot. Put aside. Place the roast on a reducing board with the fats cap going through up. Minimize the roast crosswise into 2-inch-wide slabs. Mix a tablespoon of the salt with the granulated sugar and rub it all around the meat. Place the meat fats facet up on the rack. Lock on the stress cooker’s lid, modify the steam vent to “sealing,” and set the timer to 35 minutes. When the cooking is full, let the steam launch naturally for 10 minutes. Launch the remaining stress. (Don’t quick-release the stress instantly on the finish of cooking; it tends to shred the meat.) Reserve the cooking liquid.
Step 2: Whereas the meat is cooking, make the scallion relish. Put the ginger slices, oil, soy sauce, and vinegar in a mini meals processor and whiz till finely chopped, stopping to scrape down the edges as soon as. Add the inexperienced onions and whiz once more till the combination is finely chopped. Season with salt to style. Scrape right into a small serving bowl and put aside.
Step 3: Make the meat rub by combining the brown sugar, remaining teaspoon of salt, and 1½ teaspoons of the cooking liquid in a small bowl. Put aside.
Step 4: Preheat the oven to 500 levels. Line a heavy baking pan or broiler pan with foil. Rigorously switch the cooked meat to the baking sheet, aiming to rearrange the fatty facet up. Unfold the brown sugar combination over the meat; attempt to maintain it from falling off onto the foil or it can burn and smoke. Bake, basting with pan juices a few times and watching rigorously to verify the meat doesn’t burn, till it’s deeply browned and crispy in locations, 8 to 10 minutes. Pull the meat aside with tongs or two forks and switch to a serving plate. Serve with the accompaniments, wrapping chunks of the pork in lettuce leaves and topping them with the sauce, inexperienced onion relish, and kimchi.
Ivy Manning is a Portland, Oregon-based award-winning meals author and creator of 10 cookbooks together with Tacos A to Z: A Scrumptious Information to Nontraditional Tacos. She is a daily recipe tester and editor for Eater in addition to eating places and equipment manufacturers.
Dina Ávila is a photographer in Portland, Oregon.