spork me

Chili Orange Sage Pork Belly with Braised Peaches and White Beans

Not to brag (only a little), this was the best pork belly I’ve made so far, and the beans went with it incredibly. Not a ton of ingredients but they work really well together, and it only takes a few minutes to throw together.

Ingredients (pork belly):

1 pork belly
1 red chili, sliced
1 orange, juice and zest
10 sage leaves
3-4 star anise
Salt and pepper

Arrange the ingredients (except the pork) on the bottom of a glass pan that will fit the pork belly nicely, including the orange juice. Score the skin of the belly about 1cm apart, not cutting the meat. Place it meat side down in the pan, rub the skin liberally with salt, and chuck it in the fridge overnight.

When it’s time to cook, bring to room temperature (about 30 minutes) and pre-heat the oven to full heat. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 150C / 300F. Cook for about an hour, then blast the heat again until the skin bubbles but not burns. Let rest for 10 minutes in its own juices before serving.

Ingredients (white beans):

1 can of white beans, drained
1 cup of chicken stock (homemade, if you have it)
2 peaches, pitted and sliced thin
2 tbsp harissa or chili paste (or just mash some chili and garlic with cumin and coriander seeds)
1 red onion, sliced
1 punnet of grape or cherry tomatoes, cut in half
10 sage leaves, chopped
1 cup chopped flat parsley
Juice of 1 lemon
Olive oil, salt and pepper

In a pan with a touch of oil, slowly caramelize the onions, about 10 minutes, until very soft. Add the harissa paste and peaches, cooking for 5 minutes more. Stir in the white beans, sage, and stock. Reduce slightly before adding the tomatoes, then cook to a thicker sauce. Add the parsley and lemon juice, cook 2 minutes more, season with salt and pepper, and serve.

Crispy Coconut Pork Belly

I’ve been trying to find ways to improve my pork belly recipe, and after a bit of research (thanks, internet!), I found that a lot of people swear by boiling it first. I don’t really get it. I figured, if I’m going to boil it, it needs to at least add something to the pork. This was really moist and delicious, and added sweetness into the pork belly without coating it with sugar and scorching it in the oven.

Ingredients:

1 pork belly
1 liter of coconut water (like C Coconut Water)
1 tablespoon Chinese 5 spice
2 star anise
5 cardamom pods
Salt and pepper

Boil the pork belly in the coconut water for about 15-20 minutes.

Remove, dry thoroughly, and rub the flesh with 5 spice, and the skin with salt. Bake, skin side up, on the star anise and cardamom, at 220C / 425F for 20 minutes, and then lower the heat to 150C / 300F for 1 hour. Let rest for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Pork Belly Ramen

After what I now call “the pork belly incident” there were quite a lot of leftovers. I made a kind of pseudo attempt at this ramen recipe, and while it was a bit labor intensive for a weeknight, if you have the broth made ahead of time it wouldn’t be too bad; one for the recipe book.

Pork Belly Sliders with Chipotle Mayo and Cabbage Slaw

If I’m up on a Saturday morning before noon there are a few places I may end up, one of my favorites being the Vic’s Meat Market Day. A misinterpretation of what I thought was a signal for a pork belly portion for 2, and my inability to say no, left me with 2.5kg of meat and a plan to have some friends over to indulge in its porky goodness. I started prepping Saturday afternoon, which is minimal work but worth letting it hang out for a while and marinate.

This doesn’t look like much, it was the last measly slider left on the plate and you can’t even see the delicious crackling. I made the buns as well, but wasn’t blown away by them, so just buy some little rolls, but the rest is worth the effort.

Ingredients (chipotle mayo):

3/4 cup mayo
Juice of half a lime
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
Salt

Blend and adjust to taste.

Ingredients (cabbage slaw):

From Zen Can Cook, modified only slightly.

1 Chinese cabbage, sliced, boiled, drained and cooled
1/4 cup maple syrup
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon of salt

Mix well and let sit for at least an hour. Remove liquid and seeds to serve.

Ingredients (pork belly):

2.5kg pork belly (adjust times accordingly if yours is smaller, but the amount of spice can probably stay the same)
Salt and sugar
1/2 cup mirin
1/2 cup soy sauce
7 cardamom pods
2-3 star anise, broken up slightly
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground coriander

The day before, rub the pork belly skin with salt and sugar, coating liberally. I didn’t score the skin, but I would have with a belly this size if I did it again. Mix the mirin and soy sauce, and rest the meat in it, making sure the liquid doesn’t touch the skin. Cover and refrigerate.

The morning of, remove the liquid and pat dry the top of the roast. Rub the meat with the remaining ingredients, and re-salt and sugar the top. Refrigerate uncovered.

An hour before, let come to room temperature. Turn the oven on high, and for 20-30 minutes roast the pork belly until the crackling is golden and darkly colored. Lower the heat to 150C / 300F, and roast for 2 hours. Baste the skin with the juices, and return to the oven for another hour. Let rest for 20 minutes before serving, and assemble the sliders with a slice of meat and crackling, cabbage slaw and the chipotle mayo.

Sage Rubbed Pork Belly with Roasted Chokos, Carrots, and Parsnips

I can’t really stress how easy pork belly is. Put it together the night before when you’re making dinner and all you do is throw it in the oven the next night. So tasty.

