Ozuké makes: David Chang’s Bo Ssam Recipe

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I read this article back in 2012 and have followed the recipe multiple times.  From an especially paired down version of just lettuce wraps and kimchi to all the sauces and oysters on top… no matter how you shake it – this recipe is a sure win.  All you need is plenty of time for preparation and a good group of friends to help you savor the finger licking luxury that results.

Featured in: The Bo Ssam Miracle.

Ingredients

Pork Butt:

  • 1 whole bone-in pork butt or picnic ham (8 to 10 pounds)
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon kosher salt
  • 7 tablespoons brown sugar

Ginger-Scallion Sauce:

  • 2 ½ cups thinly sliced scallions, both green and white parts
  • ½ cup peeled, minced fresh ginger
  • ¼ cup neutral oil (like grapeseed)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons light soy sauce
  • 1 scant teaspoon sherry vinegar
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste

Ssam Sauce:

  • 2 tablespoons fermented bean-and-chili paste (ssamjang, available in many Asian markets, and online)
  • 1 tablespoon chili paste (kochujang, available in many Asian markets, and online)
  • ½ cup sherry vinegar
  • ½ cup neutral oil (like grapeseed)

Accompaniments:

  • 2 cups plain white rice, cooked
  • 3 heads bibb lettuce, leaves separated, washed and dried
  • 1 dozen or more fresh oysters (optional)
  • Kimchi (available in many Asian markets, and online)

Preparation

  1. Place the pork in a large, shallow bowl. Mix the white sugar and 1 cup of the salt together in another bowl, then rub the mixture all over the meat. Cover it with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, or overnight.
  2. When you’re ready to cook, heat oven to 300. Remove pork from refrigerator and discard any juices. Place the pork in a roasting pan and set in the oven and cook for approximately 6 hours, or until it collapses, yielding easily to the tines of a fork. (After the first hour, baste hourly with pan juices.) At this point, you may remove the meat from the oven and allow it to rest for up to an hour.
  3. Meanwhile, make the ginger-scallion sauce. In a large bowl, combine the scallions with the rest of the ingredients. Mix well and taste, adding salt if needed.
  4. Make the ssam sauce. In a medium bowl, combine the chili pastes with the vinegar and oil, and mix well.
  5. Prepare rice, wash lettuce and, if using, shuck the oysters. Put kimchi and sauces into serving bowls.
  6. When your accompaniments are prepared and you are ready to serve the food, turn oven to 500. In a small bowl, stir together the remaining tablespoon of salt with the brown sugar. Rub this mixture all over the cooked pork. Place in oven for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, or until a dark caramel crust has developed on the meat. Serve hot, with the accompaniments.

 

 

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California Dreamin.. and eatin…

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Every couple of months I make it out to  California to visit accounts, buyers and distributors and I wanted share some gustatory ​inspiration from the Golden State. Any of you who know me know that I plan all my trips around three things: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Though I love digging into the food of everywhere, the world of California cuisine is one of my favorites and has had the most influence on my cooking.

Here is a briefing of the last trip’s eats:

SF:
Tartine Manufactory  knocked my socks off. As a recent sourdough maker, I was content to watch the bakers pulling one perfect loaf after another out of their big oven. Great for breakfast -​ the toasts, coffee and banana bread pudding were delicious and the Heath ceramics factory/showroom is drool worthy.

Sunday Bird/ Boba Guys : ​ Sunday bird is a tasty Korean Style fried chicken place right behind t​he Boba guys (who make a mean matcha latte) they serve simple fare- kim chi fried rice, chicken sandwich on bao, fried chicken with gochugaru. Yummy. Want to make kim chi fried rice for kids lunches (though SCHOOL IS OUT FOR SUMMER!!) but it is a great, easy, slightly spicy hit.

Can’t beat Burma Superstar for lunch or dinner- check out their line of grab and​ go and
DIY products as well!

Latest super treat was Izakaya Rintaro –

​c​ool, ​funk​y space in the Mission with incredible food. A friend recommended it after I told her how fond I was of Ippaku, another wonderful spot in the East Bay. Great, unique goyza, fresh vibrant fish, ​ handmade noodles and mochi. Highly recommend.

East Bay:
The scene is here is so vibrant and ever changing that I don’t even pretend to know what the latest and greatest is. I just have old favs.
No trip this was is complete to Berkeley without a visit to Berkeley Bowl. Amazing produce selection, my favorite mint chocolate almonds in little bulk bags and a dizzying array of local California products- especially nut and coconut yogurts, milks and “cheeses.” Also the beloved Vik’s C​haat which sells amazing Indian street food snacks, classic dishes and colorful sweets. The cholle bhature is a must.

Urban R​emedy serves fresh juices, nut milks and raw snacks- perfect for taking on the road.

