Twice Cooked Pork Belly

I fell in love with this recipe from my favorite Australian food blogger Almost Bourdain. I fell in love with it when I saw it, I kinda drooled. Young's Oriental store sells thinly sliced pork belly and Ribeye (from cheap cuts to expensive cut,s its a nice option.) So I went out on a limb and assumed they may slice the meat there at their store because they do a lot of home made cooking of fish, sushi, rice cakes, and korean side dishes that they sell daily. Figured they might save on expenses and do the slicing themselves too. Well they do! I asked and I recieved  2 lbs of delicious frozen pork belly! Well the first time I made it, 2lbs of this amazing but fatty dish didn't last 12 hours in the house. Only my tiny slice of heaven that I hid before Jon came home ;) I had a feeling it was going to go fast. So this was my second time with it and I perfected MY version of the recipe.

You'll notice the huge globs of green onions on my finished product picture. This was Jon, I went to take a photo and he was like "Wuh wuh wait! Here let me make it look nice before you take a photo!" LOL I left it that way, I didn't want to say "No it looks crappy, like a 7 yr old did it," to a 29 yr old man hahahaha! 

Honey my Kitchen helper (food shark) of the day. With one of my cute kitchen mats.

Directions and ingredients are simple and slow.

2 bunches of scallions/green onions 

1 finger length of fresh ginger any width is fine, sliced

16 fl ounces of shao xing rice wine (you must use this rice wine others won't do)

1/2 packed dark brown sugar

Put all these in a large stock pot and set on stove, burner off at the moment.

You will also need :

7 cups of hot boiling water on stand by (teapots are great for this) 

2lbs defrosted pork belly

This is the Shao Xing rice wine. I pour almost the entire bottle, to the bottom of the label. 

You can see my sad watermelon keychain on the wall above the strawberry board haha. I have a little collection of these food key chains.

Now you'll want to slice your 2 lbs of defrosted porkbelly and boil in it hot water for 5 min to get out the impurities (don't ask, just do it, there IS a difference, I swear)

Here is a shot of the pork once it's sliced. This time I did a big slice and 3 small ones, so jon and I could have it for lunch the next day too.

You can see all the yummy layers of fat and meat. HEY, I didn't say this was healthy, I said HEAVENLY.

You will need to slice your pork belly at least once to fit in it the stock pot though my suggestion is two big slices and a thin one for yourself the next day. It really hits the spot, you can't have a bad day when you eat this stuff.

Place the meat FAT SIDE DOWN in the pot first.  Then pour hot water over the top until its almost covering the meat, I used 6 cups. I just boiled it in my tea pot and poured it in when the pork was ready.

You place the pork on top of all the greens and ginger so that way the pork doesn't stick to the bottom when you leave it alone.

Now allow this to simmer, covered, on med low heat for 1 hour, don't touch it.

This is what it should look like when time is up

When I made this the first time the recipe said only 4 cups of water total, I need 7 cups total.

I turn over the pork so it is FAT SIDE UP and then pour the last cup of hot water into the pot and then let it simmer for 1 more hour, covered.

before last hour

Now the pork is done. I Shut off the heat and keep the cover on it until Jon gets home in the meantime I made rice because, well this is a really fatty and rich dish and you need to eat something that will help not to upset your stomach, we found that rice and a nice roasted veggie side dish did the trick. Eat those first and then the pork and your belly will thank you. We learned you can't just dig in, our stomachs aren't used to such fatty richness in a dish and got upset the first time but we still thought it was worth it lol.

My rice cooker is super awesome. No joke, it has a clock, timer and keep warm selection. SO I set it  to finish cook the rice at 10:40 pm and then I have it set on keep warm so this morning I still had hot fresh rice to put in jons lunch with his pork belly. I love this thing!!! My mom got it for me for my birthday this year I use it aboutn3 times a week, you can do other things than just plain white rice, you can make porridge with it too.

It sings when you press cook and when it is done cooking, twinkle twinkle little star lol.

I'll post my recipe for the roasted tomatoes and mushrooms tomorrow. 

I hope everyone has a fun holiday this week, I'll be over eating turkey for 5 days probably....: / 

I look forward to trying Tyler Florence's Turkey with brie and apple butter sandwich.