The Fo Ssam - A Tribute in Dinner Party Form - Worshipping at the Altar of Pork and Chang

Oh boy...I realize as I write this that I never posted about eating the Bo Ssam at Momofuku. Weird. If you read this, you know that I not only love pork, but I love Chef Chang. So, the fact that I neglected to lay praise on both something pork and David Chang is rather extraordinary! Thus, you probably need some sort of evidence that I loved the Bo Ssam. Therefore, I present to you my tribute - "The Fo Ssam Dinner Party"I'm not going to sugar coat it (although I do love coating things in sugar) and tell you dinner parties are a piece of cake, because frankly they're not. But, I love hosting them and find all the work well worth the effort. The good thing about this menu is that most of it can be made in advance and the main event cooks itself without asking for much attention.

Appetizers:

Because I love nothing more than to start with a prosecco or champagne, Karen and I mixed up a pomegranate prosecco cocktail from Cooking Light. This was easy to make, quite delicious, and a nice way to welcome guests and get them in a festive mood.

Dates wrapped in bacon are a great appetizer and easy to make, but they made my place a bit smokey. Oh and I would recommend that unlike me, you use tongs to remove them from the pan rather than burning your fingertip in bacon grease. I wrapped the dates a few hours before the party, so I could just throw them in the oven when people arrived. To make dates wrapped in bacon, buy pitted dates, bacon, and toothpicks. Cut a slice of bacon in half and wrap it around a date and secure it with a toothpick. Heat the oven to 400 or 425 and put the dates on a aluminum foil lined baking sheet in the oven for about 6-7 minutes, then flip them to crisp the bacon on the other side and cook for another 6 or 7 minutes until the bacon is crisped to your liking. Make sure you don't crowd the pan too much with the dates, otherwise the pan will fill up with too much grease and the bacon won't crisp as well. Drain the dates on paper towels and cool for a couple of minutes. The salty, crisp bacon and soft, sweet dates are a match made in heaven and a great kick-off to a party.

"Devils on Horseback" - Though I see no evil in these

My sister picked up some cheeses - an aged gouda and two cheeses that feature truffles. My family pretty much doesn't have a meal without having some cheese and crackers first. And if I had to bet on it, I would put down $100 that my parents have an aged gouda in their fridge as you read this.


I make nuts pretty much everytime I have people over...mostly because they're really easy to make and always manage to wow people. For the Fo Ssam, I made two types of nuts. The first were candied walnuts and pecans - take one egg white and beat it a bit until its frothy, add a tbsp of water, then add about a pound of nuts, and then you can pretty much add whatever you want. If you want candied sweet nuts, add 1/3 cup brown sugar, 2/3 cup of white sugar, a tsp salt, a pinch of cayenne, a tsp of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg. If you want to make more savory nuts, add a few tbsps of brown sugar, some rosemary, thyme, salt, and a pinch of cayenne (I've done garam masala also and this turns out nicely). Put the nut mixture on a baking sheet lined with aluminum and bake at 300 for about 30 minutes, stirring after 15 minutes. Remove and let cool, stirring occasionally to separate the nuts.



The other nuts I made are inspired by Buttermilk Channel in Brooklyn and their maple bacon almonds. I make mine differently with the same sort of principal - maple, bacon, and nuts. My best friend and I love these so much and have dubbed them Breakfast nuts. The recipe is as follows:



Fo's Breakfast Nuts:

• 1 lb nuts - I use mostly pecans with some walnuts
• 1/2lb bacon
• 1/2 c REAL maple syrup
• 1 tbsp mustard powder
• 1-2 tbsp brown sugar
• pinch cayenne

1. Using kitchen shears cut bacon into 3/4 inch size pieces. Cook bacon in large skillet until its crispy.
2. Heat oven to 300
3. Add the nuts to the pan of bacon and stir (don't drain the bacon grease!). Add remaining ingredients
4. Pour the mixture onto an aluminum lined baking sheet and cook in oven for about 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the nuts are done it'll look sugary and bubbly. Let cool and stir occasionally.

Main:

I made kimchi the weekend before the Fo Ssam. I found most of the ingredients at the Asian market M2M on the east side (including the salt shrimp in the refrigerator section), but I was an idiot and forgot the korean chile powder. So, I used american chile powder and learned the hard way that wasn't the best substitute in the world. The "fo" kimchi was a bastardized version, but there was something addictive about it in a non-kimchi way. It was saltier and smokier tasting. Oh well, next time I'll remember the korean chile powder!

