So what am I going to do with this thing? (bought a pork belly)

[SmokyMose]

That may be true but homemade bacon trumps store bought any day. Once you make your ow its real hard to eat store bought.

Gotta agree with Johnny. Try a little Maple flavoring in the brine. How many of us are in this to save money anyway?

:yahoo:

 

[geezer]

Well, I finally got around to cooking some of the pork belly I bought. We actually had this last week but I've fallen down the rabbit hole over on Forno Bravo and haven't been giving my cooking much attention beyond the actual cooking and eating. 

Dirt-Sailor had brought up red braised pork belly and after doing some research decided to give it a try. I must of come across 30 different recipes and methods for making this so I adapted a couple that sounded good and gave it a go.

I first blanched the cubed pork belly in boiling water for about 5 minutes.

red braised pork belly ect 006.JPG

• geezer
• Apr 16, 2017

Various seasonings and items for the sauce.

red braised pork belly ect 005.JPG

• geezer
• Apr 16, 2017

red braised pork belly ect 007.JPG

• geezer
• Apr 16, 2017

Stir frying with the wine and the 2 soy sauces. 

red braised pork belly ect 009.JPG

• geezer
• Apr 16, 2017

Scallions, star anise, red Sichuan peppercorns, chilies, ect...

red braised pork belly ect 011.JPG

• geezer
• Apr 16, 2017

I then braised this for about 20 more minutes. Next time I'll probably reduce the over all cooking time a bit. I was sort of preoccupied with rendering out fat, probably too much so. 

red braised pork belly ect 022.JPG

• geezer
• Apr 16, 2017

All in all this was pretty good. Everyone enjoyed it.

Next time I cook this I'm going to up the heat just a little and cut back just a bit on the anise and Sichuan peppercorns. I'll probably add more scallions too. 

 

[SmokyMose]

That looks awesome! I'm going to have to try it, though I may have to tone down the heat a little...

:points:

 

[geezer]

Thanks, Mose. It's certainly something different. :biggrin: