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Bo Ssam
14 years ago
I've been fiddling with some recipes from the Momofuku cookbook, and 
joeyboy suggested that I give the monumental Bo Ssam a try. Challege accepted!!
For those not familiar, Bo Ssam is the specialty dish at Momofuku Ssam Bar in NYC. You have to order it 24 hrs in advance, it costs $250 or so, and feeds 8 people. It's kind of daunting.
The crazy thing is, it's actually dead simple to make. David Chang of Momofuku even says, "This is the dumbest, easiest recipe." I'm starting out by curing a bone-in pork butt with salt & sugar overnight. Then I'm going to chuck in in the oven for six hours and put a glaze on it. Yup, that's it.
There's lots of extra mini-recipes for 'banchan' (little sauces) to accompany it, and I'm also supposed to shuck a dozen oysters, so that adds some complexity. But hopefully I'll be able to serve a $250 meal for about thirty bucks.
joeyboy suggested that I give the monumental Bo Ssam a try. Challege accepted!!For those not familiar, Bo Ssam is the specialty dish at Momofuku Ssam Bar in NYC. You have to order it 24 hrs in advance, it costs $250 or so, and feeds 8 people. It's kind of daunting.
The crazy thing is, it's actually dead simple to make. David Chang of Momofuku even says, "This is the dumbest, easiest recipe." I'm starting out by curing a bone-in pork butt with salt & sugar overnight. Then I'm going to chuck in in the oven for six hours and put a glaze on it. Yup, that's it.
There's lots of extra mini-recipes for 'banchan' (little sauces) to accompany it, and I'm also supposed to shuck a dozen oysters, so that adds some complexity. But hopefully I'll be able to serve a $250 meal for about thirty bucks.
The trickiest part was (a) tracking down ssamjang and gochujang for one of the many sauces and (b) shucking oysters, mostly handled by joeyboy.
The actual bo ssam is stupid easy. You just rub a pork butt (shoulder) with equal portions of salt & sugar and let it sit overnight in the fridge. Then cook it at 300 for about six hours, basting it every once in awhile. When it's fall-apart tender, you coat it with brown sugar and cook for another 10 mins at 500 until it's a glaze. DONE.
Folks liked the pureed kimchi, 'ssam sauce', and ginger-scallion sauce from the Momofuku cookbook. Oysters were really nice but not essential. We ate it with bibb lettuce but the leftovers made great carnitas tacos.