Black BBQ Sauce and Pork

In the same issue of Gourmet that introduced me to sauerkraut soup, I found "black barbecue sauce," a recipe with huge list of random ingredients, most of which I had in my pantry. Including the Korean black bean paste, which we picked up to make Jajangmyun, a Korean noodle dish. I tell you, there's far too many weird things in my pantry...except the required raisins. However, an equal amount of prunes made a fine substitution.

The resulting amount of sauce was fairly small, so I used my immersion blender rather than dirtying up the big blender, resulting in a slightly chunky sauce. But wow - this black bbq sauce has a smoky depth of flavor that is really nice. It's not particularly sweet, nor is it tangy. I do prefer my sauce on the sweet side, so I added about 1/4 cup of brown sugar. And salt - it definitely needed salt to bring out all of the flavors. The end result was so good, I found myself eating it cold with a spoon, like a savory jam.

The recipe called for pork chops, but I wanted to make pulled pork. I find country style ribs to have just the right balance of fat to meat, so I braised some in a bit of stock until they were extremely tender, then broke up the meat with two forks.

Because the sauce had some Korean flavors, and because I'm experimenting with recipes that involve glutinous rice flour for a recipe contest, I decided to serve the 'cue on a variation of a crispy/chewy Southeast Asian-style pancake made with rice flour and coconut milk.

Can I tell you how amazing it was? The pork was luscious, the sauce was rich, and the pancake was just enough starch. With the scallion topping, the flavor profile was reminiscent of Peking duck, but with a lot more user-friendly protein.

This would make a fabulous appetizer for my imaginary restaurant.