Pork Belly has been on my bucket list of things to cook for quite a while. Last weekend a buddy invited me to a cajun crawdad boil, and I told him I'd bring some apps and a dessert.
I settled on porkbelly, hushpuppies, and a pineapple upside down cake, none of which I'd done before. I had no idea what I was going to do with the pork belly, but figured it's bacon, and bacon is good. the end.
Here's how it went down:
First I had to source a porkbelly. Not sure about some of the dicier asian markets in the area, I called my trusty Central Market. They had a bunch of em, but with skin off. Beggars can't be choosers, so skin off sounded pretty good.
The gentleman at the counter split one for me, and I ended up with about 4.75 lbs of pork belly. Once home I started digging for ideas. I came across APL's recipe in my Serious BBQ book, and figured that was good place to start. I mixed up the marinade, scored the fat, and placed the belly in the marinade over night.
The next day I settled on a plan. I decided to smoke on the BGE at about 250 until internal temp was about 175. Then I would remove to rest, and wrap in foil. I'd take it whole to my buddy's house, where I could cube it, skewer it, reduce fat further, glaze it.
For the smoking part, I used RO lump, and 3 chunks of cherry. I placed the belly in a roasting pan, on top of a little wire rack, and poured remaining marinade all over it. I didn't want it to braise exactly, because I was going to cube it, and I needed it to stay together.
Here's a pic right out of the marinade and into BGE.
After about 4-5 hours it looked like this, and IT was about 150's.
I took it all the way to about 175 and pulled it to rest before taking it over to my friends. This took about 6.5 hours, I also bumped temp up to 350, to crust up the top a little, and because I needed the BGE at that temp for the cake.
At this point it looked like this:
Safely wrapped in foil, and placed in oven on warm, I moved on to my pineapple upsidedown cake. Got this recipe from a friend at work who also has a BGE. I was using my 12" skillet and knew the recipe was for a 10", so I doubled up the cake batter, using about 3/4's of the 2 box mix.
Setting up the top:
Batter in the skillet, and on to the egg at 350 degrees:
She's about done now:
Ready to be flipped, but how was I going to flip this thing and not dump it all over the place? Ah, that metal pizza screen I never use. Perfect!
The big reveal...
This was pretty dad gum good. I will be making this again for sure!
But wait, I still got some hushpuppies to make. Never made hushpuppies before but figured John Besh could give me a hand with his jalapeno hushpuppy recipe.
http://www.chefjohnbesh.com/recipes/john-mires-famous-hush-puppies/
Cranked up the little Fry Daddy and went to work!
These were Awesome! The beer in the batter made them light and not thick and doughy. Should have done another jalapeno, but some in the crowd I was cooking for prefer less heat. Finished with some Fleur de Sel.
Hushpuppy Money:
But what about the pork belly?
Now at my friends house, I cut the belly into bite size chunks, and skewered them. Placed them on his grill indirect, to caramelize and reduce the fat. His grill his a big DCS, and works nothing like the egg or my little weber, so I had a few flare ups at the beginning, but finally got it all worked out.
Here's a pic with them all glazed up, piled away from the one burner I had going. The glaze I made up on the fly. Huge spoonful of pepper jelly, some balsamic vinegar, and evoo, reduced a bit in a sauce pan. For winging it, it was dang good.
It's worth noting that when I put those skewers on the grill, they were packed. People kept asking for chunks right off the skewer. Even the gal that doesn't like to eat pork, was asking for one after another.
Finally they were at the point that I felt I could plate em up. I skewered the chunks with some pineapple, added diced jalapeno as a garnish and called it good.
Holy Carp... That was amazing. Probably one of the best things I've eaten in the last year or so. Judging by the fact that 6 adults killed off 4.75 lbs of belly, I'd say the others agreed.
It was fun to knock off a bucket list item!! The fact that it turned out ok was icing on the cake. Thanks for reading!
I settled on porkbelly, hushpuppies, and a pineapple upside down cake, none of which I'd done before. I had no idea what I was going to do with the pork belly, but figured it's bacon, and bacon is good. the end.
Here's how it went down:
First I had to source a porkbelly. Not sure about some of the dicier asian markets in the area, I called my trusty Central Market. They had a bunch of em, but with skin off. Beggars can't be choosers, so skin off sounded pretty good.
The gentleman at the counter split one for me, and I ended up with about 4.75 lbs of pork belly. Once home I started digging for ideas. I came across APL's recipe in my Serious BBQ book, and figured that was good place to start. I mixed up the marinade, scored the fat, and placed the belly in the marinade over night.
The next day I settled on a plan. I decided to smoke on the BGE at about 250 until internal temp was about 175. Then I would remove to rest, and wrap in foil. I'd take it whole to my buddy's house, where I could cube it, skewer it, reduce fat further, glaze it.
For the smoking part, I used RO lump, and 3 chunks of cherry. I placed the belly in a roasting pan, on top of a little wire rack, and poured remaining marinade all over it. I didn't want it to braise exactly, because I was going to cube it, and I needed it to stay together.
Here's a pic right out of the marinade and into BGE.
After about 4-5 hours it looked like this, and IT was about 150's.
I took it all the way to about 175 and pulled it to rest before taking it over to my friends. This took about 6.5 hours, I also bumped temp up to 350, to crust up the top a little, and because I needed the BGE at that temp for the cake.
At this point it looked like this:
Safely wrapped in foil, and placed in oven on warm, I moved on to my pineapple upsidedown cake. Got this recipe from a friend at work who also has a BGE. I was using my 12" skillet and knew the recipe was for a 10", so I doubled up the cake batter, using about 3/4's of the 2 box mix.
Setting up the top:
Batter in the skillet, and on to the egg at 350 degrees:
She's about done now:
Ready to be flipped, but how was I going to flip this thing and not dump it all over the place? Ah, that metal pizza screen I never use. Perfect!
The big reveal...
This was pretty dad gum good. I will be making this again for sure!
But wait, I still got some hushpuppies to make. Never made hushpuppies before but figured John Besh could give me a hand with his jalapeno hushpuppy recipe.
http://www.chefjohnbesh.com/recipes/john-mires-famous-hush-puppies/
Cranked up the little Fry Daddy and went to work!
These were Awesome! The beer in the batter made them light and not thick and doughy. Should have done another jalapeno, but some in the crowd I was cooking for prefer less heat. Finished with some Fleur de Sel.
Hushpuppy Money:
But what about the pork belly?
Now at my friends house, I cut the belly into bite size chunks, and skewered them. Placed them on his grill indirect, to caramelize and reduce the fat. His grill his a big DCS, and works nothing like the egg or my little weber, so I had a few flare ups at the beginning, but finally got it all worked out.
Here's a pic with them all glazed up, piled away from the one burner I had going. The glaze I made up on the fly. Huge spoonful of pepper jelly, some balsamic vinegar, and evoo, reduced a bit in a sauce pan. For winging it, it was dang good.
It's worth noting that when I put those skewers on the grill, they were packed. People kept asking for chunks right off the skewer. Even the gal that doesn't like to eat pork, was asking for one after another.
Finally they were at the point that I felt I could plate em up. I skewered the chunks with some pineapple, added diced jalapeno as a garnish and called it good.
Holy Carp... That was amazing. Probably one of the best things I've eaten in the last year or so. Judging by the fact that 6 adults killed off 4.75 lbs of belly, I'd say the others agreed.
It was fun to knock off a bucket list item!! The fact that it turned out ok was icing on the cake. Thanks for reading!
