Crispy Braised Pork Belly with Paprika Popcorn sauce

I have wanted to try and cook pork belly for quite some time but I have been unable to find it in any of our local stores. I even had my sister-in-law go to Central Market in Austin but they said they would have to special order it. Then one day when I was in Monroe I saw an Asian market that I had never gone to and what do I find inside next to a cooler full of miso – pork belly, and it did not even cost me that much. Better yet the clerk said they have a sister store in Bossier just across the river from Shreveport.

I googled several recipes to find out the best way to cook the pork and I ended up deciding on a combination of techniques. At first I was going to duplicate Chubby Hubby’s recipe for Pork Belly with Almond milk but I decide I would try something completely new (at least to me anyways), although that recipe looks extremely good.

I started by marinating the belly in salt and pepper, crushed garlic, olive oil and chopped rosemary. I scored the skin so it could absorb more of the flavors and sealed it in a vacuum sealed bag overnight. The next day I seared both sides in an extremely hot skillet (note: If your gas grill has an adequate side burner I would suggest using this as it produces a lot of smoke) Once seared I placed it in a baking dish and added about 3 cups of chicken stock flavored with more garlic and rosemary. I braised it in the oven for two hours (constantly basting it). Once it was done I took it out to cool then placed, covered, in the fridge till we were ready for dinner.

For the sauce I was kind of at a crossroads of what to do. I was either going to use one of my old standby recipes of grits or something completely new. I decided to go with something that I had seen on one of my daily blog reads – Hungry in Hogtown.  The site mentioned a meal he had had at Moto in Chicago that used a popcorn sauce and he was trying to duplicate it. I wanted the sauce to have several flavors so I thought that if I made the popcorn with a flavored oil it would bring another dimension to the dish while not making the sauce too heavy and also keeping the lightness of the popcorn flavor. I had wanted to use saffron but I was unable to get my hands on any at the last minute, so I instead settled on a mild Hungarian paprika.

I started by steeping the garlic in olive oil for about 15 minutes then added about two tablespoons of the paprika. I strained the oil and then made the popcorn according to directions. The rest of the recipe can be found here. The only difference I made was to substitute ½ and ½ for the heavy cream and I used about 2/3 less butter.

For the pork belly I cut it into small squares about 1 ½ inches and seared it in a skillet over med high heat till crispy. To make the accompanying sauce to this I took about 1 cup of the braising liquid and reduced it to about 1/3 cup and added 1/8 cup of cane syrup and 2 branches of rosemary and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

I would have to liken the taste to a juicy slow cooked brisket but with pork and extremely tasty. The richness of the meat went very well with the somewhat spicy but light taste of the popcorn puree. All in all this was a very tasty dish and I look forward to trying out different recipes with this cut of meat now that I know where to find it. My test subjects/family were a little bit hesitant when I told them we would be eating pork belly but when I explained that it was basically nothing more than uncured bacon it eased their anxiety a little bit. They all agreed it was very good but not for everyday consumption, my family may be full of doctors but none are cardiologists J

Okay now for those wondering why there are pictures of a panini in the slideshow , here is your answer. On Saturday we stopped by one of the local farmer’s market and picked up some tomatoes as well as some Ruston peaches. For lunch we decided to have some veggie paninis. All I did was grill some portabello mushroom and the sliced tomatoes with a little bit of olive oil and salt and pepper. I assembled the sandwiches using fresh basil, grilled tomatoes, grilled portabello slices and freshly sliced mozzarella and sourdough bread.

Last night I pureed the peaches and put them in the freezer for future ice cream use

(like this).