Napa:
I mostly cook when I am in Napa Valley, as we have family here and the produce is so fresh and amazing that it makes cooking an easy pleasure. There are however, some​very special places to eat/visit while in the Valley. I went for a visit to the Healdsberg SHED​, ​​a long time vendor of Ozuké’s cult favorite umeboshi (they even made an ume kombucha from our plums!) and we found ​S​ingle T​hread. These guys are the real deal. They are growing, making and sourcing hyper locally (mostly from their own farm) ​and making innovative, clean, Japanese inspired, quintessentially Californian, very sexy food. You can also stay here and the lodging looked, well .. perfect.

And.. a quick plug for my cousin’s stunning wines: Onward and Farmstrong ​- some very special ​occasion wines and everyday drinkables. So proud of the good work she is doing (mama of 4!!!) best Pét​ Nat in the country.

Okay, that’s the voracious mama’s guide for this go round, now go  #putsomekimchionit

 

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Ozuké in Boulder Lifestyles

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Mara and Willow were invited to share their thoughts on what it takes to run a business in Boulder. Read more here.

 

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Sourdough 101

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As a food lover and fermentation fan girl, I have tried my hand at lots of different funky experiments from nukazuke to mango chutney- all with varying outcomes, both good and not so good. Sourdough, however, was one that somehow seemed too involved or inaccessible and got set aside as my business started to grow.
When my dear friend, and publisher of the wonderful Roost Books, Sara Bercholz gave me a sourdough starter for my birthday, I took it as a sign that the time had come to try my hand at baking this mythical bread. I used a simple recipe from this gorgeous book, as well as some tips from Tartine Bread , as they have been bread heroes of mine since I lived in California years ago.
It turned out that the recipes can be quite simple and that the process simply requires patience (character reveal.) First feeding the starter, then making the leaven and giving it time to get nice and lively and then giving the dough plenty of room at every step to fully rest and rise. It takes days, but the result is so astonishingly satisfying that now I am totally hooked. My family gobbles up the loaves, the whole house smells of that heavenly mix of flour, water, warmth and a little magic.
While I  am starting to look at the more complex recipes and experimenting with different heirloom flours, I am mostly just happy to have begun down this ancient pleasure avenue of baking good bread and feeding it to the ones I love. I encourage anyone who has the hankering to try- it’s like having a new pet:)

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Ozuké Wild Dandelion or Nettles, Bee Pollen and Honey Kraut

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To begin you will need a 1/2 gallon sized ball jar, 1 medium cabbage, Fresh Nettle or Dandelion leaves harvested from your neighborhood, local honey, bee pollen and sea salt.

Core and shred the cabbage, salt to taste then spread on a tray or large bowl. (It is so important to salt the cabbage to YOUR taste.  I never tell my students fixed amounts of salt, because everyone’s taste is different, you could even completely omit the salt and still have decent results). Pound the cabbage with a wooden hammer (or a rolling pin can work) until the juices start to release and the cabbage softens.  Mix with bee-pollen, drizzle honey and sprinkle in cleaned and de-stemmed greens.  Place in a wide mouth ball jar and press down with your fist (you can use a cabbage leaf as a top barrier and then press on that) until the veg is submerged in liquid. Cover and leave at room temp for about 5-10 days. Keep pressing your kraut below liquid and release the gas occasionally as it starts to ferment. Kraut should taste tart when it’s ready…  if you like it stronger you can leave it longer. When you are satisfied with the taste transfer to cold storage where it will last for up to 12 months.

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Earth Day Tree Planting with Ozuké

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Our dear friend from Pangea Organics, Joshua Onysko has a penchant for rallying  people around good causes. His mission this year was to get a bunch of local businesses to assemble teams of tree planters and together, on Earth Day, we are were going replant an entire hillside that had been scorched by a fire several years before -with 10,000 trees. Yup, 10,000 trees.  Ozuké had a small but dedicated group and we were ready to dig.

My boys were Saturday sleepy so we arrived a bit late and there were already at least 200 people sprawled across the hillside bags full of saplings, shovels, kids and dogs in tow. The sky was moody and beautiful.

People working alone or in small groups but together, hands in the soil, giving a little something back to this great revolving planet that gives and gives and gives. As one of the planters said, “team work makes the dream work.” :0

Thank you Josh for organizing, thank you Boulder for showing up in droves, thank you planet Earth for your wondrous abundance.  Grow little saplings, grow.

