Chef John's Pork Belly Recipe

Pork Belly

Ingredients:

• Pork Belly (ask your local butcher to cut you 4-6 6 oz pieces of belly)
• Pork or Bacon Fat
• Garlic
• Thyme
• Bay Leaf

• Vacuum Sealer & Bags (food saver available at WalMart will work)
• Sous Vide Machine (these are available now for 200 or less at food stores such as Sur La Table or Williams-Sonoma)
• Dutch Oven

1. Place pork belly, 2 tbs of bacon fat, 2 cloves of garlic (smashed) a sprig of thyme and one bay leaf inside a vacuum bag.
2. Fill a large stock pot with water and set your sous vide machine at 87 degrees Celsius. Drop the sealed bags of pork belly in the water. Pull them out after 12 hours. You might want to wrap the top of the stock pot in plastic wrap to prevent the water from evaporating too much.
3. To serve, crisp up the pork belly by frying in a dutch oven. add oil to thickness of about 3 inches. Heat over medium high heat till the oil reaches 350. The bellies will spit and splatter so be sure to use a screen of some sort. Remove the bellies once they are golden brown.

• Medium Sauce Pan

• 2 tbs tomato paste
• 1 c mirin (sweetened rice wine)
• 2 tbs gochuchang (korean chili paste)
• 1/2 c soy sauce
• 1/4 c sorghum molasses
• 1/4 c cider vinegar

1. Combine all ingredients in sauce pan over medium heat and whisk till combined thoroughly.
2. Reduce by a quarter, or till mixture is nice and thick.

• salad spinner
• saute pan

• Mustard greens, trimmed and washed
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tbs of crushed red pepper
• 1 lemon wedge
• 1 tbs of butter
• Salt
• Oil

1. Get a pan ripping hot over high heat. Add 2 tbs of oil and immediately toss in your greens.
2. Toss them to coat with oil. The greens will release a bit of liquid but it should evaporate quickly.
3. Add the butter and swirl the pan, add garlic and stir for thirty seconds.
4. Remove the pan from heat. Sprinkle with red pepper, a pinch of salt and squeeze of lemon.
5. Toss the ingredients in the pan once more. Then place greens in a bowl and set aside.

• large stockpot
• strainer
• cheese cloth

• 1 lb of andouille sausage
• 1/2 onion, large diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 1 carrot, large dice
• 1 green bell pepper, large dice
• 2 tbs of tomato paste
• 1 bay leaf

1. Sweat all the vegetables in 2 tbs of oil till softened.
2. Add in the sausage. If it is encased, please remove the casing. Let this cook for a few minutes in order for the fat to begin to render.
3. Add in the tomato paste and stir. Continue to cook this mixture for another few minutes. Then add in 2 qts of water and bring to simmer.
4. Simmer broth for 30 minutes. Season to taste. Then strain out the broth through a strainer lined with cheese cloth.

1. Spoon some hominy and broth into the bottom of a bowl.
2. Top with twists of the cooked mustard greens - they will have wilted considerably.
3. Add pork belly to the top and glaze with the bbq sauce. 

Actually, the better question is why not Limestone Humidors? Simply put, a humidor is an enclosed area that keeps cigars fresh and maintains a regulated humidity level. It's also necessary that the container or the lining of that container will not mold over time while controlling an internal environment of roughly 70% humidity. After researching limestone and testing it for a few years, we've gone on to use this technology to keep cigars fresh and enhance cigar tastes with our aging elements.

Our Durango Limestone Humidors are made of Indiana Limestone, a geological formation composed of calcium carbonate which is a natural, porous material millions of years old. We use boveda humidication packets inside the units which have two way humidity control so both the packets and the porous limestone regulate the correct interior humidity level. Other entities made of Indiana limestone include The Pentagon, The World Trade Center and the new Yankee Stadium ... In other words, they're built to last.

I can always wake up and get out of bed for a cool road trip. And this was going to be a cool road trip. About a dozen guys met up at Brennan’s at 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning, we stole the best provisions in the joint, and headed down to the Arkansas-Missouri border in search of a picturesque fly-fishing hamlet known as Rockbridge. We invited one of the best local chefs, Nate Bonner, a talented photographer named Demond Meek, and a couple buddies and proceeded to do whatever we wanted for the next forty-eight hours.

This is all part of our new Durango dinner series that takes place once a quarter. We invite a group of friends, new and old, to a new setting to enjoy some of the best of things to eat, drink & smoke. 

By the end of the day, we'd caught almost ten trout for the smoker.