Gingerbread Pork Belly

This is the ultimate holiday appetizer for any meat lovers in the room. Let me just spell it out for you: crispy, roasted pork belly in a gingerbread-inspired hoisin sauce. Feeling carb-y go for a pork bun! Feeling naughty and a little nice? Sauté some veggies in pork fat and serve. You can’t go wrong with this unless you’re vegan….

Let’s cut to the chase. WTF is gingerbread pork belly? That sounds horrifying ??? Well, no. It is not horrifying. Here’s why. Gingerbread cookies are sweetened with molasses. In fact, the strongest flavors in gingerbread cookies are molasses, ginger and nutmeg. On the flip side, hoisin is a sweet, sticky sauce used in Asian cooking, and it also can contain molasses as a sweetener. Hoisin tastes like soy sauce and sugar had a spicy baby — not spicy in the “ow my mouth burns” way, but in the “oooo yasss I feel ginger hittin my nose” kind of way. For this beautiful recipe, I decided to wed the beloved hoisin and gingerbread. I spiced up my hoisin sauce with some nutmeg, cinnamon and lots of ginger. I then added soy sauce and some minced garlic to balance out the sweet spice. And that’s how you get gingerbread hoisin sauce. You’re freakin’ welcome.

My original plan was to make a pork bun with some traditional bao buns, but I could not find any near me (devastating,) so I decided to sauté some green beans and sugar snap peas in pork fat and then serve the pork belly on top. Do whatever you want with this, it’s supposed to be a happy holiday, and the only rules you have to follow are your own.