Five Spice Pork Belly with Steamed Buns

Pork belly has been one of my favorites ever since I was a little girl, way before everyone jumped on the pork belly bandwagon. I can’t imagine a more perfect piece of meat - 2 to 3 inches thick, 50% meat, 50% fat, and rind on top. Effing amazing. Not something I dare to eat everyday but once in a while I treat myself when I go to the Asian supermarket to stock up on groceries.

Last time I tried to roast pork belly, there was a freakish chemical reaction between the wine in the pan and aluminum foil, ruining my pork belly. I never liked chemistry. Who knew the acidity of the wine would dissolve the foil onto the pork? After that tragic incident, I stuck to my usual Shanghai style red braising. But I longed for that crackling crisp rind. This time, I tried slow roasting (with no aluminum foil!), hoping that the gentle heat would slowly render the fat as it essentially confits the meat underneath. The meat was so tender, it was nearly falling apart sitting on the cutting board. Unfortunately, I think I roasted it for too long because the rind became too hard to eat, toothcrackingly hard. Bummer! Next time, I’ll try a different temperature and time.

I thought I was really onto something here serving slices of pork belly like Peking duck with hoisin sauce, cucumber (I skipped the cucumber slices and made a salad with it instead), and sliced green onions, on steamed Chinese buns (toilet seat lid buns because that's what they look like to me. Is that too much info? I'm weird). Apparently, I was not the first person to think of this ingenious dish, one that's very famous in NYC. Well, color me embarrassed...*smacks forehead*

Five Spice Rubbed Pork Belly
serves 6

2 pounds pork belly
1/4 C soy sauce
1/4 C shao hsing rice wine
3 whole star anise
4 green onions, bottom half (the white part)
5 slices of ginger
1/2 tsp five spice
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp packed brown sugar

Score the pork belly rind in a diamond pattern.

Cut the green onions in half lengthwise. Smash the ginger with the flat side of your knife. Add the soy sauce, star anise, green onions, and ginger to saucepan and bring to a boil. Take off heat, cover, and let the flavors infuse while the mixture cools. When the soy sauce mixture is cool, add the rice wine. Pour this mixture over the pork belly. Keep the marinating pork belly in a Ziploc bag or a large container in the fridge for 4+ hours, up to overnight, flipping the belly over once.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Mix the five spice, salt, and brown sugar in a bowl.

After marinading, wipe the pork belly dry with a paper towel and rub it with the five spice mixture. Strain the ginger, green onion, and star anise out of the marinade and spread this on the bottom of your roasting dish. Place the pork belly on top and roast at 450 degrees F for 20 minutes.

Turn the heat down to 300 and roast until the skin is crisp, about 1 1/2 hours? (really rough estimate here because I roasted for 2+ and my rind was all hard).

Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then slice. Serve over rice, noodles, or with steamed buns with cucumber slices, green onion slivers, and hoisin sauce.

Plain Steamed Buns (a more detailed post about these buns will come later)
3 C all purposed unbleached flour (bleached flour will make whiter buns)
3 tablespoons of sugar
1 1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 C heavy or whipping cream
1/2 C water, more if needed

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, yeast, and baking powder in a large bowl.

Mix the cream and water and heat until the mixture is warm to the touch (around 110 to 115 degrees F) and add to the flour mixture.

Bring the dough together. Turn onto a clean work surface and knead until the dough is smooth and just a little bit sticky, adding more water if necessary. Do not overknead this dough, you just wanted to bring the ingredients together and make a uniform dough.

Place the dough back in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put it somewhere warm to rise until doubled, about 2 hours. I usually put the dough in the oven with a bowl of just boiled water on the bottom rack.

When the dough has risen, gently turn it onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough in half and cover one portion. Roll one portion of the dough into a long log. Cut a piece off the log and gently roll it into a long oval. Fold the oval in half (the long way) and set aside. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Cover and set aside to rise again for 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours or until the buns have risen more and feel soft and poofy with gently poked. Steam for 10 minutes.

Maple Dijon Glazed Bacon

Every Wednesday I read the food section of the Seattle Times. I clip out and save the recipes that interest me in a big binder. It's sad to say that most of these snippets from the paper will be forgotten about in a few days. But the instant I saw the words "maple Dijon glazed bacon" I thought, "Wow! I have to make this ASAP!". Maple syrup, Dijon mustard, and bacon, it just totally clicked! Though it's hard to improve upon something like bacon so I don't blame Steven for being skeptical. He just wanted "normal" bacon. I set aside a few slices of untouched, unglazed, unadulterated bacon just for him. As I happily savored my experimental bacon, I offered a piece to Steven. I watched as he contemplated this new flavor combination. Some silence passed and he said, "Your bacon is better." Yup, I knew this recipe was a winner!

You can cook bacon in the microwave, skillet, and the oven. Cook's Illustrated tested all three ways and found that the oven delivers the best results. The benefit of using the microwave is that it's the easiest and quickest method of the three. However, the bacon goes from flabby to burnt in just a few seconds. It cooks unevenly and the microwave does something funky to the color of the bacon yielding not so appetizing results. On the stove top, the bacon spatters and the uneven heat causes it to curl and cook unevenly, requiring constant babysitting. But in the oven, the heat renders and cooks the bacon evenly with minimal curling. However, the oven takes the longest so if you're in a hurry, you can cook the bacon first on the stove top then glaze it and finish it in the oven for a few minutes.

Note:
- The recipe is easily scaled up or down, just keep the maple syrup to Dijon ratio 3:1.
- This bacon is delicious for breakfast or brunch but I bet it'd make a fantastic BLT too.

Maple Syrup and Dijon Mustard Glazed Bacon
Adapted from the Seattle Times

6 slices of bacon
2 Tbsp maple syrup, preferably Grade A dark or Grade B (Light and Medium are too flavorless in my opinion)
2 tsp of Dijon mustard

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lay the bacon on a baking rack on top of a tray. Bake in the oven for 5 - 6 minutes. Then rotate the pan 180 degrees and continue to roast for another 3 - 4 minutes for thin slices, 6 - 8 minutes for thicker slices. You'll want to keep an eye on it when it starts to crisp and brown.

Depending on how crisp you like your bacon, you'll want to take it 2 minutes before your preferred crispness to glaze it then return it to the oven.

In a small bowl, mix together the maple syrup and Dijon. Use a brush or spoon to generously glaze the bacon.

Return the bacon to the oven and bacon another 1 - 2 minutes, to desired crispness.


Stove top Method:
You can also cook the bacon on the stove top, which is what I did for the bacon you see in the photo (that's why there's that little curly thingie on the bacon) since we were really craving the bacon.

Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium heat. Low heat will evenly render the fat but will take too long, whereas high heat will unevenly cook the bacon and burn it in spots. Medium heat is a happy middle ground. If you use a cast iron skillet, you can season the pan while you cook your bacon.

While you're cooking the bacon, preheat the oven. You can use a toaster oven if you're making just a few strips. Stop cooking it a minute or two before it's cooked to your preferred crispness.

In a small bowl mix together the maple syrup and Dijon. Use a brush or spoon to glaze the bacon. Then bake in the oven until it is cooked to your preference.