Pork – Page 11 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Braised Pork Belly

For Christmas Eve dinner this year, I wanted something more substantial than just lechon kawali. Deep-frying was the only way I knew how to cook pork belly until I ate at Gramercy Tavern for the first time years ago. So of course today, I turn to Tom Colicchio’s recipe to recreate the eyes-rolling-back feeling at home. The photo below looks a lot like the one from the Filipino version but this one was heftier–you can smell and taste the concentrated flavor of the braised vegetables. The skin was chewy on this version and it’s recommended that it be discarded before serving, but the meat and the fat easily give when pierced with a fork. Patience is a virtue. This dish will make any pork lover swoon.

Ingredients:
2 pork bellies, cut into 4 large chunks
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
2 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
1 leek, white part only, trimmed and chopped
1 onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled
3 cups chicken stock
1 tbsp peanut oil
salt and pepper

1. A day or a few hours before cooking, rinse the pork bellies and season with salt and pork. Air-dry for several hours and then store in freezer, each piece separated, on a plate.
2. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 350Âº. Heat the peanut oil in an ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Remove the pork from the freezer only when ready to cook. Add them, fat side down, to the skillet. Cook until the skin is browned, about 15 minutes. Brown the other sides for a few extra minutes then transfer to a plate.
3. Pour off all but about 2 tablespoons of fat and add the garlic, onion, carrots, celery and leek to the skillet. Cook the vegetables, stirring occasionally, until they are tender and beginning to brown, about 20 minutes. Return the pork belly to the skillet, fat side up, and add about 2 cups of stock, enough to surround but not cover the meat. Bring the stock to a simmer, then transfer the skillet to the oven.
4. Gently simmer the pork, uncovered, for 1 hour, then add another cup of stock. Continue cooking until the pork is tender enough to cut with a fork, about another hour. If necessary, keep adding stock to keep the skillet from burning.
5. Allow the pork to cool in the braising liquid. Remove the pork from the liquid, then gently lift off and discard the skin using a small knife.
6. Strain the braising liquid and discard the vegetables. Return the liquid to the skillet, bring it to a simmer and skim off the fat. Serve the pork in a shallow bowl moistened with a bit of the braising liquid.

Pomegranate Meatballs with Tomato Mint Salad

Tyler asked me where he could buy pomegranate molasses. I’ve had Pom juice before but I’ve never heard of pomegranate in molasses form. I Googled and found out that it’s typically used in Mediterranean dishes. He found it for $8 at Dean and Deluca and used it to make some sort of appetizing tapenade. A few days later, I found a $4 bottle in Chinatown sans the pretty burlap packaging. I slathered the molasses in meatballs to give them that sweet and sour taste and served them with tomato mint salad.

Ingredients:
pork and beef ground meatballs
cumin seeds, grounded
coriander seeds, grounded
turmeric powder
red chilis, crushed
3 tbsps pomegranate molasses
tomatoes, chopped
mint leaves, finely chopped
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
salt, pepper, olive oil

1. Make meatballs. Dip in pomegranate molasses and then gently roll each ball on cumin, coriander, turmeric and red chilis.
2. In a deep skillet, heat some oil and fry meatballs until golden brown in medium to low fire. The molasses will burn faster than the meat so keep them bouncing in the hot oil using a strainer ladle.
3. Make tomato mint salad by combining tomatoes and mint in a bowl, dressed with red wine vinegar, olive oil and some salt and pepper. Top with meatballs.

Prosciutto and Arugula Pizzetta

If you’ve been visiting this site long enough, you know I spend a lot of time and money at Di Palo on Mott and Grand Street. I never wait less than 30 minutes except if I order ahead of time and arrange for a pickup. I usually just come in, pick a number from the machine at the door and wait for my turn to taste some new cheese or cold cuts and add to my usual order of prosciutto, spicy sausage, olive oil, illy coffee and Callipo tuna. During my last wait for 45 minutes, a dinner idea popped in my head and I ended up buying everything at Di Palo except for the fresh arugula I picked up at the grocery store on my way home. They also carry bread from Sullivan Street Bakery so I didn’t have to go out of my way–their focaccia rosemary bread is one of my favorites.

