Braised Pork Belly (p. 216)

I'm obviously falling behind in my attempt to cook through Michael Symon's cookbook Live to Cook, but I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet. I actually made this dish in early August but I haven't had time to write about it until now.

Michael's love of pork is obvious if you've eaten at any of his restaurants, watched his TV shows, or follow his Twitter account so it's amazing the Braised Pork Belly (p. 216) is the first pork dish I've made from his cookbook. Obviously this is one recipe that didn't disappoint!

I actually made a double batch so what you see above is 2-two pound bellies.

Beautiful pork belly from Bluebird Meadows Farm

This pork belly was one of the last cuts I had left from the pig we bought last fall. Like all the other cuts, the belly was beautiful and tasty! If you haven't tried the pork from Bluebird Meadows, you don't know what you are missing! You can find Bluebird Meadows every Saturday at the Crocker Park Farmers Market or you can reach them via telephone at (440)610-5994, tell them Dave sent you!

 

Fresh pork bellies rubbed down with Symon's rub

The first step of making the belly is to rub it down with a mix of salt, sugar, coriander, red pepper flakes, and orange zest and refrigerate it for 24 hours. I was amazed by the affect of the rub on the bellies. They were much tighter after 24 hours in the mixture. I could tell the curing process had begun. After 24 hours, I removed the bellies from the fridge and rinsed off the seasonings.

Ready to go in the oven

It was weird to pull out my dutch oven and turn the oven on for 5 hours on an 85 degree day in August. But I had pork belly that needed to be cooked so I pushed on. I put the onion, carrot, garlic, bay leaf, white wine, cinnamon sticks, and chicken stock into a dutch oven, brought the mixture to a simmer and let the flavors mingle together. After 15 minutes or so I put the bellies each into their own dutch oven and made sure they were covered with the liquid.

Tender and ready to eat

The book says to let the belly cook covered for 7 hours, or until very tender. I checked them after about 5 hours and both were already done. I left them sit on the stove overnight to cool and then moved them into the fridge in the morning.

I stored the bellies in their poaching liquid for a couple of weeks as we enjoyed the delicious meat from time to time. I had the best of intentions to use the pork belly to make the Fresh Bacon with Watermelon & Haloumi, (p. 219), the Frisee with Crispy Pork Belly Croutons (p. 220), the BBLT (p. 58), or at least the Pork Belly with Polenta and Seared Mushrooms (p. 217) but unfortunately my busy summer schedule never allowed me the time to make any of them. That doesn't mean we didn't enjoy the pork belly. I used it to make delicious BLT's, a few different pasta dishes with fresh summer veggies, with eggs for breakfast, and of course we munched on plenty of it by itself.

Cost

I will provide the approximate cost for each recipe in the book, as well as the source of the products used. 

This recipe is a little difficult for me to estimate because I used fresh pork belly from the pig I bought last year. I think I've seen pork belly selling for about $2.50 a pound at the Westside Market recently so I will use that to calculate the cost of the belly. It cost about $8 to make Iron Chef Michael Symon's Braised Pork Belly (p. 216).

Pork belly - $5 (Bluebird Meadows Farm)

Orange - $1

Chicken stock - $1 (Homemade, of course. Use water if you don't have homemade)

Misc (salt, sugar, coriander, crushed red pepper flakes, carrot, garlic, bay leaf, wine, cinnamon stick) - $1