I have a little bit of a delicious obsession with all things Momofuku.
When I lived in New York City, the restaurants by chef-founder David Chang had lines around the block before opening each day. This is the restaurant that revitalized and sophisticated Ramen as well as introduced us Americans to all things Bao Bun.
David Chang & I are from the same area of Northern Virginia, and he is one of the most well-known chefs that graduated from my culinary school in SoHo (French Culinary Institute, now known as the International Culinary Center). The other quite famous chef alumnus is Bobby Flay, ever heard of him?
Fun fact: Momofuku’s sister bakery, Milk Bar, co-founder and Chef Christina Tosi is not only also from my hometown but went to the same high school as I did! We missed each other by a few years but I will always be proud of fellow LHS alumna. I am constantly reminded of what a small world this is.
I love Milk Bar cakes so much that I had 4 naked cakes flown from New York City to Palm Beach, Florida for our wedding. This is no joke, y’all.
In all my years of residing in NYC, I have been to every Momofuku restaurant, bakery and bar but Ko (don’t worry, my next visit will coincide with a reservation). I’ve read his cookbook from cover to cover but I never once pre-ordered the Bo Ssäm from Ssäm Bar in the East Village. The meal must be ordered in advance for a large group and costs $225.
Every week or so, I cook a large meal for date night with my husband. This week, he requested Bo Ssäm and I immediately flipped the digital pages of my iPad kindle to my trusty Momofuku cookbook.
Bo Ssäm is a traditional Korean dish of slow-roasted pork shoulder (also called Boston butt, or pork butt) wrapped in lettuce, served with oysters, rice and Korean sauces.
Perhaps one of the reasons why Chef Chang has inspired me so much throughout the years is explained in this one highlight I made in his cookbook years ago:
“The way we approach ‘traditional’ dishes: with one foot rooted in tradition and the other foot kicking it forward.”
The first step I took in prepping for this meal, was to call around to all the local DC butchers. Having only recently moved to DC, I’m unfamiliar and dearly miss my beloved butcher in Austin, TX- Salt & Time. Very few butchers carried bone-in pork shoulder, so I was very happy to find it at a Whole Foods about 20 minutes away from me.
Since I was making this meal for a Friday evening dinner, I started Thursday evening by giving the beautiful (and local) pork butt a nice, relaxing sugar/salt scrub.
See all those cavities… I mean, sugar (and salt) on the paper? Throw it out and place the newly relaxed and coated butt in a roasting pan, cover and let it have a nice sleepover in the fridge.
The next morning (okay, it was Noon… don’t judge me) I unwrapped my gift from the fridge and voila:
All that salt that was used to brine the meat extracted the liquids from the pork due to the curing process. Remove the pork butt and place in a clean roasting pan fat side up, leaving the pork juice.
I picked up my Korean ingredients from a local Asian grocery store. I knew I was looking for Ssämjang and Kochujang… but I had no idea what these ingredients looked like! Thanks to Google Images, I was able to compare labels from the search to what I saw in the store. This is technology at it’s finest. (I hope I got the right ones!)
Throw some white Jasmine rice in the rice cooker so it will be ready when the pork is!
The meat was SO tender and just came off the bone without resistance. We would’ve used our fingers had it not been so hot. The crunchy crust tasted like straight up Pig Candy (aka heaven, or candied bacon).
All the sauces keep well in the fridge and we pulled the rest of the pork meat off the bone for leftovers. One of my new favorite meals, hands down.
Thank you to Chef David Chang for this delicious recipe. Now will you please buy the Washington Redskins??? Refer to this Wash Po article if you don’t know what I’m talking about.
Thanks for reading,
Mel
All photos taken by Melllypoo unless otherwise noted.
- 4 lb whole bone-in Boston pork butt
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 4 tbsp light brown sugar
- 1 dozen shucked oysters
- Kimchi
- Ginger Scallion Sauce
- Ssäm Sauce
- Jasmine Rice
- Bibb lettuce
- Mix sugar and salt, rub into meat. Discard excess salt/sugar mix, place in pan, cover and put in fridge for at least 6 hours, up to 24 hours.
- Heat oven to 300F degrees.
- Remove pork from fridge, discard juice in pan. Place pork in clean roasting pan.
- Cook for 6 hours, every hour basting the pork with its own juices.
- When ready to serve, heat oven to 500F degrees.
- Mix brown sugar and 1 tbsp of salt, rub all over pork, cook for 10-15 min.
- Rest the meat for up to one hour.
- Prepare sauces, oysters, wash lettuce, cook rice while pork is cooking.
- Serve whole and hot.
- 2.5 cups thinly sliced scallions (greens and whites)
- 1/4 cup finely minced peeled fresh ginger
- 1/4 cup grapeseed oil
- 1.5 tsp light soy sauce
- Mix everything together and allow to sit for about 15 minutes.
- 2 tbsp ssämjang
- 1/2 tbsp kochujang
- 1/4 cup sherry vinegar
- 1/4 cup grapeseed oil
- Combine everything, stir.
