Here's a little post on my entry for the Nouvelle Quisine Throwdown:
I’ll be the first to admit that this type of food and plating is so far removed from my normal style of cooking that I wasn’t sure I could pull it off. But I figured I’d give it a shot and I was actually quite pleased with the results.
I had a recipe for maple sweet potatoes that I’ve wanted to try so the first step was to come up with a meat/protein that I could use with it. Miso is a great complement to maple so I decided a Miso Braised Pork Belly was the way to go.
The first thing I did was take the pork belly and season with it with just sea salt. The pork belly was then seared on the grill.
After mixing up the miso braising liquid I put the whole thing into the smoker at 300 degrees for two hours. The whole thing was then covered in foil and returned to the smoker.
The idea behind doing it this way was to, hopefully, infuse just a little smoke flavor into the top of the pork and the brasing liquid. I feel this method was pretty successful, because the pork did have a nice mild smoke flavor to it.
After the pork belly had braised for a total of about four hours and it was at a point where it was “almost fall apart” tender I removed the pork belly and and skimmed the fat from the braising liquid.
I then added 1/4 cup of honey to the braising liquid and reduced it down to a thick, almost, syrup like consistency.
The pork belly was then placed back on the hot grill and basted with the reduced braising liquid. This accomplished two things. Putting the pork on the grill allowed it to firm back up and the braising liquid gave it a nice glazed top.
I had left the skin on the pork belly instead of removing it before braising. It was at this point I realized that removing it would have been a much better alternative. The skin, in the braising process, turned into a layer of gelatinous mush. It firmed up some on the grill but not much. Next time, the skin comes off.
All and all this was a fantastic dish. I plated it with the required minimalistic approach but I’m going to be gobbling up pork belly next chance I get. It went well with the maple sweet potatoes but would also go well with some fried rice or pan fried noodles.
A few months back I did a
pork belly egg roll and the miso braised pork would be a great way to cook the pork for this dish.
Full Recipe Is
HERE!
