Momofuku Bo Ssam

My parents got us a NY Times Sunday subscription for Christmas (and it is fabulous, every Sunday morning we tune out completely for a couple hours to drink coffee, listen to the bizarre reggae show on 88.5, and read the paper, it's heaven.) and a couple weeks ago they had a recipe from Momofuku. I have never been to Momofuku, and I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to it. This recipe offered melty roasted pork cooked in a salty-sugar crust that you basically just pull apart and eat all rolled up in lettuce leaves with tangy sauces. Pretty great! I tore it out and saved it for a week or so, analog style. 

Now, observe: 1.) any given pork butt is way too big for just us to eat on our own; 2.) the actual eating of this meal sounds fun and communal; 3.) the recipe is wicked easy and basically fail-proof. This adds up to a recipe tailor-made for a casual dinner party...it was super fun and everyone freaked out about how yummy it was.

Here's the recipe, more or less as God and the January 15, 2012 Times Magazine intended it:

Pork Butt:

1 whole pork butt [they said 8-10 lbs; I used about 7 lbs.]

1 cup each [!] sugar and kosher salt

Mix the sugar and the salt; rub all over your pork butt. Put said pork butt in the fridge, wrapped in plastic, at least 6 hours, or overnight which is what I did.

The next day, turn the oven to 300 and put the pork in there in a roasting pan for about 6 hours.

The best thing is how the recipe now says "meanwhile, make the sauces." These two sauces will take you approximately 10 minutes to make. Count on having 5 hours and 50 minutes to "meanwhile" on something else. For example, I cleaned the house and studied some Supreme Court nuttery for school. Here's the two sauces:

Ginger-scallion sauce:

Mix 2 1/2 cups thin sliced scallions with 1/2 cup minced fresh ginger, 1/4 cup oil [I used peanut; they recommended grapeseed, fight!], 1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Ssam sauce:

Mix 2 tablespoons ssamjang paste with 1 tablespoon kochujang, 1/2 cup sherry vinegar, and 1/2 cup oil [see above]. Ssamjang is a fermented bean-chili paste. You'll need to go to an Asian market for it; ditto kochujang, which is a Korean chili paste. They are totally worth having around; you will find a thousand delicious uses for them.

To accompany the roasted pork butt you'll have both these sauces, plus white rice (2 cups, cooked), and several heads of Bibb lettuce to wrap it all up in. Kimchi is good in there too.

 When you are close to being ready to eat, take out the pork. It should be really soft and falling apart to the touch. Stir together 1 tablespoon salt with 7 tablespoons brown sugar. Rub it all over the pork and put it back in the oven, crank it up to 500 and let it get dark and caramel-sticky for about 10 minutes. It should have a really nice, dark crust all over. Pull it out, get all the accompaniments in little bowls, call your friends and eat. You just pull off bits of pork, stuff it into lettuce leaves, and add sauces as you like. It's ridiculously good and a lot of fun.

Here's a link to the actual article in the New York Times, if you want to see a really trustworthy version of what I just told you and if you haven't hit your paywall for the month yet. Their pictures, of course,  are nice too.