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Ozuké style Colorado Cleanse

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  Spring is a time when I often feel like I need to slough off winter and begin anew. Cleansing is a great, simple way to restart your digestion and immunity. There are tons of great options out there but two of my local favorites are Conscious Cleanse and the Colorado Cleanse. Both have been designed by people with enormous passion, experience and generosity. These cleanses can be challenging and these guys have considered not only the nutritional piece of this work but also the emotional and spiritual components. When I cleanse I sometimes feel groggy at first and long for a cup of tea with milk or a square of chocolate but slowly it begins to work its magic and I feel more energized, lighter and more self aware.
  This season I am doing the Colorado Cleanse. It is a comprehensive reset for you digestive system based on Ayurvedic principles. The mainstay of the cleanse is kitchari, a simple Indian porridge made of lentils and rice. In the first four
pre-cleanse days, Dr. Douillard recommends eating 1-2 raw beets a day. I love beets, I really do, but 2 raw beets can be a little overwhelming. I have taken to doing some juicing and also using our Ozuké beets, dulse and kale which adds some great flavor to salads or simple soups, has all the properties of plain raw beets plus probiotics.
  If you are interested in either of these cleanses I recommend doing the guided offering that Conscious offers or getting Dr. Douillard’s book and following all the recommendations as this will yield the best results but.. over the years I have added little things that keep the mission in tact but make it a little tastier, especially in those first few sluggish days.

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Kimchi Latkes!

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Every year I choose a different culinary tradition to model our Holiday dinner around.  We’ve done Victorian England, with Roast Goose and Christmas pudding, we’ve done Shanghainese Soup Dumplings, once visiting my Sister and Brother in Law we did Puerto Rican Christmas. Bringing in these varied traditions helps to educate me as a cook and to educate my children with the many flavors of our abundant human experience. I can’t remember which year we chose to cook traditional Hanukkah treats but now Latkes always make an appearance in our home around this time of year.  So simple and so good.  And I love how the story of Hanukkah resonates especially around the time of the Winter Solstice.  As the nights get longer and the days get shorter the story of Hanukkah meditates on finding a miracle of light in the darkness and finding freedom in the midst of oppression. And of course the tradition of eating fried foods to celebrate the miraculous oil that lit a single lamp for 8 days…  a holiday that celebrates with fried food!!!!  That is a wonder for sure!

This year I can’t believe that I’ve never thought to replace the onion in the Latke recipe with kimchi before.  It is simply amazing!  You can add more spiciness, more chiles or gochugaru to the mix if you like.  I doubt you can make these and not fall in love.

Wishing you all a great miracle this Hanukkah.

 

Kimchi Latkes

2 cups shredded potatoes (I like em with skin on but either peeled or not is fine)

½ cup of kimchi that has already had all the juice squeezed out of it.

3 eggs

3 heaped Tablespoons flour

Salt and Pepper

More chiles/gochugaru (optional)

Oil for frying (we used peanut oil but your choice of high heat oil)

 

Put shredded potatoes in cheesecloth or nut bag and squeeze as dry as possible.

Cut the squeeze dried kimchi into small dice or tiny strips.

Beat eggs.

Combine potatoes, egg, kimchi, flour, (gochugaru if you want), salt and pepper.

Heat a heavy skillet with a ¼ inch of oil on the base to medium high heat.

Press heaping spoonfuls of potato mixture onto the hot skillet squashing the pancakes down to ¼ – ½ inch thickness.  Cook until brown on both sides…  approximately 3 minutes each side.

Serve hot with apple sauce and sour cream – YUM.

A visit with Sandor

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A few weeks back we had the pleasure of hanging with our friend and fermentation hero, Sandor Katz.

We had some lovely meals together and met lots of great folks who are interested in the lore, health benefits, gustatory profile and funk of fermentation. The culminating event was a farm gathering with classes, talk, book signing, marketplace, food, beer and friends at Frog Belly Farm in Longmont. It was a perfect fall afternoon, the barn was cozy, the cabbages fat in the field, the piglets happily nursing. Good all around.

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Booze, Bubbles, and Boshi’s. Two new Ozuké umeboshi cocktails for you to enjoy!

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In honor of Willow and Mara’s Ume Success, here are two recipes for cocktails with their fermented fruit. The first cocktail is sweeter, and if you have the CheriBoshi, use those. If not, Umeboshi plums are fabulous.

Ozuke Boulder (as in this is not a Manhattan)

1 tsp agave or honey

3 dashes Angostura Bitters

ice

1 3/4 oz Ume Japanese Plum Sake liquor

1/4 oz Colorado bourbon whisky

1 CheriBoshi or Umeboshi

In a rocks glass, add agave, bitters and some ice.
Pour Ume Sake and whisky over ice in glass.
Drop the Umeboshi in the glass and let it absorb the booze. Eat it last.

Ozuke Royale

¾ oz Plum Wine called Ume Shu (if you can’t find it try sake)

¼  oz Luxardo

Champagne or Prosecco

In a champagne flute, pour in the plum wine and the Luxardo. Tilt and fill with Champagne. Add your ume plum or cheriboshi on top and watch it bubble.