Day 30: Enchiladas, and the Key to a Happy Kitchen

Today, Day 30(!), I decided to try my hand at something we both love: steamed pork-belly buns. While we have yet to try Momofuko's, the NY restaurant that has made these famous, we used to scarf them down at the recently closed Shaun's in Atlanta and anywhere else we could find them.

David Chang's Momofuko recipe is widely available on the internet (only problem: there are two versions, with different instructions...). I found a recipe for the bun dough that looked a bit simpler in the L.A. Times. I compared the two David Chang recipes, and decided to go with the one that calls for brining the pork belly for 6 hours instead of 12. I made the dough and let it double in size. Then I went with Jim to an unusually chaotic Dekalb Farmer's Market, bought pork belly, came home, and covered the pork belly in a sugar-kosher salt mixture. We ran out to the mall to take care of a return I've been putting off and look for some new dress shirts for Jim. And somewhere along the way, we realized that, while we could possibly get home and cook the pork belly in the oven for two and a half hours, it wasn't going to get on the table before 10 p.m., or without a whole lot of stress.

We've discovered this month that, much like it in a marriage, it's important to be flexible in the kitchen. Especially when you're cooking with someone you love. Especially when you've been confined to the same kitchen for a whole month.

So, dear Reader, we decided to shelve the pork buns (temporarily!) and make enchiladas, which had been scheduled for Tuesday night. We had some leftover shredded chicken and some leftover flank steak. I roasted tomatillos with a little homemade chicken stock, garlic, and dried chilies, then blitzed them with the immersion blender. The chicken was heated in a little stock and seasoning; the steak was simply sliced. Into softened carrot tortillas went the meat, and into a pan lined with tomatillo salsa. A little shredded cheddar on top, ten minutes in the oven, and voila! Dinner. Delicious! And at 7:30 p.m., not 10 or 11.

While I was preparing tonight's meal, I was also doing the legwork for tomorrow. I divided my bun dough into 17 pieces, rolled them into balls, and let them rest again. I began rolling them into discs, brushing one half with oil, and folding them over. Then the scary part: actually steaming them. We have a big stock pot with a steamer insert, and I thought this might work. The first batch took longer than I expected (7 minutes instead of the promised 3), but when we tried one, it tasted exactly like what we've had in restaurants: soft, sweet, dense and pillowy all at once. The subsequent batches were steamed over a more ferocious boil, and cooked in 3-4 minutes.

As I type this, I can hear the pork belly sizzling away in the oven. After it's through cooking, I'll chill it in its own juices overnight. Tomorrow, I'll prepare quick-pickled cucumbers, reheat the buns and the pork, and dinner will be served. Of course, the way things smell in here now, we may devour that pork belly as soon as it comes out of the oven...

Stay tuned for Day 31...