Pork Belly Part Deux - Food Porn

Photo by Rob Robitaille

I know that I have already posted about pork belly, but this was really, really good.  I made it the other night when my wife was working.  I was bored and this turned out fantastic.  I had no intention to post about it, because I had recently posted a similar article.  Regardless, I was rolling through my pictures, ready to post about something else tonight, and I rolled across this picture - and it brought it all back to right now.  Have you ever wanted to roll in something?  Or make a sleeping bag out of it and crawl in?  Well, I am ashamed to say that I have.  Roasted pork belly has to be, hands down, one of the most decadent foods you can experience.  I mean...it is a slab of uncured bacon.  Treated properly, it is tender and delicious and can invade your dreams.  I admit, I dream of food.  This combo that you see, works.  It just works.  I has it all.

The base is caramelized onion and sauerkraut braised with bay leaves, caraway seeds, and a bit of brown sugar.  The pork is nothing more than an ordinary, unappealingly white slab of animal protein and fat.  Unremarkable in its raw, plain form.  However, with the proper prep and mix of heat; you have an extraordinary experience.  I know what you are thinking.  For now, my dear friends, let's not think of fat as either good or bad.  Let's think of it as a flavor.  We can have the other discussion later, perhaps.  Fat is both flavor and a texture.  Have you ever had baked potato chips?  They taste okay, but they are kind of wrong on many levels.  They are dry and stick to your tongue in a very unholy way.  This is the antidote to that very experience.  Fat, in moderation, is a very good thing both in taste and texture.  It has to be experienced rather than observed.

I prepared the roast (about one pound) very similar to all the times before, but I took a hint from the Scandinavians, because...you have to.  I live in Minnesota for goodness sakes.  I made slices, about 1/8 inch deep and about 1/8 inch apart on the fat side.  Then, running off on  my own as I often do, I rubbed in salt and some vinegar between the slices (vinegar is really good on pork...try it). After which, I roasted it at 350 for about 1 1/2 hours, then turned on the broiler.  Once the layer of fat was crisp, I removed it to a cooling rack and sliced it about 1/2 inch thick.  I garnished it with some mustard (yellow mustard with some brown sugar, tarragon, cinnamon, allspice, and black pepper).  I am not joking when I say that, this was unbelievable.  It was sweet, salty, sour, and bitter.  All the basic senses of the human tongue and then some.

All right, I need to stop.  Food should be fun and interesting.  This is about as fun and interesting that I can think of.  Don't think of what is necessarily "healthy".  This is an occasional treat.  Enjoy it.