Mmmm, Poooorrrkkkk
It made sense to do something with the smoker, then again, I really like Siew Yuk, the crispy skin pork belly becoming so popular these days. What I decided to do was go for something inbetween. I prepared a marinade of various Asian-ish ingredients and let the pork belly marinade in it. I did not score the meat, as I would have for siew yuk, I will probably go ahead and score it next time. I marinaded overnight and in the morning, removed it, scored the fat and let it air dry on a rack.
30 minutes into drying
Off the smoker
I believe it would have turned out better if I had scored the flesh, although, after the 3 hours in the smoker, the fat was almost confit like and the meat was very tender. The top of the fat got nice and crispy and it had the flavor of a light hickory smoke. The close up...
Note texture and crisp top
I also braised some pork belly, I need to see if I have any info on what I did with that.
Asian-ish marinade
1/8 cup shoyu
2 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons or so of white port, sherry or whiskey (I used white port)
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil (untoasted, expeller pressed)
1 large pinch Phu Quoc black pepper, fine grind (fresh ground)
1 star anise piece (whole, use a good large one)
1/4 teaspoon each cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg (untoasted, fresh ground if possible)
Blend all ingredients in marinading vessel (plastic bag for me) and add meat. Shake and turn bag at least 2 times during a marinde time of 4 to 6 hours. Opp, found it, I added the pork belly, along with some bamboo shoot, shiitake mushrooms, chicken stock, bonito stock and some green onions to a brasier and let it braise in the oven for 2 hgours. This is an umami and fat bomb of a dish. I find all of this post to be too much for me nowadays, but, it seems many can still eat more than a couple of chunks or a spoonful. Here is that braised dish.
What's going on, there was no fish sauce in the glaze for the sea bream, and none in this marinade either! Did you suddenly grow tired of fish sauce?
ReplyDeleteI didn't make the glaze for the sea bream, so I don't know why. As for the pork belly, I either forgot to put it in, or forgot to put it on the recipe, I did go through half a bottle of the stuff.
ReplyDeleteWow, that looks killer. I like the idea of searing it off before smoking. Some day I'll cook pork belly.
ReplyDelete