Recipe slideshow: Pork belly buns with homemade hoisin

October 12, 8:19 PMChicago Dining ExaminerEmily Szopa

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Check out the recipe slideshow by clicking on the image above

Chicago has the unique advantage of being a world-class city that manages to maintain strong ties to the land around it, attracting both top-notch chefs and quality local producers. The resulting culinary masterpieces evoke a true connection between farm and fork, and the awareness of this connection, among consumers and farmers alike, is growing daily.

When I set out to buy a slab of pork belly, I went to my local farmers market to talk with Nate Robinson of Jake's Country Meats (Cassopolis, MI). Nate's been a great help in furthering my self-education in charcuterie, helping me get a hold of some casings and even accepting a couple of links of the resulting experiment. I figured he'd have no trouble securing me some uncured bacon.

"Now what do you want that for?" was Nate's immediate response to a request for some uncured, skin-on belly. I blushed, but was otherwise unfazed: I knew I could get the same cut at Caputo's, but if I was going to be experimenting, I wanted  the product that I would be using to be the best, raised sustainably and without hormones or antibiotics. I explained that I wanted to try a little of this and a little of that, but wasn't sure exactly how much I needed.

"Well, I'd guess you wouldn't want more than half a belly, about 7-8 lbs.," Nate said with a quizzical smile still on his lips. "You know, more and more, I've been getting people asking for pork belly and other less common things like that, particularly at the Logan Square Market. We usually cure it for bacon, but sometimes we just fry some up for breakfast."

Sure, I planned to cure some of it for bacon, and I also fried some of it up, uncured, but was less than pleased with the results. Once I found this recipe, however, I was hooked on braising it. I made it for practically everyone I knew, spreading the gospel of braised pork belly as far as I could. The recipe? None other than David Chang's Pork Belly Buns, the same ones found at his NY restaurant, Momofuku.

To check out the recipe as posted on Epicurious, click here.

It's a bit overwhelming at first, just because of the time investment, but I've created a slideshow to help guide you through the less common recipe steps. (click here or scroll to the bottom of the page for the slideshow)

Some recommendations include:

• Make your own hoisin sauce. For a great, easy recipe, click here. (Note: I cut the soy sauce to 4 tbsp. because I find 5 tbsp. to be a bit too salty.
• Add a couple of thin slices of plum to the sandwich. It adds a fresh, sweet counterpoint to the nutty hoisin and the rich, fatty pork belly.
• Share it with friends. You're going to fall in love with these and you'll believe you could eat all 16 when you bite into the first one, but I promise you, one or two of these and you'll be sated.

You can find Jake's Country Meats (I also highly recommend the kielbasa) at a number of local farmers markets, including:

Downers Grove, Mokena, Countryside, La Grange, Western Springs, Logan Square and Elmhurst.