so yesterday after cavin woke up, we took a trip to dupont farmer's market (i think cavin mentioned it's the only farmer's market still running right now) to pick up our normal fare: apples and mushrooms. i thought i read somewhere that turnips were spring/summer veggie, but when we were looking around at what veggies to buy, i saw them! i actually saw several varieties, one of them being small baby turnips that looked exactly like radishes, only they were white. the first ones i saw though, were the ones i purchased, and were about 3-4" in length with the greens still attached.

after cavin put the bread in the oven (for a while, leave it there, come on, clean the pile!), i began the labor intensive (which i didn't know it would be, because i didn't read through the entire recipe as i should have) task of making the pork belly. don't forget that i marinated the pork in a dry rub for about 2.5 days beforehand!

i should start off by saying that after all the work it took cavin and i to make this, we probably would make it again, though there are a few changes we would probably make, which i will note below. it came out very flavorful, though if you were to serve this dish to me, i don't think i could have picked out the seasonings used to flavor the pork, besides the pepper (toasted coriander seeds, dill seeds), oh, and the bay leaves.

also, if you didn't know already, pork belly is pretty fatty. it's the belly (duh) of the pig, and it's where bacon comes from. in fact, pork belly is just a slab of bacon that isn't smoked.

i think the recipe called for one big rectangular slab of pork belly, but i had long skinny slabs, which i also cut in half, because it wouldn't fit in the le cruset if i hadn't. i also used boneless, skin-on pork belly.

first i heated olive oil in the pot, then i browned the pork skin side down only, until the skin was evenly browned and started crackling (i had to do this in batches). after removing all the meat from the pot, i added chopped carrots, celery, and onion, sauted them until soft, deglazed with vermouth, reduced, then added chicken stock, and bay leaves. the recipe calls for adding cloves, but i didn't have any in the house, and it wasn't missed, though, i have not had the recipe with the cloves, so what do i know?

when this all came to a simmer, i added the pork belly pieces, skin side up, put on the lid, and braised. the meat was tender at around the 3.25 hour mark, so we turned off the heat, and let cool. i should mention that the recipe calls for cooking this in the oven, but the bread was occupying the oven in the beginning, and it is seriously really hard to get stuff in and out of the oven (it's a two-person job), so i opted to braise on the stovetop.

it was about this time, however, that i started getting really bad cramps, and i was not able to continue on, and cavin took over, so i'm kind of guessing as to what happened next.

the next phase of the recipe called for straining and discarding the veggies from the braising liquid, de-fatting it, using some for the turnips, and the rest for the pork belly, which was now going to go in the oven. but before going into the oven, cavin sliced (and threw out) the skin off and scored the fat that was underneath the skin. he then put the pieces in a baking dish, along with the braising liquid, and threw it in a 425F degree oven, and let the scored fat caramelize.

in the meantime, while i was having a bad episode (excrutiating pain), i think cavin finished chopping the turnips into wedges, and braised them on the stove with just salt, pepper, a little bit of sugar (1 tbsp, i think), and the braising liquid (and chicken stock?) for about 30-40 minutes. (earlier i cut off the green tops and peeled the turnips. i threw out the greens, though, i bet i could have cooked them as well. oh well. next time.)

when i finally came around, cavin had finished! he even made good ol' quinoa to have along with the pork belly and turnips. while he set things up in the living room, i plated the dishes. (i had a picture, but it seems to have been lost in cyberspace. i'll have to find it again and add it later to the post.) the pork fat had gotten nice and brown, and the surface of the meat dried a bit so that it wasn't so wet/sloppy looking.

while the dish was tasty, it was definitely fatty. perhaps next time i'll try to pick the pork belly package that has the least amount of fat. also, cavin suggested that next time when cutting off the skin, we could also cut off some of the fat layer that resides underneath the skin. not a bad idea.

i think cooking it on the stove was fine, but you cannot skip browning it in the oven. we kept the braising liquid from the baking dish, and i put it in the fridge to let cool so i could skim the fat off, and use the rest to pour over the pork belly when we eat it again tonight.

oh, so what about the turnips? cavin said they tasted like beets, but i don't really agree with his assessment. i feel like i've maybe had turnips before, but i just didn't realize it, because when i first tasted them last night, i was like, 'oh, these are turnips?' they tasted like a softer-textured, not-as-sharp-bite red radish. i'd eat them again (and in fact will, because there are leftovers).

a couple of notes:
-this was a pretty good recipe, though it had many, many steps, and took a long time to pull together (marinate for at least 1 day, braise for 3 hours, let cool, cut off skin, score fat, brown in oven, glaze turnips).
-i eat most things, so i had no problem with eating the fatty cut of pork, but for people that are unfamiliar with pork belly, this dish might not be the best to serve.
-if you are an adventurous eater and wanted to try pork belly, and didn't want bold flavor profiles, this might not be a bad recipe to start, if you don't mind the many, many steps that i mentioned above.
-you could make the turnips without the pork belly, as a side dish to something else.

we have a lot of leftovers that we will probably eat the rest of this week (unless i get sick of eating the same thing over and over again, which sometimes happens to me). we also roasted a chicken on saturday, so we still have to finish that up too. so i guess we won't be cooking anything exotic (besides the bread that cavin is going to make again tonight, i think, which i want to try adding supplementary ingredients, like sesame seeds). all in all, i think it was a pretty good weekend in the kitchen.

Labels: books, cooking, pork