Asian - Thai, Indian, Vietnamese, Asian - Japanese, Chinese, Korean
Recipe:
Suggested by NYTimes Online's Cooking editor Sam Sifton who, on Wednesdays, suggests something without a hard and fast recipe. This was my first attempt... I kept track of what I did so I could remember my starting point.
1.5 lbs pork belly, skin removed and cut into roughly 1/2" dice (I went for a leaner piece)
1 T soy sauce
1 T brown sugar (plus a little for the end)
1.5 t fried chili in oil (you buy this in a jar)
1.5 T oyster sauce (could use hoisin, I think)
1/4 t Chinese 5 spice powder (could skip if using hoisin)
Toss everything together in bowl.
Turn on the broiler and line a jelly roll pan with heavy aluminum foil (for easy clean-up). Toss pork on pan and put under broiler - I started about 6" away... I'd go a *little* closer if your shelves allow it. Pull out and toss every few minutes. My pork released quite a bit of liquid and I poured it off once about 6-8 minutes in (I hated to... but wasn't willing to wait for it to cook off and overcook my pork). Keep going until pork is crisping and 'glistening' - though mine didn't exactly glisten :-/. Sprinkle on 1-2 t additional brown sugar a few minutes before you take it out.
To serve, make sandwiches in the spirit of bahn mi:
buns
mayo with chili garlic sauce or sriracha stirred in
your tasty pork
cilantro
scallions
If you wanted to go further down the bahn mi path, I think adding some lightly pickled veggies* would be delightful.
* like Pickled Onions (under Misc.) or the pickled carrots and/or daikon in Bun Thit Nuong (under Asian - Thai, Indian, Vietnamese)
