Pineapple Braised Pork Belly
Ingredients:
Pork Belly 2 pounds
Pineapple Juice 1 quart
Ketchup 2 cups
Oyster Sauce 2 tablespoon
Sriracha Sauce ¼ cup
Apple Cider Vinegar 1 cup
Stone Ground Mustard 1 cup
Garlic cloves, crushed 5 each
Chinese 5 Spice 3 tablespoons
Salt 2 tablespoons
Black pepper 2 teaspoons
Diced onion 2 cups
Diced green pepper 2 cups
Chopped cilantro ¼ cup
Method of Prep:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, mix pineapple juice, ketchup, oyster sauce, sriracha, vinegar, and mustard. Set aside.
Pat pork belly dry with paper towels. Mix salt, pepper, and 5 spice together and season the pork on both sides. Heat a large braising pan over medium high heat. Wait until the pan begins to smoke and place pork belly fat-side-down into pan. Turn pan down to medium and sear the pork so that the fat renders down, and a beautiful golden crust is formed. Flip the pork over and brown the other side. Remove the pork and set aside. Remove some of the fat from the pan, leaving about ½ cup of fat behind in the pan. Add onions, garlic, and peppers to the pan and sweat. Damn your house smells good, doesn’t it? These vegetables are called “aromatics”, and they are a gift to humanity. There should be bits of pork that were left behind loosening up into your vegetable mixture. Those bits of pork are called “fond”. Think of the bits as building blocks of sauce flavor foundation. Fond, like foundation. Add the pineapple juice mixture to the pan and stir in cilantro. Add the pork belly back to the pan. Cover, and cook in the oven for about 3 hours or until the pork belly is fork tender. Remove the pork from the pan and place it on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes to crisp up the skin. Allow pork to rest at room temperature for 10 minutes. This ensures that your meat will stay juicy. Feel free to snap a little nugget off the end of the pork, you’re going to do it anyway. While the meat is resting, skim the fat off of the top of the braising liquid. Reduce braising liquid if necessary. Serve pork with a sexy side of jasmine rice, it’s rude not to. Garnish with cilantro.
