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.
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