Search Results for “pork belly blt”

Pork Belly (PBLT) Bites

If you like BLT’s you’ll love this.

Here’s the third installment of the pork belly saga. I know you are thinking “is she ever going to get over pork belly” — the answer is NO. I will save the taco and benedict recipes for later.

I made Anne Burrell’s recipe for braised pork belly a while back and knew since pork belly is my favorite “bacon” type product I wanted to try braising some.

I usually pick up my pork belly at an Asian market. It’s about the only thing I buy at the Asian market since I bought those frog legs that time that still had little webbed feet on them and looked like the offsprings of some mother or father that had been gigged one dark night from a “John” boat. (That’s the way my dad got them anyway.) These particular frogs looked more like babies than the big plump ones I have had in the past and I could have gone out in my yard and rounded up a few yard frogs if that were the type I wanted. (Of course I wouldn’t do that.)

If you don’t see pork belly ask your butcher about it or if you live where we were from in Missouri, it’s called Fresh Side Pork, or uncured bacon. Here’s the recipe just in case you want to try making braised pork belly.

This little appetizer is a play on BLT sandwich. I love Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwiches, who doesn’t, and I cannot tell you what year I last had one. Why? I don’t know, but this app has all the ingredients but in one small (or two) bites.

Longman and Eagle in Chicago use to serve a pork belly sandwich that was spread with a tomato fennel jam and it was mouth watering delicious. Since I don’t intend on making that jam, I was excited to find a jar of tomato preserves at our local gourmet market.

My plan of attack for this little bite was to butter a thin slice of baguette, top with a little tomato jam, a leaf of arugular, crispy pork belly (or thick apple smoked bacon), then a thin slice of calmari tomato and maybe another piece of argula (or not). Then a little drizzle of balsamic glaze.

March 11, 2014 By Sherry

Entree/ Pork

Braised Pork Belly

And she said oink, oink, oink all the way home or at least into my pot.

Food trends come and go. In 2013 we had our cupcakes (they’ve been around for quite a while), pretzel buns, sriracha, bacon, egg on top of everything.

From what I have read on some internet chats the top trending things now are citrus flavorings, (especially grapefruit), craft cocktails including “adult” milkshakes, Asian bowls, raw meats, bitter greens, anything fermented, bourbon, oysters, vegetable-based dishes; noodle bars, “Spam” dishes, tortas, biscuits, yeahhhh and pork belly (Lardo) is still on the list, smoked everything, designer brand-name meats, Korean inspiration in our kitchens, woooah and the rise of the pressure cooker.

I love my pressure cooker and I do use it from time to time; it is the quickest way I know how to make a good stew. Just throw in the meat and cook for about 20 minutes and you have fork tender stew meat; and I can cook a pot of beans in less than 30 minutes.

Over the last few years I have seen pork belly in a lot of things. Pork Belly taco is great from Big Star restaurant in Chicago, pork belly on steamed buns (recipe in a couple of days along with the steamed buns), pork belly cut into little lardons and fried until crispy as a garnish for a good bowl of creamy soup. I’ve seen pork belly served on top of french fries, and my favorite is a pork belly BLT sandwich with arugula and a tomato fennel jam (Longman and Eagle); and I may try that one with some of my left over braised pork belly.

So, what is pork belly anyway? It’s a boneless cut of fatty meat from the belly of a pig. Both bacon and the pork belly start as a cut from the fatty underbelly of “porky”. Curing the piece is what turns it into bacon (my son, Paul, smokes his pork belly and turns it into bacon), but braising that same piece of meat turns it into the most mouth watering bite you will ever taste. Some say pork belly is the new bacon. I love them both.

So I’ve decided instead of having one long post with a thousand pictures I would break this pork belly marathon into 3 or 4 different post and post them a few days apart.

February 25, 2014 By Sherry

Entree

New Years Resolutions

Keeping those resolutions so far?

So, we are into our second month of the new year. Did you make any resolutions and have you been able to keep them?

Our new years day always starts with either pork belly (or hog jowl), black eyed peas (of course), cabbage, and cornbread. There is hardly ever any deviation from this menu. I added some pico this year to go with my black eyed peas but that was only because I hadn’t made any chow chow in a couple of years and didn’t have even a jar tucked away in my pantry.

A New Year’s resolution is suppose to be a change you want to make in an undesired trait or behavior or something you want to accomplish in the new year. Off hand I can’t think of an undesirable trait I have (I’m kidding myself, I’m sure) and I know I have no behaviors I want to change (well, maybe a couple) but I would like to accomplish a few things this year like have my broken foot finally heal, and go to the gym more often, read more books, cook more, travel more and try to get rid of more stuff I do not need. Continue Reading…

January 25, 2018 By Sherry

Side dish

Potatoes and Turnip Au Gratin

Potatoes with what you say !

Can’t say I have always loved turnips; my taste has changed over the years (decades) since I was a kid and would ask my mother or grandmother what the smelly stuff was cooking away on the stove.

I’ve done some different things with a turnip other than cooking them. Take a look at my Turnip Rose garnish I use to make as a platter garnish for parties I would cater. ( I love playing around with vegetables.) I would say it takes me less than 10 minutes to make one. I love cooked turnips but my hub does not but he liked this dish. Who wouldn’t with a cheesy sauce and browned to perfection. Mix just about anything with potatoes and you have a delicious side dish.

October 11, 2021 By Sherry

Egg Dishes/ Morning Foods

Scrambled Eggs Benedict

This is a bit of a “Benedict” stretch”

Are you sitting with your morning pot of tea or cup of coffee pondering what you were going to throw together for breakfast. There are no rules to cooking (maybe just in baking recipes I guess) and I think every rule has an exception, especially this one. Is there a Benedict police out there that says you have to use an English Muffin, Canadian bacon (which isn’t even bacon), poached egg, and hollandaise? And, I’m sure there are a handful of you out there saying “don’t mess with my Eggs Benedict, your are a Eggs Benedict ARNOLD”.

It’s a stretch calling this eggs benedict; and I am using a microwave made hollandaise and putting it together like eggs Benedict. All the other ingredients are new to the scene.

I had this pork belly in the refrigerator and didn’t think I was every going to get it all used up with. I have made Steamed Buns with Pork Belly, Pork Belly Tacos, I tried a BLT appetizer made with the pork and still had some saying, pleaseeee, it’s my time to go.

Hollandaise has never been my friend. It seems like it either curdles or I have it too cold to serve. This time I decided this was going to be a quick breakfast. Other than making the biscuits (which I could do in my sleep), everything was almost ready to go. The poached eggs were replaced with a quick egg scramble; even a fried egg would have been good on this and I guess that would have more resembled the traditional poached egg. And the pork belly, as I said was on it’s last leg in my refrigerator.