Last night I made some pork belly. It was one of those things that I had always been interested in making/trying, but have always been a little leery about it because of the high amount of fat in it and my own inexperience. So, i threw out all of my fears and gave it a go. I'm really glad I did because the payoff was huge! I scored the skin of the belly, vertically, with a really sharp knife and then rubbed salt, pepper, lemon zest, rosemary, and a tad of olive oil into the slashes and all around the rest of the meat. Here's a little tip I came up with: In cases like this, where you have a relatively small piece of meat and do not wish to use a bulky roasting pan/rack, do what I do and place your meat (fat, and in this case, skin side up) on top of some quartered potatoes/onions in a cast iron skillet. Not only does this elevate the meat and allow for some nice browning, but it lets the fat/spices/flavors of the meat soak into the veg while it roasts. This piece of meat requires slow roasting (about 3-4 hours @ 300-325 F). When finished, the skin gets a lovely crackling to it and the fat has permeated the meat, giving you delicious, unabashed porkiness. I paired it up with some sweet and sour red cabbage (sauteed with onion, spices, and balsamic vinegar) and the makeshift potato rack that had absorbed all of that pork fat, mmmm. All in all, it was delicious. Actually, it was more than delicious, it was probably in my top ten, if not top five, best meals I've had, and that's saying something. It is pretty sweet to take something like this that is so cheap and looked over and to turn it into something delicious. Anthony bourdain touched on that subject when I went to see him speak on wednesday. It was pretty good, pretty funny too. I agree with him on a lot of things, particularly the aforementioned transformation of "trash" cuts of meat. I find that more challenging than a lot of stuff that is going on in the culinary world. Stuff like this pork belly (the whole thing was under 2 dollars), shanks, etc. is where all of the flavor is. We need to look beyond what we are used to and get out of our culinary comfort zones. Hey, I am just as guilty as anyone else. I said straight off in this post that I was skeptical about making this, but look what happened. I am so glad that I did and now I know that it rocks and I am totally going to make it again. Just think, there is a good chance that you've never tasted your favorite food. With that thought, I'm out of here. peace.
One man's trash...
Last night I made some pork belly. It was one of those things that I had always been interested in making/trying, but have always been a little leery about it because of the high amount of fat in it and my own inexperience. So, i threw out all of my fears and gave it a go. I'm really glad I did because the payoff was huge! I scored the skin of the belly, vertically, with a really sharp knife and then rubbed salt, pepper, lemon zest, rosemary, and a tad of olive oil into the slashes and all around the rest of the meat. Here's a little tip I came up with: In cases like this, where you have a relatively small piece of meat and do not wish to use a bulky roasting pan/rack, do what I do and place your meat (fat, and in this case, skin side up) on top of some quartered potatoes/onions in a cast iron skillet. Not only does this elevate the meat and allow for some nice browning, but it lets the fat/spices/flavors of the meat soak into the veg while it roasts. This piece of meat requires slow roasting (about 3-4 hours @ 300-325 F). When finished, the skin gets a lovely crackling to it and the fat has permeated the meat, giving you delicious, unabashed porkiness. I paired it up with some sweet and sour red cabbage (sauteed with onion, spices, and balsamic vinegar) and the makeshift potato rack that had absorbed all of that pork fat, mmmm. All in all, it was delicious. Actually, it was more than delicious, it was probably in my top ten, if not top five, best meals I've had, and that's saying something. It is pretty sweet to take something like this that is so cheap and looked over and to turn it into something delicious. Anthony bourdain touched on that subject when I went to see him speak on wednesday. It was pretty good, pretty funny too. I agree with him on a lot of things, particularly the aforementioned transformation of "trash" cuts of meat. I find that more challenging than a lot of stuff that is going on in the culinary world. Stuff like this pork belly (the whole thing was under 2 dollars), shanks, etc. is where all of the flavor is. We need to look beyond what we are used to and get out of our culinary comfort zones. Hey, I am just as guilty as anyone else. I said straight off in this post that I was skeptical about making this, but look what happened. I am so glad that I did and now I know that it rocks and I am totally going to make it again. Just think, there is a good chance that you've never tasted your favorite food. With that thought, I'm out of here. peace.
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