Braised Pork Belly and Shiitake-not BBQ for now

landarc · 01-03-2013, 02:21 PM

From my blog, as always, in it's entirety right here. No need to click off-world.

One of the newer dishes we have added to our New Years celebration is a braised pork belly dish, it started off as a lark, and with me wanting to play around with how pork belly might be best cooked. But, what I realized is that using very similar flavors to what we already used as a base for Oden, I could develop a separate stew that was quite delicious on it's own.

I start by marinating the pork belly in a mixture of grated ginger, grated garlic, finely diced green onion, shoyu, mirin (or sake and sugar) and a splash of Togarashi sesame oil. The pork belly is scored lightly on the fat side and then placed in a plastic bag with the marinade for 8 hours. I then seared it in my braising pan and cooked it on it's own in the over, uncovered, for 1 hour at 350F. This started the rendering process and gave it a great color.

Caramelized and rendered

From here, the belly was chopped into small-ish bite sized pieces and reserved. The pan was deglazed with more sake, Some finely chopped onion was added, then some pieces of carrot, and tofu. This was then tossed in the pan to pick up some of the liquid, the pieces of belly were returned, along with some shiitake mushrooms. I used dried mushrooms, which have a deeper flavor which works great in this application. I also added some of what my sister kept calling the 'mother dashi'. By the time I was done, the pan was quite full, I only used about 1 cup of the 'mother dashi'.

About the mother dashi, I will get a post together about it. But, for the moment, what it really represents in the frugality of not wanting to toss away any flavor. Japanese food really relies upon the manipulations of just a few elements; bonito, shoyu, sugar, sake, ginger, onion, and the foods that are cooked in them. So much of what we cook relied upon these flavors in various braises and steeps. Over a 48 hour period, we make and use so much of this, we decided to just put it all into a stock pot which stayed at a low heat, just around 180F, so as we prepared fillings for futomaki, or oden, or soba etc...all the fluids ended up in that pot, even my teriyaki drippings ended up in that stock.

On to the end product...once out of the oven, where it was cooked at 400F for 2 hours, the braise resulted in silky belly pieces that were laced through with an unctuous, salty, sweet, umami laden sauce. The tofu and mushrooms picking up that flavor, each texture well defined. I could have done most of this on my Weber kettle as I did last year, using the belly as a smoked product, but, I was not cooking at home.

Chunks of Braised Fat

The end product. Although this dish uses chunks of pork belly, it is a lot lighter than it might first appear. The flavors are retained, everything has it's own texture and taste. The braise ends up as quite complex, with simple and limited ingredients as the carrier.

deguerre · 01-03-2013, 02:26 PM

Damn. Beautiful Bob. Now, make a soup with collards, pot likker and somma dem belly chunks.

colonel00 · 01-03-2013, 02:36 PM

Nice! Shiitake Happens

caliking · 01-03-2013, 02:45 PM

Superb. I have been wanting to make pork belly dish for a long time and this gives me some inspiration. I love how that "mother dashi" sounds!

fingerlickin' · 01-03-2013, 04:40 PM

That looks and sounds delicious. This cannot be on the cardiologist approved list of dishes for sure.

Bonewagon · 01-03-2013, 05:49 PM

Looks delicious. I'd love to tuck into some of that.

Boshizzle · 01-03-2013, 06:11 PM

Very nice! I bet it was delicious!

Norm · 01-03-2013, 07:59 PM

There's a reason I always open your posts Bob, this one is no exception!

01-03-2013, 02:21 PM	#1
landarc somebody shut me the fark up. Join Date: 06-26-09 Location: sAn leAnDRo, CA	Braised Pork Belly and Shiitake-not BBQ for now From my blog, as always, in it's entirety right here. No need to click off-world. One of the newer dishes we have added to our New Years celebration is a braised pork belly dish, it started off as a lark, and with me wanting to play around with how pork belly might be best cooked. But, what I realized is that using very similar flavors to what we already used as a base for Oden, I could develop a separate stew that was quite delicious on it's own. I start by marinating the pork belly in a mixture of grated ginger, grated garlic, finely diced green onion, shoyu, mirin (or sake and sugar) and a splash of Togarashi sesame oil. The pork belly is scored lightly on the fat side and then placed in a plastic bag with the marinade for 8 hours. I then seared it in my braising pan and cooked it on it's own in the over, uncovered, for 1 hour at 350F. This started the rendering process and gave it a great color. Caramelized and rendered From here, the belly was chopped into small-ish bite sized pieces and reserved. The pan was deglazed with more sake, Some finely chopped onion was added, then some pieces of carrot, and tofu. This was then tossed in the pan to pick up some of the liquid, the pieces of belly were returned, along with some shiitake mushrooms. I used dried mushrooms, which have a deeper flavor which works great in this application. I also added some of what my sister kept calling the 'mother dashi'. By the time I was done, the pan was quite full, I only used about 1 cup of the 'mother dashi'. About the mother dashi, I will get a post together about it. But, for the moment, what it really represents in the frugality of not wanting to toss away any flavor. Japanese food really relies upon the manipulations of just a few elements; bonito, shoyu, sugar, sake, ginger, onion, and the foods that are cooked in them. So much of what we cook relied upon these flavors in various braises and steeps. Over a 48 hour period, we make and use so much of this, we decided to just put it all into a stock pot which stayed at a low heat, just around 180F, so as we prepared fillings for futomaki, or oden, or soba etc...all the fluids ended up in that pot, even my teriyaki drippings ended up in that stock. On to the end product...once out of the oven, where it was cooked at 400F for 2 hours, the braise resulted in silky belly pieces that were laced through with an unctuous, salty, sweet, umami laden sauce. The tofu and mushrooms picking up that flavor, each texture well defined. I could have done most of this on my Weber kettle as I did last year, using the belly as a smoked product, but, I was not cooking at home. Chunks of Braised Fat The end product. Although this dish uses chunks of pork belly, it is a lot lighter than it might first appear. The flavors are retained, everything has it's own texture and taste. The braise ends up as quite complex, with simple and limited ingredients as the carrier. __________________ [COLOR=DarkGreen][COLOR=DarkRed][SIZE=1]me: I don't drink anymore Yelonutz: me either, but, then again, I don't drink any less [/SIZE][/COLOR][/COLOR][SIZE=1][COLOR=DarkRed] [COLOR=Pink]SSS[/COLOR] [/COLOR][/SIZE]