Ingredients:
1 square focaccia rosemary bread
fresh mozarella
Italian prosciutto, sliced paper-thin by the meat guy
fresh arugula, rinsed, pat dry
olive oil

1. Preheat oven at 350Âº. Prepare pizzetta on a baking sheet wrapped in aluminum foil. On the focaccia bread, lay the mozarella slices first and then top with prosciutto. Drizzle some olive oil. Lay the arugula and then some more prosciutto again.
2. Bake in oven for 15 minutes, enough to melt the mozarella and toast the bread.

Lechon Kawali, Deep-Fried Pork Belly

My brother loves to cook. In fact, together with a friend, he cooks for small private events in Manila. He’d like for his business to be a bigger catering service in the future but I think he likes the fact that he’s paying attention to every detail in smaller portions than, say, a batch for more than a hundred guests. Of course, he has my mother’s full support. She hires him to cater her parties whenever she is in Manila entertaining. Lechon kawali, or deep-fried pork belly, is one of the best Filipino staples. We like our pork and we like it even better deep-fried in hot, hot oil. The last time my brother visited New York, he made this and I swooned (and then I think I got a heart attack because of clogged arteries from all the fat) so I just had to call him to ask for the recipe when I had the craving.

Letting the pork belly air dry after boiling and freezing it before frying are important. After boiling it until it was soft, I left the house at lunch and did not return until 10pm. I put them in the freezer and did not fry them until the next day. So it takes some time but I can guarantee you that all the trouble is worth it.

Ingredients:
pork belly
salt, pepper, oil

1. Sprinkle the pork belly with salt and pepper and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours up to a day then boil in water until soft using a big pot with a heavy lid on low to medium fire. This should take about two hours.
2. Transfer to a colander in a large bowl to drain excess water and let it sit in room temperature to air dry.
3. When the pork belly is dry, cut it in four large chunks. Set them on a plate, separated, and store in freezer until the next day.
4. When ready to cook, heat a lot of oil in a heavy-duty pot, low to medium fire. In the meantime, take the pork belly out of the freezer. You will fry them frozen. There should be enough oil to deep-fry the pork belly chunks. Dip one chunk in the oil using a pair of tongs to test if the oil is hot enough. You’ll just know. Set them gently in the oil and fry until golden brown, uncovered. Serve while hot and crunchy with crushed garlic in soy sauce and vinegar on the side.

Sautéed Pork Steaks with Apples

I misplaced a Mark Bittman recipe from The Times I saved two weeks ago. Now that I have a nice bottle of Reisling to cook with after visiting the Finger Lakes wine trail and plenty of firm apples to buy at the market, I was adamant to replicate it with some guess-timates. I still had some leftover thyme in the fridge kept fresh by the best thing in the world right now–Glad Press’n Seal–so I threw those in while the juices cooked the pork. We drank the rest of the Lamoreaux Landing Reisling with this and ate it with broiled white potatoes.

Ingredients:
6 pork steaks, about 1 inch thick, cut from the shoulder
3 Gala apples, cored and sliced
1/2 cup of Bordeaux or any other semi-heavy red
1/2 cup of dry Reisling
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
half a stick of butter
2 sprigs of thyme
salt and pepper

1. Rub the steaks with salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat for 3 minutes. Add the butter and brown the pork on both sides, about 4 minutes. Do this in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan.
2. Reduce the heat to medium. Add the red wine and the onion and cook, turning the pork once or twice, until the wine is all but evaporated, about 3 minutes.
3. Add some water if the sauce is a little too thick, turn the heat to low and cover. Cook for 10 minutes, turning them once or twice, until the pork is tender but not dry. Remove the pork to a plate.
4. Add the apples in the remaining liquid, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan as the apples cook. Add the Reisling and simmer in low fire until the apples absorb most of the liquid. Return the meat to the pan during the last few minutes to reheat them.