I also made the buns the weekend before and froze them. I had made the buns previously when I made Chang's pork belly buns at home (so delicious and another recipe worth trying out). These aren't hard to make, but they are time consuming. Chang actually outsources these instead of making them at his restaurants. I find bread making therapeutic and I LOVE the taste of these homemade buns so much that I don't mind making them in the slightest. They taste a lot like soft white bread and you can wrap pretty much anything in them. The buns cook by being steamed, and its easiest if you have a bamboo steamer because its flat and large enough to steam a few at a time. Once made, I cool the buns and freeze them in ziploc bags. The recipe makes 50, which is a lot more then you'll need for the dinner party and might just be the incentive you need to make the pork belly buns sometime soon! Individually, the buns heat in 30 seconds in the microwave, but when you're thawing a lot at a time it takes a bit longer.

50 little buns rising on my counter

For the 8lb bone-in pork shoulder, I went to Agata & Valentina on the UES, which provided me with a truly beautiful pork shoulder. I also bought a cheap 4.5lb pork shoulder in an experiment of high level butcher vs regular grocery. That, and because I was slightly afraid that my 8 guests would plow through 8lbs in 8 minutes. The price difference between Agata and my regular grocer was about $3.50 a pound but the results were overwhelmingly in favor of the more expensive Berkshire pork from Agata.


Now, my obsession with David Chang has nothing on Martha Stewart's adoration. You can find the full recipe for the Bo Ssam and the sauces on her website. As per the recipe, I rubbed the pork the night before with the sugar and salt mixture and let it sit in the fridge. I also made the scallion ginger sauce and the Ssam sauce that night. These are both very easy to make and well worth it. I made double of both and we ended up using all of each! The ssam sauce is a vinagary chile sauce that goes really nicely with the pork. I added a bit more soy sauce to my scallion ginger sauce and a dash of sesame oil and hot sauce.

Two Little Piggies covered in salt and sugar

The next morning I put the pork in around 10:45 to slow roast for 6 hours. As per the recipe, I meticulously basted it in its own juices every hour it slow roasted. I can't begin to describe to you how delicious my apartment and frankly my entire building smelled from this masterpiece. After it was done, I tented it with foil, and when the guests arrived I rubbed it with the brown sugar mixture and finished it in the oven. My pork only took about 10 minutes for this final step, though the recipe suggests longer.

The Pork Masterpiece...I know - You stopped reading and you're on your way to Agata to get a 8lb pork shoulder

I have to tell you the pork tasted heavenly. It was moist, delicious, sweet and salty. I seriously couldn't have been happier with how it tasted. When put on a bun and topped with ssam or scallion sauce and rice, it made me wonder why I don't do this every Sunday! The smaller pork was a bit on the saltier side and a little less moist, so I would highly recommend making an 8lb one and "splurging" on the pork (pork shoulder is cheap even good pork shoulder is only about $5 a lb).

As a side, we also had rice. To make is as easy as possible, I made the rice in a rice cooker just as people arrived. That way, I could just start it and let it keep itself warm.

The plate - the pork, bibb lettuce, bun with pork and ssam sauce, and kimchi

Dessert:

Since this dinner party had a very Momofuku-ish theme to it, I decided (with some nudging from my older sister) that I would make Momofuku Milk Bar's Crack Pie. This is not the easiest of pies to make. You start by making an oatmeal cookie dough, spreading it thinly on a sheet tray, and baking it until its crisped. Once this cools, you crumble it up with some butter and sugar to make the crust. I have to tell you that I've made the crust a few times now and find that its much easier to combine the crust ingredients in a food processor. I also have a hard time making enough crust for two pies (even when I don't sneak tastes of the cookie dough). The filling is a really easy custard to mix up, which makes up for the hard work on the crust. I find that my filling takes a bit longer in the oven for the center to set then the recipe calls for. Crack pie is, as the name claims, addictive! I find myself in the vicinity of Milk Bar and its pies and cookies a bit too often and I have a hard time not getting a slice of crack pie.

Well you can't very well just serve pie. Which means that I put my trusty ice cream maker to use and made my go-to ben & jerry's coconut ice cream. This is such an easy ice cream to make and because of the can of coconut cream it has a superb coconut flavor. I always use the sweet cream base #2 and in the final few minutes of churning I add a cup of chocolate chips. Karen proclaimed this last time that I should switch to mini-chips and I think that's a great idea!

Sweet ending - Crack Pie and Coconut Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

And that's how I paid homage to pork and David Chang,