pork belly bao buns with pickled veg

File this one under an alternative to a traditional taco tuesday. Since bao buns are taco shaped, and you fill them with meat, topped by vegetables and eat them with your hands, I think they totally qualify as a taco.

I make no apologies for diversifying the taco tuesday experience.

And once you try this dish, you will make no apologies for eating all of it. And then some.

Ingredients:

2.5 lbs whole slab of pork belly, skin removed

1 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup miren

1/4 cup sesame oil

juice of 3 blood oranges ( you can use navel oranges, I just happen to have a blood orange tree outside my kitchen)

1 Tbsp local honey

2 cloves garlic minced

1 knob of ginger, grated

1 clove of garlic, sliced

2 inch piece of daikon radish, peeled and julienned

1 large carrot, peeled and julienned

1 pickling cucumber, julienned

1/2 large jalapeño, seeded and julienned

1 tsp coriander seed

1 cup rice wine vinegar

1/8 cup sugar

3/4 cup water

1 tsp salt

10 bao buns, steamed (homemade or store bought)

cilantro leaves and sliced greed onions for garnish

Directions:

In an oven safe pan, whisk together soy, 1/2 cup rice vinegar, mirin, sesame oil, blood orange juice, honey, minced garlic, grated ginger.

Reserve 1/2 cup of liquid in the fridge for later use.

Add whole pork belly to marinade, meat side down. Let marinade for 2 hours in fridge, flip, then 45 minutes out of fridge to come to temp.

Preheat oven to 300.

Flip again to meat side down, and tightly cover pan with tin foil.

Cook for 3 hours. Remove tin foil.

Bake an additional 30 minutes at 300, then turn oven to 500. Cook for 10 minutes, until fat starts to crisp up.

Remove from oven, and let rest for 15 minutes.

Add garlic, vegetables and coriander seed to large mason jar.

In a sauce pan, combine 1 cup rice vinegar, sugar, water, and salt. Bring to a boil, and let go until sugar and salt dissolved.

Pour hot liquid into mason jar and set aside to cool.

Remove pork belly from braising liquid, pat dry, and chop into bite sized pieces.

Add pork belly and reserved marinade to a bowl and toss to combine.

Fill bao buns with pork belly, top with pickled veg, cilantro leaves and green onions.