01-03-2013, 02:26 PM	#2
deguerre somebody shut me the fark up. Join Date: 07-15-09 Location: Memphis, TN...Formerly of Decatur, AL	Damn. Beautiful Bob. Now, make a soup with collards, pot likker and somma dem belly chunks. __________________ Guerry [FONT=Book Antiqua]Pit Beeatch for Team Munchkin[/FONT] [FONT=Book Antiqua][B]Avatar by Northwest BBQ [/B][/FONT]"...In nature, there are predators. I believe the common denominator of the universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility and murder..." Werner Herzog

01-03-2013, 02:36 PM	#3
colonel00 Quintessential Chatty Farker Join Date: 06-03-10 Location: Shawnee, KS	Nice! Shiitake Happens __________________ Brad [URL="https://www.instagram.com/bradsimmons00/"]Some of my photos on Instagram [/URL] [SIZE=1][I][COLOR=red]Proud owner of the PentaZero[/COLOR][/I][/SIZE] :whoo: [B][COLOR=red]WWWWFBBQADD[/COLOR][/B] [B]0 out of 1 members found this post helpful[/B] :thumb: “I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

01-03-2013, 02:45 PM	#4
caliking is One Chatty Farker Join Date: 01-13-10 Location: Houston, TX	Superb. I have been wanting to make pork belly dish for a long time and this gives me some inspiration. I love how that "mother dashi" sounds! __________________ [FONT=Arial Narrow][B]EZ wood handled 3 wheeler \| OTS \| OTS mod to OTG \| [COLOR=red]Ladybug[/COLOR] SS Performer \| UglyDrumTandoor \| UDS v1 \| midi UDS with [COLOR=red]red[/COLOR] [COLOR=black]nipples[/COLOR] \| SJG smoker mod \| Simpsons SJS \| [COLOR=black]Simpsons[/COLOR] OTG \| WGA charcoal \| SJP \| Stacked brick WFO \| Lodge Logic Sportsman's Grill cast iron hibachi/sigri \| [COLOR=green]LBGE \| sbge \| [SIZE="1"]mini bge[/SIZE] [/COLOR] [/B][/FONT]

01-03-2013, 04:40 PM	#5
fingerlickin' Quintessential Chatty Farker Join Date: 07-08-10 Location: Boyertown, PA	That looks and sounds delicious. This cannot be on the cardiologist approved list of dishes for sure. __________________ [COLOR=Navy][COLOR=Black][I] Jason [/I] "I can get a good look at a T-bone by sticking my head up a bull's a$$, but I'd rather take a butcher's word for it". - [I]Tommy Callahan III[/I][/COLOR][/COLOR] [B][SIZE=2][COLOR=DarkGreen][SIZE=3][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black] [/COLOR][/SIZE] [SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]Backwoods Ext. Party,[/COLOR][/SIZE][/SIZE][/COLOR][/SIZE][COLOR=DarkGreen] [COLOR=Black]Vision Kamado,[/COLOR][/COLOR][/B][B][COLOR=DarkGreen][COLOR=DarkGreen][B][COLOR=Black] 22" WSM[/COLOR][/B],[/COLOR] 22.5 Weber OTS, [/COLOR][/B][COLOR=DarkGreen][B]Mini WSM, [/B][COLOR=Red][B] UDS "No.8"[/B][/COLOR][/COLOR] [COLOR=Teal] [COLOR=Black][B][COLOR=DarkSlateGray]Napkin Killers BBQ[/COLOR] [/B][/COLOR][/COLOR]

01-03-2013, 05:49 PM	#6
Bonewagon Babbling Farker Join Date: 06-12-09 Location: Ithaca, Michigan	Looks delicious. I'd love to tuck into some of that. __________________ Jason Big Steel Keg, WSM, OTG, PBC, Kamado Joe Jr., Carson Rodizio, and a Super Fast [I]and[/I] Accurate [COLOR="Blue"]Blue[/COLOR] Splash-Proof Thermapen

01-03-2013, 06:11 PM	#7
Boshizzle somebody shut me the fark up. Join Date: 01-26-10 Location: Virginia	Very nice! I bet it was delicious! __________________ Operation BBQ Relief Founding Member - I am Obsessive Compulsive about BBQ. Google it.

01-03-2013, 07:59 PM	#8
Norm Quintessential Chatty Farker Join Date: 02-22-10 Location: USA Name/Nickname : Private	There's a reason I always open your posts Bob, this one is no exception!