Balsamic vinegar-cocoa nib glazed oven ribs

This was some good stuff, my friends. I encourage you to make these ribs along with my preceding recipe for goat cheese/vidalia onion laced grits. Maybe for Easter dinner this coming weekend? I based these ribs somewhat on this recent recipe from the New York Times, but it departs in a couple key places, as you'll see. I used 2 pounds of ribs here; this serves 2 people happily. If you're having company, double the amounts called for in the rib sauce. For the ribs themselves, you should increase to at least 5 pounds for 4 people. For the grits, you can just straight double the amount called for in the recipe. Anyway!Get you some baby back ribs and lay them out on a long sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil...Salt and pepper them on both sides, then drizzle on 2 tablespoons olive oil.If you made the grits before, you should have some baby vidalia onion greens left over. Slice them in half, long ways, and lay out over the ribs, along with 4 cloves of garlic, slivered. If you don't have the green spring onion tops, you can use small bunches of chive instead.Now let's pack 'em up right. Fold the long end of the foil over the ribs...And crimp the edges down to form a packet. A packet of ribs! Put in a big pan and roast at 350 for 30 minutes, then turn the heat down to 250. They will cook for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours, so you've got some time on your hands now.Here's how to make the sauce: measure 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, put in a pot and bring it to a boil, allowing it to reduce slightly for a minute or so over high heat.Stir in 3 tablespoons dijon mustard and 1 cup white wine until smooth, then add in 1/4 cup ketchup and a couple dashes tabasco. Let it all come to a simmer. Now! You need some cocoa nibs. I bought these on impulse a while back at the DeKalb Farmers Market. They weren't expensive so I didn't worry that I had no idea what to do with them.They are the crunchy hulls of the cocoa bean. I nibbled on one raw--they're not bitter, as you might expect from unsweetened cocoa.I seriously can't believe the flavor though--it adds something deep and smokey to the sauce! I ended up putting them in granola this week too--the texture is awesome. I can see a lot of potential uses for them so get ready to see them again in the next month or so.I used about 1/4 cup for the sauce and smashed them with a rolling pin to break them down a bit.Add the cocoa nibs into the sauce along with 1/2 cup brown sugar. Here's where you can use up the rest of that baby vidalia onion.Dice the white bulb from 1 small baby vidalia. If you don't have no baby vidalia onions, just substitute with 2 big shallots, diced. Add it to the sauce and bring it all to boil, then turn down to simmer for 30 min, stirring occasionally.When the ribs are done they should be soft and pulling off the bone. Get them out of the oven and unwrap.Lay them out on a baking sheet and let them cool for just a couple minutes.After the 30 minutes of cooking, your sauce should be reduced and pretty thick. Baste the ribs on all sides with the sauce. You can broil them for a few minutes, or I like better to turn the oven up to 475, let them cook in there for 5 minutes, then re-baste them and cook for a few minutes more so the sauce really gets all into everything.They're so good. It's a deep flavored sauce and the meat is so tender. All you need now is a scoop of goat cheese grits...And the ribs on top. Total heaven. Enjoy!

Bolognese di due madri

This sauce has two mommies.We spent a recent weekend in the company of our parents and it was a really lovely time. My mom wanted to make a bolognese sauce for dinner with Phil's mom, and who can say no to that? The two of them puttered around the kitchen--Phil's mom taking notes and my mom scooting around doing everything at top speed, as usual. I got stuck prepping ingredients/doing dishes, and tried to grab a few pictures along the way. This sauce uses a combination of 1/2 pound baby back pork ribs and 1 pound ground sirloin. My mom was really pleased with the way the meats turned out together for the sauce--it isn't too heavy but does develop a nice, deep flavor from the bones. Start by seasoning the ribs with salt and pepper...Then brown them in a tablespoon of olive oil, along with a handful of chopped onion (you'll need about 1/2 a chopped onion, in total, by the way--you'll be adding some to the ground beef as it browns as well).She browns the two meats in separate pans. I cut corners here and do it all together--don't be like me. Be like my mom. (But it makes extra dishes.)Over in a big sauce pot, she crumbles in the ground sirloin, and browns it with a tablespoon or so of olive oil and the rest of the chopped onion.We are a short people.When the meats are browned, add about 1/4 cup of red wine to each pan to loosen up all the good fond.And make sure to do the pork ribs too. Here they are, sizzling in the wine she just poured in. They will get loose and a little bit saucy right away.Now you can just pour everything from the rib pan into the big pot along with the rest of the meat and take it from there. Now you add a 28-oz can of tomatoes to the pan--but use whole tomatoes and puree them smooth before adding to the sauce. I just stuck my immersion blender right into the open can and whizzed them smooth. You can also use a regular blender or just squish them up with your hands in a bowl. Any way you do it, just get your whole tomatoes in smooth form, then pour them in.And then add about 1/4 can's worth of water as well.The most important is to taste as you go along. You add just a little salt at a time as you go along.And add in 2 bay leaves.And grind in pepper, as needed. Taste, taste, taste.Here's where things get a little Sicilian. Jocelyn gave me this lovely little container, made of cinnamon bark...Turns out it holds cinnamon sticks perfectly. Makes sense, right? You add 1/2 of one cinnamon stick to the sauce, along with 1 teaspoon sugar. And let simmer all together for one hour.Cover it to keep from over-reducing as it simmers.And taste. Taste, taste, taste.My mom brought her own pasta with her, packed in her carry-on. That's commitment, right there. Any nice big pasta will do fine here though--this isn't a sauce for thin noodles. Boil in plenty of salted water until al dente.Your sauce should be looking and smelling wonderful right about now, with the pork ribs just falling off the bone. Our next-door-neighbors said they could smell it all the way down the block.Allora, è finito. Enjoy this fabulous sauce with some fresh grated parmesan at the table.And, lest you think only moms rock the kitchen, here's evidence that my father is no slouch either: he made us some fresh baked bread in time for dinnerHe uses the no-knead dough recipe that I have made here before...but his turns out better, of course.

(many thanks to Emily, for thinking of the idea for this post and reminding me to take pictures of the moms cooking!)