I grabbed a random vegetable at the store called a choko, I had no idea what it was or what to do with it. They’re pretty weird looking, kind of avocado shaped, but lighter, and tougher. I would say they taste kind of like a sweeter potato. Really nice with the roasted vegetables, tossed in olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper.

Also served this with some sauteed broccolini, and leftover red cabbage and raisins, reheated.

Ingredients (pork belly):

Pork belly (mine was enough for 3 small servings)
1/2 bunch of sage leaves
Salt, pepper
4-5 garlic cloves, crushed and lightly chopped
1/2 tsp nutmeg

The night before, rub the meat of the pork belly with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. In a pan, lay the garlic and sage leaves, putting the pork belly on top. Pat the skin dry and salt it liberally. Previously I have scored it, but saw somewhere not to so it keeps the juice in. It worked pretty well, but it’s much harder to cut into portions. Put it in the fridge uncovered until the next night when you’re ready to cook.

Pull the pork out while you preheat the oven to 220C / 425F. Pat the skin dry again, removing some salt. Do not add liquid. You don’t need to. Bake for about 20 minutes until the skin is very, very brown. Lower the heat to 170C / 325F for an hour. Let rest for a few minutes before cutting and serving.

Orange Spiced Roasted Pork Belly

Pork belly seems to be one of those love or hate things. I love it. I can’t get enough of it. And I’ve generally found that when serving skeptics, as long as you succeed at crispy crackling so the meat isn’t too fatty, they’re fans as well.

Ingredients:

1 pork belly, scored almost to the meat, 1 cm apart (don’t follow what I did in the photo, it was poorly done at the grocery store and I didn’t bother to fix it… bad move)
2 oranges, 1 sliced and 1 quartered
3-4 star anise
5-6 cardamon pods
1 tbsp Chinese 5 spice
Ground pepper
5 cloves of garlic
Salt. So much salt.

The night before (or morning of, or however soon you can do it), mash you garlic in a mortar and pestle with some salt and pepper. Mix in the spices, breaking open the star anise and cardamon. In a baking dish, line with sliced orange, and squeeze on orange juice from the quarters (don’t discard it yet). Rub the bottom of the roast with the spice mix, and set on top of the oranges. Stuff the squeezed quarters on the sides, and generously salt the top of the pork, rubbing into the scores. Leave uncovered in the fridge to help dry out the skin.

Before cooking, wipe the top of the pork with a paper towel to remove any liquid, and set the oven to 240C / 425F. Bake on high for about 20 minutes until the top is very brown and the crackling has formed. This also will create liquid in the bottom of your roast, and the pork will literally be hanging out in its own juices. How cool is that?

Turn down to 150C / 300F for an hour. Baste and cook for 15 minutes more. Let rest for 15 minutes and serve sliced.

Sage and Onion Pork Belly Roast with Zucchini, Tomato and Rice Bake

I have an extreme aversion to per-marinated food. Unless of course it’s on sale. One of the things I picked up last weekend was a cryovaced, tied, and marinated pork belly roast for a weeknight meal that would have enough leftovers for days (and days, and days). I think it was about $15 for the 1.5kg roast. I won’t bother with the recipe for the side, it was a good idea that failed due to lack of ingredients (herbs, red wine.. anything to add some flavor to it). The pork roast was easy; I seared the roast in a hot pan before baking on high heat (250C / 425F) for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes I pulled it out and basted it, and returned to the oven which I lowered to 180C / 325F. Cook for another hour at that lower heat, let rest for 5 or 10 minutes, and serve.

Pork Belly with Sage Carrots and Fingerling Potatoes

Oh man. Pork belly. What can I say. It’s an extremely delicious way to have a heart attack.

Ingredients:

Pork belly (I dunno, I think it was about 1-1.5 kg?)
2-3 star anise
1 tbsp cardamon pods
1 tsp Chinese 5 spice powder
1 tsp cinnamon
3 cloves of garlic
Salt and pepper
200g shaoxing cooking wine
100g soy sauce
300g chicken stock
about 10 fingerling potatoes
2 onions, quartered with skins removed
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp chopped fresh sage
4 carrots cut lengthwise in quarters

Heat the oven to 250C/425F. Pat the pork belly dry and score the skin, about 1 cm apart, deep enough to get close to the meat but not into it. Rub the whole thing with salt.

In a mortar and pestle, grind up the garlic, 5 spice, star anise, cardamon, cinnamon, and a bit of salt and pepper. Rub onto the bottom of the pork belly, and put in a roasting pan. I know, there’s no oil, but trust me, that will change. Bake for 30 minutes until the crackling has formed, and then reduce heat to 180C/325F for 1 hour. Remove the pork belly, drizzle with fat, and then add the potatoes, onion, wine, stock and soy sauce. Put the pork back in so it’s sitting on top but move the potatoes around until the bottom of the pork is at least touching the liquid. Bake for another hour.

In a saucepan, saute the carrots, sage and butter for about 10 minutes on medium heat.

Serve with the pork, potatoes, and a bit of the juice from the bottom of the roasting dish (if you want it thicker, just reduce on the stove for 5 minutes).