First Foray into Pork Belly

I have eaten pork belly for a while now in a myriad of styles. Smoked and cured, fried crispy, braised slow, served in piping hot soups, I have eaten it in a house, I have eaten it with a mouse, etc, etc. Why has it taken so long to buy a slab and actually cook it for myself? It is a super affordable cut of meat, it's easy to find at any respectable butcher shop, uh.....it's made of pork. What was I thinking? Maybe it was just an unfamiliarity with the cut that made me hedge a bit. So after researching a few recipes, I headed to my local purveyor of meat (Mckinnon's in Davis Square), bought a 1.5lbs rectangle of goodness (it cost less than $3 I think) and set off on my maiden voyage into the land of pork belly.

Peering in my cabinets, I didn't have the exact spices that aforementioned recipes called for, but as usual, I managed. Here's what I did:

First of all, I removed the leathery fat off of the top of the meat, patted it dry and cured the belly for 24 hours in the fridge. This allowed the flavors to penetrate the fat and meat.

I used:

2 tbsp of sugar

1 tbsp salt

1/2 tbsp fresh ground all spice

1/2 tbsp fresh ground coriander

After it spent a night in the box, I concocted a make-shift steamer and covered it tightly with aluminum foil. With a cup of rice wine vinegar keeping the belly moist and flavorful, it hung out in the oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. I gave it one quick peek to make sure the liquid hadn't completely evaporated and received a nice vinegar facial for my efforts. Lovely......

The end result was a beautiful thing, but we weren't done yet. I let it rest to get it back to room temp before the next step. In a well oiled grill pan, 6 minutes per side was all it took to reach the perfect level of charred, crisp skin.

Watching it rest again was a torturous process because I knew I was only minutes from the first bite. The smells were right on though and the glistening layers of fat, meat and more fat were pretty as a picture.....see?

I chose to dine on the pork belly slices in a sandwich-style with some cherry-spiked ketchup (simply ketchup and a spoon of good cherry preserves thrown in) and some diced, pickled shallots. Absolute heaven on a bun.

I don't think I'll tinker with the cooking style , but I can't wait to switch up the spice blends and adornments to fancy this up for whoever swings by for dinner.