Braised Pork Belly W/ Black Trumpet Mushrooms and "Nage De Porc"

This is one of my favorites.

A while back, I made a post(<--this is a link) about a pork belly sandwich with balsamic onion jam, spicy mustard, and pickled cabbage. It turned out pretty well (I certainly enjoyed it), but I think that ultimately it was just a jumping off point for me. What I got the second time was something completely different, but pretty cool.

The original purpose of the sandwich was to put something new on the menu for my place of work at the time. My chef loved it, and said something that gave me the idea for this dish.

It went something like this: "You know Tim, this reminds me of this time that i was in hong kong. I had a pork belly that was like crème brûlée..." He said some other words after that, but I can't remember what they were. I'm pretty sure that the pork belly sandwich tanked in the dining room, but I didn't care - I was on to something new. I wanted to make some pork belly that was like créme brûlée- tender, almost creamy on the inside, and crispy on the outside. I drew some ideas in my sketchbook, where they laid dormant for quite a while. It was only recently that I decided to try it out.

I kept the pork belly recipe exactly the same. I picked up a nice 5-spice blend from World Spice Merchants to rub the pork belly with. After letting it cure over night, I rinsed off the excess rub and braised it for 8 hours in chicken stock on a low heat with a bit of onions and carrots.

Needless to say, the end result was an extremely tender piece of meat. However, I wasn't finished. Last time when I braised pork belly, I saved the cooking liquid, for, well....something. I actually ended up throwing it away. After all, how could some greasy-looking chicken stock go with a sandwich? It couldn't. But with a piece of crispy and tender pork belly? Totally different.

I'm not sure why I chose to turn it into a nage instead of a glaze or a sauce of some kind. I suppose it was just one of those things that I wanted to do that stuck with me until I executed it.

So while the pork belly was cooling off in the fridge, I took some pieces of pork that I had saved and got a hard sear on them and deglazed with brandy and some fresh mirepoix. After sweating the vegetables, I added the strained cooking liquid and began to reduce it. When it was reduced just enough, I added in a few pieces of butter for richness, texture, and shine.

The mushrooms were fairly simple. I started by bringing some olive oil and brown butter to smoking point and adding the mushrooms. After getting some good caramelization, I added in a touch of stock to emulsify the butter and then threw in some thyme, shallots, and garlic and turned off the heat.

At this point, I had most of the dish nailed down, I just needed a couple of finishing touches.

I decided that the dish was really only lacking acidity. And what better way to obtain this acidity then through several classic flavor combinations with pork- fennel and apple. I decided that some nice simple apple slices would be nice, as well as some some shaved fennel dressed in lemon. All that was left was to crisp up the pork belly.

I think that if I were to serve this in a real restaurant, I would pour the nage on at the table side so that the customer could see what they are getting.

I think that I was pretty satisfied with the dish overall. The only thing that I would change is the bowl that it was served in. Perhaps something wider and more grand?

Anyway, that's it for this week. As always, thanks for reading, and feel free to check out my other posts.

Roasted Scallops with avocado cream and cilantro salad.

It’s been a while since my last post. Lots of things have been going on that have kept me from working on new content, like getting a new job (on top of my other one). But alas, I have returned with what I believe to be some great content.

About a week ago, I cooked a huge dinner for my wife, partly just because, and partly to try out some new ideas. Some of which were:

-Pan-roasted scallops with cilantro red pepper salad, avocado cream, and peanuts

-Green tea risotto with baby bok-choy and green onions

-Crispy pork belly with black trumpets, apples and pork nage

-Banana mousse with salted tarragon caramel

Today I wanted to focus on the scallops.

I actually tried this idea out several months ago, but it was really raw, and I could not seem to execute what the ideas that I had in my head. The plating was awkward and the flavor profiles were subtly clashing. I had also originally added in a lemongrass vinaigrette, but it just ended up being an awkward part of the dish that added nothing but an oily mouth feel.

So I began to draw- I started recording some of the visions that I had about the dish and the roles that I wanted the ingredients to play (I often do this to help me see what something will be like before I execute it.)

The scallops themselves were easy. A quick pan-sear in grape seed oil (which I chose because of it’s high smoke point and neutral flavor) and some time in the oven did the trick.

For the avocado cream, I was a bit more precise.  I wanted to keep the lemongrass in the dish because it goes wonderfully with scallops and avocado both, but I didn't want the unpleasant oiliness. This led me to making an avocado cream with lemongrass and lime. I only added a touch of the latter for a nice acidity and to keep the mixture from browning. I let it pulse in the blender with  a touch of cream until it was smooth and pressed it through a fine strainer to eliminate any small chunks, which resulted in a perfectly smooth texture.

The cilantro salad was also simple: Cilantro, lime, salt, pepper, and fine juliennes of red pepper with a little bit of sesame oil.

The peanuts were fairly straightforward as well: ground into a fine powder in the blender.

In the end, I was rather pleased with the dish. The flavor of the scallops went well with the acidic qualities of the salad and avocado cream without out shining the creamy and savory characteristics of the dish.

Thanks for reading!

Coming next: Crispy pork belly with apple, black trumpets, and pork nage!

-Tim